Oh Yea...

Something I totally skipped on and it is important.  The sign company came back the third time and finished the sign installation.

 

I had planned on making a lot of hoopla about this, but as in life things happened. 

Now some of you may say “yes it is a nice sign, but is it really necessary to have such a big flashy sign as this for a mini storage”.  I would say yes!  The bigger and flashier the sign the better it is for the mini storage.  As it sits now the sign wasn’t up for two hours and someone came in the office, said hey I was driving by and saw your sign, and then they rented a space. The sign doesn’t even have power yet.  That is just plain cool.

 

Look Who is back

 

Two days later and look who’s back.  Pole, hole digging equipment and cement were all present this time. They even had a crane to lift the pole into position. When I looked out my window I could even see some markings of the UCIC workers who marked the utilities. I placed a call a call to Deb and informed her that that the sign guys are back and they are working.  This made everyone happy.  I figured as long as I did not show my face or interrupt in any way, we might get a poll today.

 

I did sneak out from time to time to see how things are going, but I keep my distance. It takes them most of the day to get the poll up.  By the time that John and I were pulling money from the Car Wash the cement was just starting to go into the hole.  I asked John if it would be ok for me to go to the foreman and tell him that I just got off the phone with my boss and he said the pole is in the wrong spot. John thought for a moment and said lets just wait till they are gone and then we can move the poll to some other part of the property.  There is something wrong with us that makes us want to poke the tiger with a stick. 

After they left I went to get a close up of the work. Remember the underground utilities markings that I was seeing thismorning? Well the markings were no where near the hole.

Don't Forget

Well if you have been following this blog you know how much I Lovvvvvvveeeeeee  looking for employees.   So when I got finished with the interviews I was a very happy Bob. Too much of my chagrin  it is not but a short month latter I am not so happy, and here is why…

  

Hey Michael! Do you know what you forgot?  To come to work!  Yes, that’s right Michael just stopped coming to work. Well that is true but there is more to the story.  Michael interns at a local sports radio station and has been given the opportunity to do bigger and more exciting things. I wish him the best and hope he gets his own show soon. Till then we will just have to see how Michael 2.0 works out. Andrew  will be filling out paperwork tomorrow.

 Now for the other news that’s not fit to print.

So for the third time this year I am trying to set up an auction.  As of yesterday we were heading for a nice auction then today happened.  

Linda has been doing a great job keeping the paperwork straight,  so today she was going through the Yukon Reviews Saturday’s paper to cut out the legal posting when she noticed there was no legal posting.  That is right; they only ran the notice for one week not two.  That just scrapped the auction for another 16 days.  When you pay $78 to the paper you hope that they know what they are doing.  Well that didn’t stop them from putting a big monkey wrench into our auction.   So on to plan “B”. 

The Yukon Review has offered to pay us back the$78 and run the notice for the next two weeks.  Linda is reprinting the notices with the new date.  We will be mailing them tomorrow.  The new auction date will be next month on the 4^th.  

 If we can get the legales posted on time.

The Story of Bonnie and Clyde

I have told you the story of the Three Stooges, now is the time to hear about Bonnie and Clyde.   It all started with a phone call from my team at Access.  It sort of went like this.  “Hey Bob, we got the half-sister of one of our tenants wanting to rent a parking place for a tractor, for 30 days.  This tenant is also on the auction list and has been unable to locate.”   So I think out loud. “Let’s see I am going to let a three or four ton Tractor onto the property for a short term lease.  What are the chances that the locked out space will mysteriously become a cleared out space”.  My final answer is “Not just no, but hell no.”

So an hour later I get a call “We have a problem there is a tractor stuck on the property”.  Now I truly thought we had already dealt with tractors today So I ask is this the same tractor or a new on?”  Unfortunately it is the same one.

This is what I see when I got to the office at Access.

The story of what happened goes like this.  Bonnie and Clyde are driving down Cemetery Rd illegally towing a tractor with this wonderfully purple van, when they spot a cop.  So they duck into the car wash. They find out once they get to the back that they are too tall to fit. When they try to back up they get the tractor messed up on the trailer and they are stuck.  So while I am laughing at this sight I notice they are using a Budget car-carrier.  Now I know a little about rental equipment and as I am catching my breath I explain to my team that Budget does not rent their dollies to anyone except with a truck rental.  U-Haul is the only company the rents trailers by themselves.  So we call the nearest Budget dealer  and ask if they would like to come and check this out.  15 to 20 minutes later when area manager for Budget is in our office.  As far as he can tell this trailer is supposed to be in New Mexico sitting on a lot.

