the end of an era...

so, you have probably been waiting on the edge of your seat to hear the result of the smack-down with opie on friday....well it didn't happen. he never called me back so office supplies mark and i didn't go. boy, did we sure show him!

i called yet again this morning indicating that absolutely today would be the day i would be coming in to get the bike! i figured that a two week blue collar vacation was pushing it and that he should definitely be back in the shop by now. within minutes of leaving the message my phone vibrated and the caller i.d. said, "opie's motorsports..." i answered it, cheery as ever, and said "hello?" opie apologized for being out of town and that he had just gotten my messages today. he would be expecting me any time to stop by and get it today, however, the bike wasn't yet fixed...."we've been busy," he said. he also indicated that there would be no charge for the lack of repairs he had done on the bike in the six and a half weeks he had had it.

so i recruited my friend KC and her big bad truck to drive me to the shop to get the bike. her kindness in taking me was noted and rewarded handsomely afterwards with a three-cheese quesedilla hot pocket.

we arrived at opies to find the BAT-mobile sitting right outside the garage. sitting on top of the seat was its gas tank which had previously been attached and a side cover that contained a handful of nuts and bolts and pieces that didn't get put back on. opie loaded the bike into the truck, handed me the gas tank and the side cover full of its goodies. i reached for his hand, shook it, thanked him, wished him the best and walked away as both of us silently hoped that we'd never have to see each other again. i got in the car, looked at the side cover in my hand with essential bike parts in it, then looked at KC and said, "THIS is never a good sign."

i decided to check in with a few mechanical wizards i happened to have in my back pocket and hopefully between my friends moped army joel and newlywed tim we can get the thing fixed and running sometime while the michigan temperatures are still above zero.

if not, hopefully we can at least get the pieces back together and i can sell the frickin' thing and buy myself something more reliable like a pony.

more to come...