Be humble

I ride motorcycles – a lot – and I have been doing so for a long time.  Thus, I have ‘sampled’ many motorcycle dealers / service providers over the years.  I also spend more time than I should participating in various BMW, Ural and Ducati forums.

A common phrase on the forums is “screwed by the dealer again” and of course, those sorts of topics get a lot of attention.  Reading those comments served as a catalyst to make me consider the various vendors I have used over the past 10 or so years.

A quick list includes:

• Red Rock Harley Davidson
• Glenn’s Cycleworks
• Atlantic Motoplex
• Sierra BMW
• A&S Cycles
• CA-Cycleworks
• Whitehorse Press
• G Bourkes
• Pro Italia
• Assorted others that I am forgetting

I find it intriguing that I have never felt like I was treated poorly.  Quite the contrary.  In each of these places I am treated like a valued customer.  When you are a walk-in customer and dealing with people, there is the factor that everyone will have the occasional bad day and motorcycle dealerships are no different.  No one is perfect all of the time.

I have spent more than a little at these vendors and have always felt like I received value for my money.  I have never paid for a service that was sub-standard.  For the most part I have received competitive pricing (note I said competitive – not reasonable). 

I will do my best to buy local.  When I am purchasing something I spend time checking pricing from various places in North America and Europe.  I am an informed buyer but I always give local the ‘last kick’.

I never forget the privilege of living where I do and I never forget that I can live here because I have a job.  If local vendors are not here, I probably would not have a job and I keep that in mind.  I need them to stay in business so that I can stay employed and live where I do.  With that I mind, I will not be hosed.  If a local vendor is greedy I will just smile and move along and buy elsewhere.  That seldom happens when you give the local a fair chance.

Playing one local vendor off another to get a better price will eventually cost the buyer.  I do most of my local business at Glenn’s Cycleworks.  I like the people and I get quality service.  I could probably save a few bucks by ‘playing a price game’.  I don’t.  When you treat a vendor fairly most times you will receive the same in return.

The real one!

A Senate bill would offer President Obama emergency control of the Internet and may give him a “kill switch” to shut down online traffic by seizing private networks—a move cybersecurity experts worry will choke off industry and civil liberties.

FOXNews.com

In the Ducati world, one of the vendors that is consistently noted as having superb and friendly service is Ca-Cycleworks.  Yesterday I sent an e-mail inquiry about a specific part and noted the following:

Communications with Ca Cycleworks will be with Chris Kelley, the principal of the company, or Candice, who handles many duties at Ca Cycleworks, including overseeing the order process.

With the anonymity of embedded web mail clients, knowing who will be receiving my E-mail seemed like a nice touch. 

(Candice answered within 3 hours of my inquiry).

Tropical Storm Danny can be tracked here – thanks to Storm Pulse for sharing their API.

Cripes.  Rusty pickup in the driveway and I step out to meet the shuffling guy with baseball cap on sideways.  Wanna buy (insert product)?. 

I say “no” and he steps (uninvited) into the garage to look at the shiny Ducati.  “Wadjapayferit ifyusdontmindmeaskin”, he says.

“Idomindjaasking and itsnonofyerfukingbiznes”, I replied, hitting the power garage door button causing him to jump back. 

Where do these people come from?

After taking a lightning hit, the weather server is back on-line in a crude format.  In honour of Bill, short term weather graphs are available here.  Current conditions are here.

“..and she thinks I am the best thing ever”.  That was the message I heard on my cell phone as I was sitting on the deck at Ruthie’s Bethel Village Motel sipping a beer.  It was a few months back and Herself was calling to tell me that Jorgia had arrived.  Jorgia is an 18 month old German Shepherd female. 

When I first met Herself, she shared her life with 13 Afghan hounds.  With 13 dogs in your life it can be hard to give each the sort of ‘people love’ that many of us give to our companion pets.  Oh, each was loved, given the best of care, received their share of pats and hugs etc, but 13 – wow.  Over time, the 13 got old, they died and we moved on.  Kes was our first German Shepherd.  She bounced into our life as a little brown ball of fur, and she won our hearts.  In every way, Kessie was a good dog.  Que joined Kes, then Dax.  Trek followed, then Roschka and now Jorgia.  Kes and Que are gone and we are left with 4.

Jorgia was born in Sask. and then moved to Manitoba where the breeder felt she was not getting the home life that she deserved.  Herself was offered another co-ownership – we provide the home and love and when she is ready, she will return to Manitoba for a few months to be bred and have her babies.  Then she will return to us. 

Jorgie is a ‘soft dog’.  She does not instigate trouble but she will not back down either.  She is a true ‘German’ – even though her lineage is half Canadian bred.  She is a wonderful companion and already has her Grand Champion designation.  Where herself goes, Jorgia goes.  She will not leave her side.  Jorgia even goes to work with Herself.  It is as if he realizes she has now arrived at her forever home and there is no way she will let that slip away.

She has become the princess of the pack, and she milks it.  When she busks for treats or pats she is quite shameless and she is very very skilled at it.  She is one of those dogs that loves to be loved.  She is still jockeying for pack position.  No one will challenge Dax for top dog, and Trek is quite content to let the girls have their way.  Jorgia and Roschka are doing their best to become # 2.  The contest is still unresolved and we are doing our best to keep the contest as play joust.  One of these days there will be a true contest to settle the order.

I strongly suspect that Jorgia will not be leaving the pack to meet the stud of her dreams.  More likely one of the available studs in the Maritimes will be her suitor.  I fear there will be puppies.

For very logical and historical reasons many people do not like German Sheps.  They have a reputation and I understand why many back off from the German.  I always smile when someone says to me, “I never liked German Shepherds until I met your dogs”.  If you want a loving, loyal and devoted canine companion the German Shepherd is very hard to beat.  There are wonderful breeds to choose from and the poor wretches at the Humane Society need our support – but if you considering a new companion, the Shepherd is a wonderful choice.

TROPICAL STORM WATCH  IN EFFECT for Charlottetown at 09:56, August 22.

(from weatherwaters.ca)

..and from Confederation Bridge:

Commencing approximately 13:00hrs, August 23, 2009 winds are projected in the 60-80KM range gusting to 95KM. Forecast indicates conditions will remain the same until approximately 02:00hrs, August 24, 2009.

Even back then, Harley Davidson was working the boutique angle.  I will leave it up to the viewer to guess which one was HB.