He goes out and talks to Bonnie and she tells him that this trailer belongs to her and he needs to leave them alone they are already in “civil litigation” with Budget and he does not want to get messed up with that. He simply says that he will have a tow truck here to retrieve the dolly and he will call the police to witness the collection. With this news Clyde goes into overdrive to get this tractor out of there, he starts pushing the limits of this incredibly white trash van. By the time he is done the drive tire is shredded, the tractor has fallen off the trailer smashing the crap out of it, and basically turning a bad situation worse.  

So what does a good and trustworthy Clyde do when the chips are down and the police are on the way?

You drop the trailer and run …. And leave Bonnie sitting in the dust.  That’s right he leaves his girlfriend and takes off.  She sticks her head in the office to tell us that they are going to get the paperwork for the car carrier and when she turns around he is gone. If these two idiots had not just made a wreak of four other peoples day, not counting the family, friends and coworkers that were affected buy our tardiness on the day, I might have had some sympathy.  No I just took more pictures.

The police did show up but found that the tractor was actually not stolen….crap….  I really thought it was going to be stolen, but Bonnie did not have any outstanding warrants out on her….crap… I really thought she was going to have outstanding warrants on her.   I still believe with the quick departure of Clyde that he does have a warrant or to on him.

Well the end of the story is this: Budget got back a trailer that was rightfully theirs, Bonnie and Clyde lived to fight another day, I got a bunch of photos to make a blog post with, John and Michel got first hand proof that my stories about storage are not made up and take no embellishing and sometime later the next day, Clyde came back and with a chain pulled the tractor off our property.

The morel of this story is this; when towing a tractor twice the size of your white trash van, make sure to pack a parachute.  You never know when you’re going to need to bail. The real Bonnie and Clyde were real scary and dangerous criminals, these two were just scary and sad. 

P.S.  The last I saw of Bonnie she was walking down the street.  I was over 100 degrees and her man had thrown her under the bus. My harden heart did feel some sadness and pitty.  I hope she finds some truth in this situation and start making better choices.

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.   

The Return of the Stooges

When Hollywood remakes a movie they keep the characters it is just the actors that change.  Well the same can be said of the storage world.   Today I had a visit from the stooges.  Now this was not the same actors that visited me over at Guardian but these actors played the pats quite well.

I spent the day at Access Storage with Don and Debbie (two of the big hitters in my world).   We did some work we did some planning and we witnessed some poor decisions being made.

When I arrived at work it was around 11:00 am. and I was there to relieve John who had opened the store.  Debbie had opened with John, but when I pulled in there was three cars in the parking so I picked the spot next to the odd car out, a piece of crap Dodge.  Now if it was taken care of it could be a nice old car, but I doubt that it will survive that long.

So skip ahead an hour and Moe shows up, stops in the office to explain that his car had broken down and he and his buddies were going to get it running.  I look out and Larry is now opening up the hood.   Ten minutes later Shemp shows up.  This is about the time I notice what they are doing.  The Stooges have 2 ½ gallons of gas and they are pouring some into the carburetor. Now they must know that gas has some combustible properties because at this moment Larry places a fire extinguisher on top of the engine.  Let me ask you a question if the engine catches on fire where is, the last, place you want the fire extinguisher?  I would think you would not want it at ground zero, but that is where it stayed.  Oh did I mention Moe and Larry are smoking cigarettes … and Shemp has a pipe.  If you know the substance you are working with is flammable why are you lighting up around it. 

This is the moment I remember where my car is, compaired to this insanity.  Up I jump, grabbing my keys, and I am out the door.  As I pass Moe I ask “gasoline”? He says “Uh-huh”.  I look at his car and say “In the carburetor”?  Again he says “Uh-Huh”.  “Great” I say “I’ll just be moving my car now”, and I do.

Now that my car is in a safe place, on the other side of the property, I sit back in the office.  Debbie and I spend the next houror so watching the slap stick comedy, but to no avail, they can not blow up the car for our entertainment.  Neither can they start the car so they give up and drive off. Leaving the gasoline next to the car along with the fire extinguisher.  They seem to be giving mixed singles here.

 Latter Moe does come back to tell us that he will have a buddy come tow it tonight ….  I sure hope its Curly. I liked Curly better than Shemp.

Sometimes I do not think very clear

There have been days when I go to bed and think can I just have a re-due.

