I going to be more of a pain.....

[StarTech]

Well I am. I cutting back severely on my coffee drinking. Coffee here has gone up 30% in the last three weeks. I am down to one or two cups a day compare to my normal 3 to 4 pots. Grumble, grumble....

I already feeling the withdrawal effects...I snapped this morning at the alarm clock which I smash. Even the one eye monster is getting on my nerves. At least I have been through this before just takes a few weeks to get back to my normal mood. I tell you it not a time to rub me the wrong way around my shop. I done threw out one customer Saturday for trying to tell me how to do my job. Most times I just ignore this attitude but he has been a pain for over a year and with my ill tempter right is not a time to push me around.

Boy prices for everything is skyrocketing. Fuel alone has gone from 3.70 to 4.27 yesterday. More combining trips. Groceries were $75 yesterday and Barely could find them in the truck when I got home. I done started changing what I normally buy to offset some of the costs as my funds only goes so far.

If this keeps up I will need to raise my labor rates just to keep up with the overhead.

 

[Mower King]

Well I am. I cutting back severely on my coffee drinking. Coffee here has gone up 30% in the last three weeks. I am down to one or two cups a day compare to my normal 3 to 4 pots. Grumble, grumble....

I already feeling the withdrawal effects...I snapped this morning at the alarm clock which I smash. Even the one eye monster is getting on my nerves. At least I have been through this before just takes a few weeks to get back to my normal mood. I tell you it not a time to rub me the wrong way around my shop. I done threw out one customer Saturday for trying to tell me how to do my job. Most times I just ignore this attitude but he has been a pain for over a year and with my ill tempter right is not a time to push me around.

Boy prices for everything is skyrocketing. Fuel alone has gone from 3.70 to 4.27 yesterday. More combining trips. Groceries were $75 yesterday and Barely could find them in the truck when I got home. I done started changing what I normally buy to offset some of the costs as my funds only goes so far.

If this keeps up I will need to raise my labor rates just to keep up with the overhead.

Oh yeah...raise your rates to match the rising cost of EVERYTHING, a person has too!
And by all means, get back on your regular regiment of coffee, because....you can't take it ( $$$ ) with you so might as well be as happy as you can, while you're here!!

 

[StarTech]

Oh the neighbor came over this morning to check on me and he left limping as I chewed on his leg...He just found my bite is worst than my dog's bite. He asked what I doing today and I said I was going to BBQ one my kids for dinner. I invited the neighbor to dinner if he like to try some BBQ kid.

I already been check on for not sending one of the kids to public school. I have no idea sent him here but that guy left in a hurry as I came out of the shop with the 12 ga in hand.

I am going back to Pluto for while. No one there to brother me much. See you guys in a week or so.

 

[ILENGINE]

I know the feeling. Just got a what looks like new Huskee rider in Saturday. Must of had a case of the Monday's Idler pulley for the short belt on the rear is whining, the variable pulley bearing has a wobble, and the input shaft wobbles on the transaxle is also jumping gears internally under high load. Contacted by extended warranty company to see if I could do the factory warranty, because they and the customer both claim it is under warranty. And as of right now I have not seen a purchase date or a copy of the receipt. Oh, the serial number date code for this MTD is 1b068 which is February 6, 2018. Which is two years outside of the factory warranty.

I can't even begin to do a warranty parts request without the receipt because everybody will want a copy of it before proceeding.

 

[StarTech]

Dang it the warp drive is broken. Awaiting a part from Neptune. Now of course they shipped by the USPS system. It will take a long time. So it appears I going to be stuck on the third rock from the Sun a little longer than I planned.

Boy I got a splitting headache this morning.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I was approached once to be a warranty center. Not a chance. I have had enough corporate BS dealings to last me. They wanted me to stock at my exoense a lot of parts i would probably never use. Read the fine print. Customer gets sent to me. I tear it apart and send info to someone. If they deny it i am stuck with nothing for my effort.

 

[StarTech]

I was approached once to be a warranty center. Not a chance. I have had enough corporate BS dealings to last me. They wanted me to stock at my exoense a lot of parts i would probably never use. Read the fine print. Customer gets sent to me. I tear it apart and send info to someone. If they deny it i am stuck with nothing for my effort.

That why I never applied for Briggs or Kohler dealership. First I have no room for parts that will only collect dust. I still got starter from 2009 sitting on the shelves as I thought they would be needed.

I also don't a need to get so-called certified. Oh I can easily pass the written tests but that don't mean the guys that do know what they are doing.

I remember when I was layoff in 1996. Finding employment was nearly impossible. I was either over qualified or didn't have the certification papers. I finally found a job working on Toshiba copiers which I had to learn on the fly but at least I had experience working on Panasonic copiers. It did help that the owner of the shop was desperate for a tech. I made it six months until the boss's father showed his butt complaining that I wasn't getting the work done when it that the company hadn't paid the parts bill and Toshiba had the parts on hold.

Now that I work for myself there is no going back to kissing rumps for employment.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Lots of company tests are more about their processes and how to read their documentation and do their paperwork and less about technical troubleshooting skills. I have seen way too many "test smart" guys that couldn't fix a sandwich. They are easy to spot. They are the ones bragging how smart they are.

 

[StarTech]

Lots of company tests are more about their processes and how to read their documentation and do their paperwork and less about technical troubleshooting skills. I have seen way too many "test smart" guys that couldn't fix a sandwich. They are easy to spot. They are the ones bragging how smart they are.

That sorta like when I moved my shop to its current location. I had youngsters claiming they knew everything but couldn't even diagnose a simple problem I asked them about. One of them proceeded to screw up one my customers mowers as he tried stealing my client. A big failure as six bearings never go where only two is suppose to be normally.

If I ever get big enough to need extra help they will need to prove they can actual do the work by spending at a week in my shop with going behind to double check the workmanship. As I said to them it the proof in the pudding that counts, not papers.

 

[RolandW]

Chin up. My advice is to be steadfastly nonviolent, but know who caused this catastrophe-in-progress: politicians.
Rising prices are not inflation; they are a consequence of inflation. Inflation is an increase in the money supply. When the Federal Reserve creates trillions of dollars out of thin air to cover politicians' nutty spending, every one that you have is worth less. Some of us have been warning for a long time about this, but we've been dismissed as kooks.
As a productive member of your community, you make people's lives better every day. Keep serving your customers, but never respect politicians or trust them to fix anything.
My litmus test for people running for office has nothing to do with inflation or covid or Ukraine or abortion or school shootings. It is very simple: do they want government to do more or do they want government to do less?