today i had to forbid the return of a friend to skidmark garage.  his alcoholism became such that he hasn't worked in forever and lost a place to live.  he has been making poor decisions for a long time and i enabled all of it by permitting him to booze at the garage.  realizing i am part of the reason he continues to drink, i had to put an end to my part in the enabling.  it was tough.  but he handled it like a man.  he just said, "ok", grabbed his stuff and a beer and left.  i was having heart palpitations about it all morning, and now that it's over i don't really feel any better.  my heart is still racing and i feel like a dick.

dave nolan has been here since 9am with ron copfer welding the aluminum tank together.  i haven't even stopped over there yet because i was so consumed with handling the other situation i neglected to show any love to one of the most important members of this place.

karl came in last night and is here again today playing around with his shovelhead.  i really love having him here.  i wish he could find time to be here way more often, but between being an air force pilot and an airline pilot, dude has no time.

mark has been on a mission to clean up all his bmw parts and get organized and clean.

jt came in with one of his cronies that was at fuel cleveland with him.  jt gave him a tour of the skidmark and soulcraft (jt is a member of both).

thankfully, jim was here this morning to help me ("help" is the wrong word...he did ALL the work) troubleshoot the reznor that wasn't working.  turns out there are two hard-to-find switches inside it that shut it off if the temperature gets too hot.  i had changed the thermocouple and done all kinds of fiddling, but he knew what was really up.  thank zeus.  now i have 7 heaters, all working, all on.  this place is a balmy 50 degrees inside.

maybe now i can focus a little more on listing some rando parts online and make a few hundred extra bucks a month to pay some bills.