about my day.  It snowed and sleeted yesterday in this piece of paradise.  The ground temperature was still above freezing so nothing was sticking.  During the night and early morning, another band of storms came through complete with THUNDER SNOW!  I just love that term.  I don’t remember any meteoroligist using it until a few years ago.  

      Anyways, we had about 8″ of snow on the ground this morning.  Other areas got sleet, rain and then snow.  I texted some employees and told them to stay home.  I headed to the store to take care of business.  I made it the 20 miles fairly easily.  I had some guys park a pair of tracked skid steers inside the shop yesterday so that we could use them to clear the lot this morning.  Well, Deere doesn’t send a new skid steer with but just a squirt of diesel in it.  My guys didn’t add any diesel to them.  So, we got to put fuel into them, first thing this morning.

      Then we tried to fire up the computers.  NOTHING!!!  A dealership is dead in the water without computers.  Can’t look up parts, can’t see what parts are supposed to come in today, service techs can’t look up repair orders, can’t make a bill, etc.  CAN”T do anything but NOTHING!!  I called AT&T, but it was evident that a technician wasn’t going to make it to Woodward, OK on this fine day.  

    While I was messing with AT&T, one of my favorite employees, Doc, had a skid steer accident.  Doc is actually a retired guy that works full time for us.  He is a cool dude, takes great pride in his work, is extremely dependable, loves people,  a Vietnam vet and has a pile of issues and quirks.  But we love him.  I told them to park the skid steers and I would finish.  He decided to keep at it a little longer.  Just long enough to break a gas line.  A natural gas line.  So now we needed somebody to come cap the gas line.  That repair guy got their fairly quick.  Couldn’t fix it today, but could cap it, stop the leak and be back next week.  Since this line goes to the heated power washer, we will be fine.  

     We sent the new parts lady home as there was nothing for her to do without a computer.  I had a service tech straggle in late with an excuse for being gone yesterday and late this morning.  He lives only blocks away from the store.  He then got the privilege of dealing with me.  All of this and it wasn’t 9 am yet.

     The machine-down parts lady is normally here by 7:30 am.  Not today.  Stock order parts by 9 am.  Not today.  UPS made it, but late and didn’t have all of the parts that we were expecting.  Maybe tomorrow.  Since we didn’t have computers, parts or customers for that matter, we closed up early.  As of 5 pm, at&t is now supposed to call me in the morning to see if they can come get us hooked up.  I’m not holding my breath.  The dispatcher does have my cell phone # and is keeping me up to date as to what they are not yet doing.  

     On a fun note, Duke has spent most of the day outside.  There is a 7 point snowman that looks like a Jackalope.  The wethers and Dozer were worked in the big barn. The stock has all been fed and watered.  He and I took the John Deere powered gator sleigh to the top of the flat-top hill.  We tried to use scoop shovels for sleds, but it wasn’t slick enough.  So we rolled down the side of the hill.  I had snow packed in places that snow isn’t supposed to be.  We then took the gator and went drift busting.  Snow flying up into our faces.  I couldn’t feel any of my fingers, toes, eyes, ears or tongue.  I could tell it was time to go to the house as Duke wasn’t talking anymore.  BIG FUN!!  Guess what, he doesn’t have school tomorrow, so he can do it all over again.  

     Not me.  I will be on the phone with some lady in Atlanta who dispatches for at&t.  I’ve been nice to her so far.  She told me this evening, that “You have been placed on level 4 alert for repairs. ”  Tomorrow…maybe not so nice, if we don’t see results.  For what we pay them, they can fix the dang line in the snow for all I care.  I fully plan to help them escalate to level 5,6 &7 if need be.

     And for the rest of the story, at&t has been scheduled for over a month to come replace our box and lines next week as this isn’t the first time we’ve had a problem on their end.   If only it would have been earlier this week.