wroughtn_harv
Super Member
The other day my steel supplier referred me to an old boy way out in the country as maybe a source that could do me good. I was looking for someone to break me some three sixteenth's plate.
My bud warned me that I should had oughta be careful. "James is a little like you" was the way he put it.
It's literally one of those "turn left at the Exxon and then left again just in front of the red barn. About a bit the road will look like it's going to go right through a white house, veer to the right and follow that until the road ends. Go left aways and the first house on your left, go to the back to the shop."
I'm just about the perfect combination of country and city. Folks more citified than me are out of balance. The same can be said for those more country than what I consider comfortable. But it still took three phone calls to get to the shop. Twice James answered. The man has one of those unlimited patience with fools voices. The other time the phone was answered by a lady who sounded like she had chicken frying and a pie cooling on the window sill.
You know today it seems most folks most places are caught all up in the "sense of urgency" syndrome. If you don't have that edge that broadcasts you're about over it, the edge, then you really don't have the sense of urgency that's required to do the job.
It's refreshing to visit with someone like James and the voice quite feminine and wonderful on the phone. I think they're in a place where "sense of urgency" would choke of it's own free will.
"We're late risers" he told me when I called to see when it would be a good time to drop in and talk. "But we're usually around the shop until it almost gets dark most evenings."
I asked what late rising was. He explained that it usually meant after eight thirty in the morning.
I rolled up to the shop and was in awe. I mean absolutely both feet flat on the floorboard so's I wouldn't fall off the seat flabbergasted. Acres and acres of good stuff like steel, tractors in various states of dis and dat repair, trucks likewise, and more doggone projects in stages of completion. It was what I'd have if given the chance to create heaven.
We started talking about making things and probably the closest thing to what was going on would be if two sailers started talking about the ladies in ports around the world. Him being the senior sailer of course.
Probably one of the more interesting aspects of the conversation was all the similarity in projects. He pointed out a truck he'd done this and that too. It was like deja vu all over again repeatedly and often, been there, done that, just not near as well as he had, but I'd tried.
He led me over to a bay in the shop to show me his trailer he'd been working on for a couple of years or more. He'd been done a long time ago but work and committments do get in the way.
What had started him leading me over was my question about a stack of half inch diamond plate aluminum. I had to ask what that was for and why. Just so's you know why he led me to the trailer. "It's for the deck" he said. " All I really got left is to paint it and then put all the aluminum on it."
After I'd asked and commented on just about every facet of the trailer I looked at him and asked the big question, "why?"
"Well, to load equipment like tractors etc that are not running sometimes" he said.
I shook my head and told him he was wrong. "There's only one reason why you've made that trailer" I told him.
"Because you could."
That's probably the best reason to make anything in my book.
My bud warned me that I should had oughta be careful. "James is a little like you" was the way he put it.
It's literally one of those "turn left at the Exxon and then left again just in front of the red barn. About a bit the road will look like it's going to go right through a white house, veer to the right and follow that until the road ends. Go left aways and the first house on your left, go to the back to the shop."
I'm just about the perfect combination of country and city. Folks more citified than me are out of balance. The same can be said for those more country than what I consider comfortable. But it still took three phone calls to get to the shop. Twice James answered. The man has one of those unlimited patience with fools voices. The other time the phone was answered by a lady who sounded like she had chicken frying and a pie cooling on the window sill.
You know today it seems most folks most places are caught all up in the "sense of urgency" syndrome. If you don't have that edge that broadcasts you're about over it, the edge, then you really don't have the sense of urgency that's required to do the job.
It's refreshing to visit with someone like James and the voice quite feminine and wonderful on the phone. I think they're in a place where "sense of urgency" would choke of it's own free will.
"We're late risers" he told me when I called to see when it would be a good time to drop in and talk. "But we're usually around the shop until it almost gets dark most evenings."
I asked what late rising was. He explained that it usually meant after eight thirty in the morning.
I rolled up to the shop and was in awe. I mean absolutely both feet flat on the floorboard so's I wouldn't fall off the seat flabbergasted. Acres and acres of good stuff like steel, tractors in various states of dis and dat repair, trucks likewise, and more doggone projects in stages of completion. It was what I'd have if given the chance to create heaven.
We started talking about making things and probably the closest thing to what was going on would be if two sailers started talking about the ladies in ports around the world. Him being the senior sailer of course.
Probably one of the more interesting aspects of the conversation was all the similarity in projects. He pointed out a truck he'd done this and that too. It was like deja vu all over again repeatedly and often, been there, done that, just not near as well as he had, but I'd tried.
He led me over to a bay in the shop to show me his trailer he'd been working on for a couple of years or more. He'd been done a long time ago but work and committments do get in the way.
What had started him leading me over was my question about a stack of half inch diamond plate aluminum. I had to ask what that was for and why. Just so's you know why he led me to the trailer. "It's for the deck" he said. " All I really got left is to paint it and then put all the aluminum on it."
After I'd asked and commented on just about every facet of the trailer I looked at him and asked the big question, "why?"
"Well, to load equipment like tractors etc that are not running sometimes" he said.
I shook my head and told him he was wrong. "There's only one reason why you've made that trailer" I told him.
"Because you could."
That's probably the best reason to make anything in my book.
