How to Date an Android

Chapter 3, revised & improved

But it's been hard to compete with the bigger dogs when I'm a self promoted home garage style shop and the shops down the street have a lot more going for them. Sometimes I don't have that special tool needed for some models and have to pull away from being able to do that job.

It's been a bit better though since Ford and Chevy merged to fight Toyota and the other foreign car makers. They also made them easier to work on to promote the concept of not holding customers hostage to buying a new car when the old one could be fixed.

I wipe my hands off and am washing them in the back sink.

I've worked on two cars today. The one will be a major payoff and the other I won't finish until tomorrow. I have three more coming in tomorrow and that's going to force me to have to put in a lot of long hours tomorrow in order to meet the deadlines. That's going to be hell for the next two days. One of them might have to potentially be sent to the manufacturer instead, and one of the others I'm not sure what the problem is. The owner was a bit vague on that.

I feel pretty tired and ready to go get some food and sleep.

Matt's gone before I get up now. I feel sorry for him and his choices. He has to be up before dawn and has to sleep a long time to recover from his day, while getting as much calories as he can. Lately he's been so tired and zoned out that I don't even get a response when I say hello.

I finished the second car before lunch.

Easy.

Turns out the owner wasn't even aware it wasn't the big problem he thought it was. Instead it was just a bunch of mud and debris that had dried and solidified into the mag rail interlocking system. It could have been potentially a big problem if it had gotten any further; such as potentially causing the mag car to crash or improperly engage the rail system. He's lucky he brought it to me when he did. How he didn't already crash it is a mystery to me too.

I charged him $1600 for labor, and warned him about whatever he'd done to get the mud in there was the real problem. It was a measley sum to charge and somehow he's grateful. Other shops would have charged him double that and told him they fixed the mag interlock.

When I remember my mortgage for my three bedroom house is $4000 a month it's like I age prematurely from the stress. Most mortgages in this area are around 10,000 a month and the average worker is earning probably 200,000 a year.

Of course my mortgage is low because I'd inherited the place from my mom. But I'd had to stack in some financing for the probate and for setting up my business in the backyard. It's kind of a cool idea really. This house was in the older part of town, but still in a good neighborhood. But the newer development ten years ago had literally put a bunch of businesses right on my doorstep and because of it the city had me with being able to use this place for both commercial and residential zoning.

So I ran the business out of my first floor and the second floor is where I live. It's an older house that hasn't really been updated in many, many years with a barely functioning net link system, but I can't complain. There's actually two more rooms, a family living room, and a kitchen downstairs too with five bedrooms total but I have had to partition things so that the residential areas don't mix with my business office.Of course I frown when I realize that extra amount in savings will probably go to financing another machine tool setup for my shop...

Sigh...

I'm still living the American dream in a way. I just don't have the whole part about a girlfriend figured out yet.

It's taken some time for me to train Matt in that the first floor is off limits however, in part because he remembers when we were kids and used to be there to watch TV while my mom gave us cookies and milk. But renting a room to him means I get $4000 a month from him for rent, so it's like I almost have no mortgage. I'll be able to pay it off next year, and I still have a lot saved up. It works because I've known Matt my whole life and so there's some trust there. There are so many drug addicts, and head junkies out there that I don't know if I could rent the other parts to anyone else. Because my business is literally at home I can't just rent to anyone. So I haven't bothered to rent out the third room yet.

"That'll be $2700 please," I said to the gentleman picking up the black mag truck.

He whistles, "That's a lot. Kind of expensive don't you think?" he has his fingers over his belt buckle in a defensive posture.

Inwardly I'm groaning. I hate this type of customer. He's just fishing for a discount and looking for someone to bully. He's also a foot taller than I am but I won't let that affect things.

"The anti-noise system was punctured clean through. I had to patch the whole shut with a welder, in not just one place but two. Because of all the salt on the road your pipes had rusted through. I'm guessing you used cheap metal the last time you replaced it, or the ship that did it used cheap metal, not to mention it was used parts so it was pre-disposed to wear because it was already starting to wear through. I saw where they attached it."

"Oh come on, give me a break!" he pleaded.

"You know I'm going to have to patch in two years again because you wouldn't let me replace the used pipes in the first place. It's a wonder I could even get it to pass inspection this time? And let's not forget the fuel cell system was put together by someone who didn't actually know what they were doing," I said, while shrugging.

"Hey me, and my boy did that together," he protested.

"Ahh, I see." Crap I really put my foot in my mouth. He's clearly offended.

"Well I did make necessary changes on the wiring setup. The reason you had trouble starting it was because of some connections that had come loose," I noted. I did say connections coming loose but the truth was they weren't properly done in the first place, but that would just get him even more worked up.

"You didn't need to do that," he protested weakly.

I shake my head. "I only did what was necessary to make your car able to start up every time without a fail. The previous wiring wasn't stable and almost as if it was held together by duct tape. Your starter was malfunctioning at least half of the time. Another shop would have charged double what I did. That's the bottom line."

"Do you take checks?" he pleaded.

I'd seen that scam before too. I wonder why personal checks weren't outlawed or discontinued. It was almost a 60 percent chance they'd bounce however because people issuing them often didn't have funs.

I pointed to the sign. "Sorry, no personal checks, or borrowed debit chips," which was at the front of the shop and marked in about three places including the electronic bill and quote summary I sent to each customer.

"My wife is sick and having a baby, I need a break," he tried.

Jeez, this guy.

"You aren't married and you got divorced last year with no kids," I said.

"Hey I didn't authorize a background check," he protested, getting angry.

"I see your brother at the gym at least twice a month, by coincidence. He's the one that recommended you as an honest customer. Maybe he was wrong," I flatly stated. I could see the guys blood pressure rising by the second, I think.

He wanted to hit me I think. I could see his fists clenching. There was an awkward silence and he'd stepped toward me in my face. He was probably testing me. I wouldn't back down. If he did anything I'd just use the voice activation system on my phone to call the cops. I didn't need the phone in my hand to call with the voice technology.

"Don't be mad at me. Your brother told me about you. You should be mad at yourself though," I shrugged.

Oh that last part really got him. I could tell he was thinking about going for it.

He ended up paying his bill. Of course I added a nice surcharge with a vague sounding technical diagnosis just because he was being an asshole. His final bill was $2,997. It was true that a prettier shop would have charged him about $4500 to $5200 depending. When leaving he said something about not coming back, but I know I'd see him back because nobody else gave such low prices like I did.

Later I went back to work. If I can finish those other two that were dropped off today I'd be doing pretty well by the end of the week. Maybe I could take a vacation soon?

Still, maybe I should add an extra chain to my security fence for the next couple nights. It wouldn't hurt to add some cameras for people like that. I had one in the shop, and this guy probably had seen it pointed at him. It probably saved my life just now.

Why were people so violent though? This was the third guy this year that seemed ready to explode at any type of remark.