I spent a lot of time in my car today because I could not get my brains in to anykind of order.  For example I needed to take some duct tape, a hamer, one nail, and a "aa" battery to Access Storage.  After three trips out I still had not remember a single Item on that list. So when I finlly get fed up with not remembering I stoped by Lowes and bought a hammer, some picture hangers an took them back to Access.
"Look " I said walking in the door "I have gifts"  I produced the hammr and the hangers with pride. John looks at me for a second and says " and the 'aa' batteries"?
Aw crap! I stood right next to the "aa" batteries and never thought about picking them up.

Now the kicker.

What about the duct tape?

My brain scares me sometimes.

Wild Weather in Oklahoma Tonight

Some things that happen in storage happen because you choose for it to happen. Then there is Friday the 13^th. The weathermen have been calling for severe weather all week and today it arrived. Hail and tornados happening all around the state and I do not have a garage or carport to protect my vehicles. But I do have 10 X 20 units available and that is a great size to park a car. As the storms came closer I realized I was not going to come close to getting my errands done for the day, so I headed back to the office to tuck my car away and do some paperwork. As I was driving back to the 200SQFT units I notice My 20 year olds car and decide to find a space to tuck it in for the night. So I called him at work and asked where the key was and took care of it. 5 minutes later he calls me and ask if we have room for three more cars, that would be for his girlfriend, her mom, and her sisters boy friend. Now this got me to think soI started calling some of the businesses in the neighborhood.

Me - “So are you guys closing up or ridding out the storm?”

Them - “We will stick it out, the storms will be hit and miss.”

Me - “I have some empty space you can park your car in for the afternoon.”

Them - “No I don’t think it will be that bad.”

Me - “Gary England said it could be up to softball size hail.”

Them - “We'll be right over with three cars.”

Me - “See you in a few.”

When Gary England speaks people listen!

I ended up with 9 weather guest for the afternoon. I also ended up with several new friends from the surrounding businesses.

A Critical Mass Moment

Sometimes a Friday is just another day of the week, then there are days like today. I manage a small storage that we are growing into a medium size storage. With that growth comes more business which is great. Then all of a sudden you get a critical mass moment (we will call this a CMM).

Friday morning started out fairly normal I did some paperwork and then left the facility to help count money at the Car Wash. As I was leaving I received a request for help from a friend of mine, not a real problem He needs my help for about two minutes and he is willing to come by the storage. I have 55 minutes to travel one mile clear the bays and get back to the office. I should be back with about 20 minutes to spare.

When I got to Access we got right to work for about 5 minutes then we ran into a problem locking up one of the bill collectors. Once we got that put together a customer had a problem with a wash bay. Then almost immediately another customer wanted to pay a bill. When ever one of us stops the collection or the count then both of us have to stop. It is call two deep coverage and makes sure we get the most accurate count, with the highest security. High security does not make for quickest count.

We get back on track and the customer who paid the bill is now having trouble opening her door. Ok we stop again and we fix this, and back to the collection. As we get into the office I get a call from my friend that he has arrived at my office so I tell him to give me 10 minutes and I will kick it into high gear. High gear makes me 10 dollars off on my count. It was not a hard fix but at this point I had to throw in the towel. I called my friend and apologized, but work needed to come first. Dave is great and didn’t have a problem. I finished my count and got back to the office in time to kill weeds.

Killing weeds is a calming activity.

The I actually went to lunch with my youngest son. I don not take many lunches and this was a special treat.

Back to work! All I have left on the to do list is close out this day and make sure I am caught up on all deposits. No problem, its 2:15 and I can get this done in about 45 minutes. First I just need to help this customer who pulled in at the same time as I did. 20 minutes latter she has seen all the space sizes, knows the prices and specials, and leaves to go talk it over with hubby. Then the phone starts, and the parade of payments. Someone I talked to weeks ago comes in to rent a space (Yea!!). When the dust settles it 4:30 and I still haven’t started close out. (My eyes are bugging out a little) I love the business we are having but it is hitting as a CMM.

Ok time to get tough I jam out my close out, swing by Access and pick up Johns close out and off to the bank.

Have you ever had a Star Wars moment, that is when you look at something and say “ I have a bad feeling about this”. That is me pulling into the bank. The line at the commercial window is long. And I get a text from my wife to meet another friend of ours at the storage to talk about a special storage need. Not a problem the line is actually moving! I can be there at this rate by 5:30.

This is what it looked like at the time of the text.

This is what it looked like 13 minutes latter.

And this is what it looked like 15 minutes after that…

5:40 I finally left the bank, and our friend had to wait till 5:45 till I got back to the office. I love having business, I love making the company money, but I hate making anyone wait.

The last chapter…. My wife had pizza and wine for dinner. Now that was sweet.