The Lights 2012 night one

The first night at the Christmas Lights at the Park was last night and it went pretty well.  The night started out warm enough but by 10:00 it did get cold.  Once again I got out of the cold by donning the Rudolf costume and running around for three hours acting like an idiot, but I got a lot of smiles from kids and adults alike.

 

Now not everyone was as warm as I was. Linda and Josh had to find their own places to get out of the wind.

 

The City of Yukon goes all out to make this the best light display and every year you find new lights.

 

 

As I said before if you get the chance to come down to Yukon and see the lights make it happen, you will not regret it. If you come on the 20^th be real nice to Rudolph.

Day two on the road

“Wow we are not in Kansas anymore”!  Ok, I know we drove from Oklahoma, but this is only Arizona and we have not even reached the So. Cal pricing yet. I didn’t think I would miss $3.65 a gallon. 

 

Here is the best thing about driving the 40, it really isn’t the best thing but it is in the top 5, 

 

In-n-Out.  Ahhhh, a Double Double Animal  style, that’s good eating.

 

9:30 to 10:00 last night we made it to Stef and Tommy’s and Micah was up to greet us!!!

Crime hit a mini storage again, are you sruprised

I arrive to work this past Monday thinking this should be a quiet day, as usual I was wrong.  Like I normally do I dive the site.  Just a quick pass to make sure things are looking like they should, not like this.

 

What is missing in this picture?  Ok I know that’s not a fair question because I don’t have a picture of what it should look like, so let me fill you in.  The picture here shows one of the vacuums at the car wash. If you look down to the bottom left side of this one there is a metal bar. That bar should be across the coin box at the middle of the machine and locked into place.   At 5:15 Monday morning two idiots in a repo-tow truck dive past three cameras and cut the lock off the Vacuum but first they take some kind of stick (looked Like a weed eater) and knocked down and stole a couple of hundred dollar camera.  Now here is the good part the second lock on a Vacuum is hidden and almost impossible to break.

 

 

 The two idiots tried to pry the coin box out but did not get very far. Seven minutes later off they drive. I would normal give the perpetrators a clever name, but after very little deliberation I realize that for their lack of originality, their lack of fortitude to see their crime through and the fact they destroyed a camera that will take around $200 to replace in their attempt to steal $16 in quarters, I will not grace these two with a cool nick name.  They have discredited themselves, made a mockery out of petty crimes and sullied the good name of Repo Men all over the world.

A Scam Called a Moving Company

I haven’t seen this maneuver in a couple years but it still smells just as bad.  Over at the new store we had a very nice lady reserve a space.  Her story was that she was moving from somewhere in New Mexico to Yukon Oklahoma and our facility was in the best location for her needs.  She showed up around 10 am rented one of our biggest units and sat back to wait on the moving company.   3 hours later she was still waiting.  I then came to find out that the moving company was stopped on the side of the highway outside of town.  The home office of the moving company had decided to re-evaluate the price of the move, but they had not told their customer yet she just thought they were running late.  This is when I realized that she was doing business with the wrong moving company.   The truck did show up, and parked itself right in front of our gate.   The driver then lets the nice lady know that the main company has re-evaluated the load and the charge for the move has now gone from a staggering $3,000 to an unbelievable $10,000.  That’s right kids they wanted her to pay $7,000 more or he would not be allowed to unload the truck.  Now I did feel like ripping this driver a new orifice, but in reality he was not calling the shots here.  Luckily we soon found out who was. This sweet mild grand ma who had moved to Yukon to live at a retirement home close to her sons turned on the old George Patton.  She had a nice conversation with the moving company management.  She was nice and sweet and got all kinds of information.  Then while the company talked to the driver she called one son, a nice contractor here in the state to come by and help.  He showed up to block the truck in so it could not leave.  Then she called her other son a corporate contract lawyer and turned him loose on the moving company’s corporate leaders.  She ended her battle strategy by calling the Oklahoma City Sheriff’s department.

As soon as the lawyer got involved the driver got a call to leave our facility and to take his load to the company warehouse.  He had to tell them he could not because he was blocked in.  Then the sheriff showed up to take a report on the incident that was happening.  Then the Lawyer / son called to tell mom to only pay the $3,000 dollars after they unload and that his office would be dealing with the claim for the $7,000 extra.  At this point the driver received a call and then unloaded the truck.  These guys screwed with the wrong lady, but they would not be doing this if they did not get away with it most of the time. 

The bad news to all of this was someone had to stay and mind the store and the gates till all this was done.  Sometime after 10 pm.

The lesson:  National moving companies are not your friends.  Even if they have all American names , and large moving Vans, and can move you stuff in a straight Line.  Do not let anyone load your stuff without a written contract that states the final price.  Best policy is to rent your own truck and higher movers on both ends, one to load and another to unload.  I just do not trust the big name trucking companies.