stuff123

Today I had a discussion with Alfonso, who runs a very good auto repair shop in town because my car won’t start, and I thought I should consult with him first, as to my next plan of action. I’ve taken it to the local dealership on numerous occasions and the gremlin still persists. (No, it’s a Pontiac)

Once every year or two it just refuses to start. Radio works, lights and others stuff seem to be OK. And if you get towed into the dealership, well sure enough, it will start no problem. I think once it didn’t and that’s when they “fixed” it. The dealership has replaced everything but the electronic box. It has been fine for 2 or 3 years now.

I asked would a new battery be better. He said, “No I don’t think that will fix the problem.” So, unlike most dealerships, he passed on the easy battery sale. And another question I had was would a remote starter work around this problem. He said, “No everything has to work properly first for that to work. So, unlike most dealerships, he passed on the easy remote starter installation.

And then he said, “You have my number don’t you? I can’t do this today (It was 2 or 3 in the afternoon) but give me a call around 9 and I will come and look at your car. You live near here don’t you?”

I haven’t been in for about one year and he still remembers me and my car and that I don’t drive it too much. The tires he recommended the last time are perfect and you could see the satisfaction in his smile. So we got to talking about his philosophy of how to run a business and how banks don’t get it in this country and big box stores don’t get it.

Alfonso is a proud Italian from Venezuela and was raised on the concept of Excellent Customer Service which you see me write about many, many times. It is what I think business will return to down the road and for only one reason. It works really well.

Alfonso said it best, “If you make a customer happy he tells 3 friends. If you make him mad, he tells 7!!”

So if you happen to live anywhere near Bolton, Ontario and you are looking for a good place to take your car, look up Alfonso. You don’t need to tell him I sent you. He treats everybody the same—fairly. You may have to wait but maybe call ahead and book a time. Your car will be ready when he promised and if he runs into something that will change that, you will know, because he will call you and tell you why.

Which is it gonna’ be? Crappy Tire, your unfriendly original manufacturer’s dealership or Alfonso’s Garage (I wish he’d change the name to that because that’s what it is to me). He is very proud of his business and he has a right to be proud. He proves it every day. And you can even email him. He knows the value of the Internet.

Thank you for your business.
Gracias por su negocio.
Grazie per la vostra attività.

(I bet Google Translate didn’t say it the way Alfonso would. It hasn’t learned to smile yet.)

Auto Block Autorepair

Our Competitive Edge:
All our customers are serviced by the owner, Alfonso Ciarcelluti, Certified Mechanic. We are an Ontario Drive Clean Accredited Test & Repair facility. We also participate in Co-op programs for both high school and College students. We speak Spanish and Italian as well.

It does help to learn the actual game if you are new to Canada because it is very much a part of our culture. If you were to move to India or Great Britain then taking up the game of cricket would be appropriate. That game is a very big part of those countries cultures as well.

But that isn’t what I’m trying to say here. Another dinner topic with my friend MW, was about the concept that if you move to another country then you should look to becoming part of that countries culture. If you wish to maintain your former countries’ culture in its entirety, then you should consider returning to your originating country.

It does sound harsh but it is a major contribution to the problems in this particular part of Canada—what we call the Golden Horseshoe. It is an area that surrounds Toronto and curves around Lake Ontario to form a horseshoe-like region. It happens to be where the bulk of the people in Canada live and is most definitely the area that new Canadians come to when they arrive here.

Our immigration laws are so loose that we allow this to happen. Canada is a very large country and would benefit greatly by having growth in other areas of the country. The reason no one moves from this area is that the originating cultures are “allowed” to stay completely intact. This creates a lot of tension and inter-racial conflict.

We are a very liberal and accepting society and I believe that is part of the attraction of moving to Canada. Unfortunately, some of the cultural traits of other countries are in conflict with ours and we do nothing to counter that. A strong example of that is the killing of a member of the family by another member for the sole purpose of saving family honour. Unacceptable and it should receive severe punishment. Our culture does not condone killing and therefore that should be punished accordingly.

Instead we “protect” the individual’s rights to maintain their individual cultural traits no matter how negative they are. Groups that want to be on various police forces want to maintain their individual cultural identity by altering the uniform to suit their culture.

If you move to England and you wish to become part of the Palace Guard, you wear the big black hat. If you move to Japan you learn how to eat dinner sitting on the floor. If you move to Calgary, you learn how to wear cowboy boots as I did when I lived there. It was paying respect to the local culture.

I was even threatened by a fellow coworker because I was from eastern Canada and he said I better forget everything I knew about the east because you are in the west now. He was let go from the company for other reasons but he did have a point.

I needed to adjust my thinking about what I left and where I was living now. He was just a little too dramatic in his methods. I had to learn how to slow down my pace and become more friendly with strangers. That’s what you did in the west. You talked about many other things before you got down to business unlike the hustle-bustle of the east where it was basically business only.

