GUEST BLOGGER THIS MORNING

Below is a photo of this morning's guest blogger. He might look a little familiar. His entry onto the website is below his photo.


Today's Guest Blogger 

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HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY HENRY JOHNSON

Today is the birthday of Henry Johnson, the son of my employer Jerry Johnson. Henry gets to call the shots on food today, and apparently insulin is one of them - Krispy Kremes and cupcakes were part of this morning's breakfast. Way to go, Henry! Here's a repeat of his recent photo with his new baby sister, Margaux.



Henry's birthday is also a milestone because it was five years ago that Jerry split from Hobson Johnson & Associates (where I was formerly employed) and started Johnson Gardner, my current place of employment. So it's a dual celebration of sorts.

Have a Great Day, Henry!

TOM'S TRUCK TROUBLES

Tom's been having more truck trouble lately.. yes, he owns a Chevrolet. Here's his update:

After being quoted roughly $150 to fix the muffler (based information from auto part catalogs and the internet), mom called Amigo and discovered, through Rick, that the part I need, instead, runs around $700. So I called another couple of muffler shops, and they both quoted me around $200 to fix it (again, relying on the same info).

Today, he called me back after looking at my truck and discovered that my truck (and I assume all 1995 S-10s) actually have the 1996 part on it. So to make a long story short, Chevrolet decided to improve thier automobiles by adding roughly $600 to the cost of a catalyic converter. Can you say "TOYOTA!"?

I recommended to Tom that he check out the Car Talk MechanX Files and find himself a good, trustworthy, independent mechanic. The website is a huge database of mechanics all over the country for all sorts of makes (skews towards imports - the website is for the extremely funny Car Talk radio show on public radio) with detailed user opinions of trustworthiness, quality, price, etc.

Not to bash dealerships, but they cash flow on financing and service and unless you know the dealership well, they likely don't have your best interest at heart. No one can be fully trusted, but in my experience independent mechanics have more to lose with a bad service track record: fixing cars is all they do, so all their eggs are in one basket. Good luck!