New Roofs And A New Toy

It was raining hard when we woke up at 7 o’clock yesterday morning, and I didn’t know what to expect as far as the roofers coming to finish the job. But the rain had stopped by 8:30, and a little after 10:30 they showed up and got right to it again. Just like the day before, those guys didn’t waste any time. Within an hour or so they had finished the ridgeline of the garage and a couple of other little tasks and then they began cleaning up after themselves. I was really impressed that they even cleaned all the woodchips and things that had fallen on my Mustang and on the garage floor before they left, as well as picking up any remaining nails. If you are anywhere in the Tuscaloosa area and need any work done, you can’t go wrong with Bobby and his hardworking men at BP Roofing & Construction. The new roofs on our house and garage look great!

In other news, I had been looking for a side-by-side utility vehicle to get around on our property and the trails, and after a lot of research, I settled on a Kawasaki Mule Pro. Like so many things caught in the supply chain breakdown, they are hard to come by, but I did find one at a dealer in Saint Augustine, Florida. I called to see if it was actually in stock, and the salesman said yes, it was. But when I asked for a price out the door, he hemmed and hawed, and when I said if he would not give me the price I would not waste time playing his silly games, he finally said the finance manager would get back to me. The next day I got an email from that person, and he had quoted the unit more than $3,000 over retail, saying it was their policy to make “market adjustments.” Thanks, but no thanks.

When we were getting ready to go back to Florida to get the last load of stuff from our house, I found another Mule at a dealer in nearby Daytona Beach. I talked to a salesman there and got the same runaround – he refused to quote a price unless I came to the store. I explained to him that I was very busy and did not want to go there and waste a lot of time. If he had what I wanted at a reasonable price, I would come in and buy it, but I needed to know the price. He refused to give me a price, so I was done with that fool, too.

A couple of days before we planned to leave for Florida, I got a pop-up message saying that Village Cycle Center in Starkville, Mississippi, about an hour west of us, had several Mules in stock. Figuring it was going to be another waste of time, I called and spoke to General Manager Bobby Williams. What a difference! Bobby is a straight shooter. He quoted me the retail price and didn’t try to play any silly games. So the next day we drove over to Starkville and I bought it.

There were a couple of accessories that I wanted added, a winch and a vented windshield, and Bobby said he would get them taken care of and deliver the unit to us as soon as it was ready. That’s really going the extra mile to accommodate a customer!

And just as he promised, a little before noon the other day, Bobby showed up with my new 2023 Kawasaki Mule MX LE. After he spent some time explaining all the rig’s features, its maintenance requirements, and such, I had to take it for a spin on the trail around our property. It handled great, even going through some muddy places with standing water.

It seats two comfortably, has an 812cc four-stroke engine, a dump cargo bed with a 999-pound capacity, towing capacity of 2000 pounds, an electric winch, a roof, vented windshield, both LED and halogen headlights, power steering, four-wheel drive, and a locking rear differential, if needed. Though I tried them out, it wasn’t really necessary. Even in two-wheel drive it lives up to the name Mule. I am really impressed with the ride and its power, and it’s going to be very handy to get around the property. And it’s fun to drive, too!

Later in the day the UPS driver arrived with some things Terry had ordered from Amazon, including a weather radio that has a crank we can use to keep it powered in the event the batteries go dead. Living in tornado country, we definitely needed one of these.

And finally, my personalized Nixter license plate came from the state and I put it on my Mustang, replacing my Florida plate that said the same thing. A long-time reader wanted the old license plate, but I told him my son-in-law Kenny collects license plates and I needed to keep him happy, or else he might bring Tiffany back. I get in enough trouble living with one woman. There’s no way I’m going to allow myself to get outnumbered that way!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – If I want something different, I have to do something different.