Hendo!!!

I'm working at the Hendersonville Sycamore Cycles today, all by myself, and so far am having a blast. (As a side note, if you haven't been down here, it's definitely worth coming to visit; the shop is awesome.) Anyway, I don't have any repairs to do, have no bikes to build, and no one else working to keep me company. Don't let that make you think that I'm bored though. Not in the least. So far today, I have learned many, many things. Such as:

I'm pretty sure the people in Hendersonville are crazier and/or more country than the people in Brevard. Granted, I'm basing this on the 3 people who have come in today so far, but I feel like a 100% incidence of Lady Gaga levels of crazy is a pretty good predictor.

The first guy to come in was a crazy, homeless-looking dude, who talked to me for an hour about being hit by a car, his awesome giant comfort bike with all kinds of racks and finders, and visiting his 380lb estranged wife and kicking her current boyfriend out of the house while leaving his girlfriend at home. This man had no teeth, and was swearing up and down that he would be getting $40,000 in a settlement for getting hit by a car. He also wanted 2.5in DH tires on his townie bike.

He looked shockingly like this, sans amphibian hell-bent on death

The next awesome customer interaction was when a pair ofguys (who in fairness, I've seen in the Brevard store before) came in looking for some bikes. From them, I found out that, if you have an automatic defibrillator implanted in your chest, you aren't supposed to rock climb or mountain bike for fear that landing on your chest would cause lethal loads of electricity to accidentally go coursing through your body, killing you instantly. This gentlemen's theory (mind you, completely untested except in the recesses of his mind) was that, by wearing some form of chest protection, this risk could be greatly reduced and mountain biking would be OK.

An additional bit of information gathered from these two fine customers included the fact that a "gravity" bike is apparently a normal bike that you buy off the floor, take home, cut in half with a hacksaw before riding it, and then "stretch," making it at least 2 feet longer. I'm not sure what is gravity related about this, but I'm definitely trying it with my DH bike.

Finally, at least 7 times during the 30 minutes they were in here, one of them would look at a road bike, cross bike, or anything with the bars lower than the saddle, and say, "I would ride this, but, the belly" while patting the belly affectionately.

I'll also mention that neither of these two had teeth either.

Finally, Old Man Marshal came in for a visit. He stormed in the door, hair brushed and going crazy, talking before he even had the door open. He was also eating a handful of nuts, talking with his mouth wide open, and doing his best food sprinkler impression. Not to be graphic or anything, but the nuts seriously made him look like he had a mouthful of powdered doughnuts. I had to wipe the counter off when he left.

Off for more fun in Hendo.