HOW TO MAKE A FEW EASY BUCKS AND LIVE TO REGRET IT!

HOW TO MAKE A FEW EASY BUCKS AND LIVE TO REGRET IT!
BS Brash

Recently I was at a weekend swap meet and I spent a little more than I realized on the parts I bought, and when I added up the total, I was short about three weeks beer money...

I knew the little wife wasn't going to like it if I shorted her weekly salary, if you don't think your wife is worth a weekly salary, my guess is that you are on your third or forth wife?

Anyway, I was on the alert for a little extra cash flow when I read the paper that Sunday, I ran across a classified ad wanting to rent a classic car for a wedding. Cool, maybe my 57 Chevy convertible could earn a little towards it own keep? A great idea, so I called the guy about the ad and he mentioned that he had an extra $250 built into the wedding costs for a classic rental car just for the trip to the reception and then back to his home where he would pickup is own car for the trip to the airport. Seemed like easy money to me, so I asked him when and where? He said to bring it by his house Friday afternoon and he would put it in his garage, and I could pick it up Sat afternoon about 3:00pm.

I complied and dropped off the 57 at his house on Friday and watched as my baby slid into his garage and the door banged shut...

It was Friday and as I occasionally do, I went off to my favorite watering hole, Mother's Bar & Grill to tip a few suds with the guys. About 11:00pm, I came outside intent on going home when I heard the unmistakable sound of a 327 engine at high revs come roaring down the street. Nice, I thought, but as I looked for the car, when it passed me, to my horror I realized that it was MY 57 Chevy convertible with what looked like no less than 20 people in or hanging on madly as the car screamed by. OMG? What Have I done, I thought, or maybe I shouted out loud? Dang, that trip by me just then probably took about $5k off of the value of my car!! I had to get it back and right now!

I called Buba, a friend of mine who was the local sheriff and told him what was happening and he swung by and got me and we took off after the 57.

But the 57 proved impossible to find, there were over 50 reports of it all over the city, so after arriving too late at every report, we decided to just go to the guys house where I dropped it off and wait. We sat there until 2:15am when my 57 Chevy finally came limping in breathing really hard. To stop a murder, Bubba went and extracted the soon to be bridegroom and the remaining 3 or 4 passengers that hadn't been thrown out by the night's wild drive thru the city.

I got in my baby and drove slowly home. I parked her in the garage and shut the door and locked it! I was afraid to look too close because I needed to sleep all night to be braced for tomorrow.

It will suffice to say that it took me two months and $2800 to get the 57 back to #1 status. Plus the case of scotch I sent bubba for his help. No I didn't put a hit out on the stupid groom, but I kept the $250 and was happy that he unhappily had to get another car for his ceremony the next day.

The moral to this story and I think it is obvious, is; 1.) Never let anyone drive your classic! 2.) Never rent out your classic unless you are doing the driving! 3.) Get it in writing so that you can sue the b*st*rd when it goes wrong!!

Copyright BS Brash 2008