One of those days turned into one of those weeks:
Hi guys! Well, this last week was weird. A relatively small delay kinda morphed into a week of malaise. My close-by local welder/fab guy has been down for the count for a few months, so any metal work has to go to the "other" place. Going on three weeks ago I took the bow pulpit to them for straightening. Talked to the owner, we looked at it, came up with a repair strategy, all seemed good. They said it would be about a week. Ok, my guy would have it done in a day, while I wait, but ok. A week goes by, no word. Few days later I get a call from one of the people there asking what I wanted done to the pulpit. Hmmmm. The owner wasn't around and his notes evidently weren't good enough. So descriptions go back and forth until I think they have a clue what needs to be done. A few days later a call saying it's ready. My exact words when I showed up to get it were: "It looks like you didn't do anything to it." Seriously, they partially straightened the upper cross bar and called it good. Didn't seem to matter to the guy who did it that the rest of the pulpit was still noticeably bent and twisted. I showed him and all he could say was he straightened the cross bar. Seriously?
About then the owner walked over, I showed him the pulpit/spaghetti factory and asked him if it was acceptable. To his credit, he seemed pretty humbled that his tech thought the piss-poor job was acceptable. So, back to the drawing board, more ideas and a plan to get it done right. Strangely, the new plan was exactly what the old plan was, two weeks later.
So I get a call last Tuesday from them, can I come in to look at the progress. Sure. Now it looks much better. Still a little crooked but I have a plan to fix the rest myself. I approved the repair, they say they just need to finish up a few welds and clean it up. That was Tuesday. Since then, not a word. I got wrapped up in other things and kept forgetting to check up on it and Friday morning I decided I couldn't delay things any longer. I have been waiting for the pulpit so I can reinstall it to measure for the lifelines, but I took the trip up to Charleston anyway to get the cable and some wood samples for trim pieces:
Figured I would call and swing by the machine shop in the afternoon. Guess what? They evidently close at noon on Friday. Strange that their message says they are open til 4 on Fridays. So I have all the parts and pieces except the most important one and it's still in limbo until at least Monday. Crap.
Stay tuned for part 2 to see why the week went total bust!
Cheers,
Mark