So if you move to a new country or region, learn how to “strap on the skates” and become part of the new local culture. You are sending a message that you like what you see in your new home and would like to pay it proper respect. Otherwise, you might consider returning to your previous home if you don’t want to adjust to your new surroundings.

The United States would have never developed the rest of it’s great landmass if everyone stayed in New York and that city has it’s problems too due to many divergent cultures at odds with each other.

Instead of making Toronto off-limits to new immigrants, we need a way to encourage new Canadians to live in other areas to understand just how beautiful this country is.

Besides there are a lot more open air natural ice hockey rinks in the rest of Canada. Not as much heat there like there is in Toronto.

While writing A Change Is Gonna’ Come?, I needed a link to that classic song and I tripped on to what I consider a goldmine for my style of music—old R & B. I actually found a second that I hadn’t heard. I knew Sam Cooke’s version but wasn’t aware of the Otis Redding version that played sometime later on one of the “stations”.

Well musically speaking, it was like I had died and gone to heaven. I found Jango.com. The description below describes what it does according to Jango.

It still has the beta tag (meaning it is new and still sort of in testing). The thing I like about it is that you could program the “radio” to the type of music you like by defining “stations”. You can create groups of artists and call up that station and let it play. If you like a particular song a lot you can have it play more often.

But what really impressed me was the depth of the library. I though my collection of old R & B was quite deep. Wrong. I heard stuff I didn’t even know was recorded and versions of songs that were different than the commericially successful cut. They weren’t junk either.

Two that stood out were a song by Shirley Brown called “Woman to Woman”. It was one of those songs that starts with a narration (woman to woman) about staying away from her man and then this voice kicks in. How come I never heard of her before.

And an old Ike & Tina live performance of the Wilson Pickett song “Don’t Fight It”. Sadly it was shortened because I suspect the original tape had deteriorated.

You can look at biographies of the performers. The black and white picture of the Chi-lites with a pumpkin-sized Afro is quite hilarious.

They provide lyrics for a lot of songs that scroll up like a karaoke machine. For a lot of people, that might not be a good idea. Only sing to an empty room if you are tone deaf. Listening to someone who can’t sing is almost as painful as the electric chair. Rosie and Carl Lewis singing the American National Anthem come to mind as two exceptionally painful renditions.

You decide what you want the station to play and it still provides variety. You can buy songs and ringtones as well. It isn’t like this is the only option out there but I am not aware of another program that has all these features in one package and such a deep library.

I look at it as a great supplement to my iTunes library and a way to eventually add my favourite rare songs to my own library by purchasing them. Meanwhile, I get to listen to the libraries and decide what I like and don’t like because you hear the whole song and not just a truncated version.

Jango & FoxyTunes Planet (also beta) are now two of the sources I use for music reference as well music enjoyment. FoxyTunes runs as an add-on in your Firefox browser and uses the media player of your to choice. For me, that is iTunes.

Sometimes you need to turn the music off to write and other times it only adds to the feelings and makes the words flow even more easily. I don’t have much problem with the flowing part. It’s the control that is a challenge.

This new age of music is quite something when you compare it vinyl, reel to reel tape and all the other formats that I have used. I’m glad to say that 8-track wasn’t one of them.

Digital music is just wonderful and these two applications are first class in my opinion.

The other day I visited my bank representative to talk about how to allocate my small program that was recently transferred from another institution because they didn’t show that they cared. I couldn’t monitor its current status because they don’t give you a way to do that. They send you a report once a year and figure that’s good enough. Meanwhile, they use your money to make money.

And that was the line that was part of my helpful reps comment. We were talking about something regarding something else about the world economy or buying more Ferraris or parenting or Arthritis or precious metals or CEO’s or the weather, but not about my “portfolio” yet. I just felt that this other stuff was more interesting.

I made the comment that “You spend money to make money” and before the ink was dry on that one she said, “You spend money to make money, but banks only like to make money”.

Oh now I remember, we were talking about different email providers and how the bank still used Outlook and how outdated it was for the business world. The bank was too cheap to upgrade one of their primary communication tools. She was just frustrated that she could do her job better and provide better customer service if the bank wasn’t so cheap.

In fact, most of our communications are by email primarily to set-up the cup of coffee like sessions that we have. And the next time, I’d like to go to the coffee shop next door and have our session there. I’ll sign the paperwork in the office after we get the important stuff covered first. I don’t think they can bring a cup of coffee into their office or provide one for the customer.

I’m even thinking of ditching the home telephone. No more telemarketers. In the spring I will probably do that and get a CC to take care of stuff while working on the golf course. Then I won’t have to go ask somebody to borrow their watch again. It isn’t much different cost wise either so I have found out.

I’m finding, that between Facebook and email, more than 95% of my meaningful communications are handled effectively there and with no long distance charges to boot.

Just got to figure out if I want one of those CC’s with the tiny little keyboard or not.

If god had intended you to use one of those keyboards he would have given you a needle …