More Drama at the Service Center

It turns out that my tires actually did come in (see my previous post below) and so I had to return to the service center while the tires were installed. I estimated from past experiences that I could be waiting at the service center for anywhere between 3o minutes and one week--with a high probability that it would be closer to one week. My friendly service representative greeted me with a hearty "Howdy, Butch" and sent me into the waiting room.

The waiting room was actually better than most. It had a supply of food (free popcorn) and drink (a water fountain) so I knew that I would not be wanting for anything to eat or drink during the wait. In addition, there was a TV set that was already on. Two other people were in the waiting room and it looked like they had already gone through several bags of popcorn. Nobody appeared to be watching the TV, but I knew that the moment I moved over toward the remote to change the channel, someone would pop their head up and let me know that, hey, they were watching that show. So, I contented myself with my own bag of popcorn and sat back to see what the show was all about.

Here's the thing. I had no idea that there was a show about choppers. In fact, I only vaguely knew what a chopper was. But sure enough, here I was watching this show about them. First, the big mustached guy with tatoos...Big Paul, I think...would come on and explain that he had some family issues. Then they would show a clip of Big Paul yelling at Little Paul in the shop while they were supposedly working on their choppers. Next we'd see Little Paul explaining that, yeah, there had always been family issues and he knew that his mom loved him, but that Big Paul was a pain in the butt. Then the cameras would roll back to the shop where we would see Little Paul screaming at Big Paul. There were a couple of other guys in there as well, but I didn't really catch their names. I never saw anyone actually work on one of the motorbikes. However, I was thinking...do people really watch this stuff? Could it possibly be that they have made a whole show out of a family screaming at each other in a bike shop?

I moved over towards the remote and glanced at the other two people in the waiting room. They seemed to be engrossed in other things. But just as I reached to change the channel, another guy walked into the waiting room. He glanced at the screen and immediately said, "Oh, this must be one of the episodes where Big Paul and Little Paul were still working together...you know before they split up."

Across the room, one of the other men, who I had been sure was not paying attention. piped up, "Nah, this isn't a regular episode...just a special on the whole family."

"Yeah, that's right. I missed this the last time it was on."

And with that, the newcomer sat down next to me and, because I couldn't really think of a good excuse for getting up, we watched for what I am sure must have been several hours before my service representative saved me.

"Hey, Butch. You're all already to go. We've got the tires on, and remember you get free rotation for as long as you own the tires...and also, just for today, as a special treat for our loyal customers, we're giving out free copies of American Choppers, season two.