Facebook picture of Pat Irribarren and wife?

Back in the eighties when I began my tire business in Basin City, one of the more colorful and fun people to deal with was a local character named Pat Irribarren. I think Pat is originally from Spain and has a most interesting accent. Unless I listened closely and asked probing questions, I would often get his communications upside down.

If he said he needed tires on his truck, I thought his duck was on fire.

If he needed baling twine, I was absolutely sure he was requesting Mailing Wine.

After each misunderstanding, we would have an interesting conversation before I finally caught his drift. I’m sure he was quite frustrated with my poor listening skills.

Pat was always trying to talk me down on my price. I often felt like I was at a reverse auction where the price went down instead of up.

Pat was a wheeler and a dealer. He always seemed to have crazy deals going on in various locations and angles.

One day while several of us were eating lunch at the cafe in Mesa, Pat walked in and we talked for a bit. As he walked out the door, my friend Scot said “There goes the Iberian Tycoon.”

They didn’t have to sweep under our table that day. We cleaned it up from rolling on the floor laughing. It was memorable. We weren’t laughing at Pat. We were enjoying Scot’s never-ending wit.

A friend and neighbor of Pat’s was the patriarch of the Mesa Bailie family.  His name was Ray Bailie. Both Pat and Ray were interesting guys. Both loved to chisel me down on my prices.

After Ray had walked into the tire shop a few times, I quickly learned (after a few costly educational sessions) to jack the normal price of the tire up fifty or seventy-five bucks in my head before I opened my mouth to quote.

He had no idea what the price of the tire was or if it was on sale. All he wanted was to dicker and insist on getting several lower and lower quotes. He wouldn’t be happy or buy until I had dropped the price a minimum of at least three times.

He was happy on those initial occasions. I was not.

But I’m a quick learner. Two or three years after he started this practice, I started figuring out that if I quoted him a tire that was on sale at $110 and quoted him the sale price, I would end up selling it to him for $70. My cost to buy the tire was $80. Four tires mounted for Ray meant a net loss of $40 for me. And he usually got me to throw the spin balance in for nothing.

But if I started out quoting the sale price as $160 and then let Ray jew me down until I agreed to sell at $110, it worked. He was happy. I was happy.

So today’s drawing landed on Pat Irribarren. Pat, if you follow my blog and share it’s posts, you are $500 richer. Wait, let me play you and Ray’s game. You are now $400 richer. Wait, I mean $300 richer. That’s my last offer.

Let me know!

I did a little checking and I think Pat missed the boat too. He’s my Fb friend but not a blog follower/sharer.

I wish we could hurry up and get this giveaway completed.

 

So far a few of my Facebook friends have been picked but none were eligible.

Al Yenney, Christine Jenks, Austin Fox, Cameron Yount, Nichole Davidson and if I’m not mistaken Pat Irribarren missed the boat. These are great people but each came up 25 twenty-dollar coins short.

Last night I had a dream. (I’m not kidding about this part. I really did have this dream)

I had a dream. I dreamt I was Martin Luther King’s kid brother. I was not at the Washington Monument but I was standing at the Washington Driver’s License Department in Kennewick in a long line.

Granted, it was a little convoluted and cockamamie but it was still my dream.

Oh, Yes! I had a dream. It was a dream that one day each one of my Facebook friends will also be one of my blog followers. Which meant that in my dream there were no losers in my blog drawing. It also meant each one of my friends had already signed up as a RecoveringIdiot Blog Follower. Everyone was a winner! Yes, folks and Facebook Friends, they were each legitimate winners!

(Unless they died before I got around to drawing their name in the weekly contest. You see, if I draw once a week, the numbers are that some people, even though they are eligible, will be 231 years old before their number gets drawn.)

That is, unless I jettison a couple of my Facebook friends who, when it comes right down to it, are not really that great of a friend. By doing this little shuck and jive, some of my true friends reap the distinct advantage of being only 230 years old before they win the cash.

Back to my dream.

Yes! I had a dream that someday each of my blog followers will share each post that comes forth from these eight fingertips and two useless stubs. That from sea to shining sea the miracle of this blog will roll forth without ever having a reboot or getting that dreaded blue screen.

Let me take it one step further by switching into the present tense. I have a dream that someday I will have enough dough from one of my crazy inventions that I can pony up $500 for my blog giveaway every day! Yes, no longer will I have to get the money from PayDay Loans or my wife’s purse like I am right now.

And even better yet, I dream that I will soon be bringing in enough cash that I can give away ten times the $500 to each of my Facebook friends when their name is drawn.

And last but not least, every day that I draw a name, there will be no question as to whether this Dude Follower or that Dude-ette Sharer is eligible. I won’t even check. Because I know I can trust that they all will have followed my simple instructions and therefore get to keep the cash, unlike in today’s world where few have made themselves eligible.

And if I do happen to check, I dream they will all be followers and sharers and therefore each will enjoy the fruits of the RecoveringIdiot.com fruit basket. Not one black sheep will be left out of the fold and come up empty-handed.

The bottom line of my dream is…

Sign up and share my blog posts. Don’t live with regret the rest of your life!

That’s all I can remember of my dream.

 

I promise I’ll try to keep the posts entertaining and the cash flowing.

Stay tuned, there might be other giveaways down the road!

It just depends how often my wife sets her purse on the kitchen table and then leaves to use the restroom. That, my friends, is the chief criteria concerning my cash giveaways.