Expensive Ice Cream?

 Today as I left the shop briefly to run to the bank, I popped over a hill to find a truck flashing it's lights at me; the four-ways were on. I turned around and towed them back to the shop. Guess the test drive didn't go so well. I thought about how often I get to tow someone. Or watch someone be towed. As was the case yesterday.


  A good percentage of our customers are Hot-Shot haulers. Some haul cattle. Some are farmers. Most of them though somehow use their trucks for work. Consequently when their truck dies, they are in a panic. A vehicle is typically quite crucial to someone's income, but when it is their main tool, it is a problem.


 Yesterday I did not want to be at work so I convinced Blake to let me stay home until noon, on the condition that I would answer the shop phone from home. The first phone call was from a customer who hauls calves. He needed to talk to Blake because he had BIG problems. Turns out his wheel had fallen off. He had a double-decker cattle trailer behind him with 100 calves that had to be in Indiana before feeding time. So Blake spent a good portion of the day with Steve, one of our mechanics, helping fix the wheel. About three o'clock Blake was finally back at the shop to stay so he came to pick me up. I had greatly enjoyed my "half day" at home. :)

  We had barely been back to work for a full hour when we got another phone call. An older gentleman was in a predicament. He owns three trucks, which he rents out to Amish men who cannot own a vehicle but need one for their business. Last night on their way home from work with a gooseneck trailer loaded full of green logs, these Amish guys and their driver decided they'd like some ice cream. Stopping quickly was hard because they had a large rig, and when they backed way off the edge of the parking lot pavement to get enough out of the way, they didn't realize their trailer wheels sunk several inches and the trailer tongue gouged into the slight hill. When they came back with their ice cream and tried to leave though, let's just say it didn't move. One of the Amish guys decided to try driving. He put it in 4 wheel drive and dug four black holes in the pavement before Snap! And their rear axle popped.

  So Blake hooked up to his gooseneck and the truck owner took his other truck and we all headed the hour drive to the ice cream shop. Then after two trucks were hooked to the heavy load, the thing succeeded in rising up out of the soft soil back onto solid ground and no more rear axles were snapped. We hauled the dead truck home on our trailer and the other guy hauled the logs home behind his truck.

  The truck with a snapped axle now sits in the line with all the other trucks here at work. I'm sure if we don't get to it soon, he'll call in a few days saying he definitely needs that truck in short order. And we'll work a little later to get it fixed for him. No, it's not scheduled. It's called life. And until I get that phone call, I'll go back to working up an estimate for another truck that needs a head gasket while I continue answering the phone for people who are waiting on their trucks. Perhaps it has something to do with too many distractions. That being said, I think I'm distracted from that estimate. :)