“What the F*%&!” was what I heard today when I barged in on a naked guy in his office in a small manufacturing warehouse near South Lamar and Oltorf, in the heart of South Austin today.
Searching for a Power Take Off (PTO) bushing that belongs to a 1973 Ford 3000 tractor had taken my brother and I on a trip around the Internet, Burnet, Marble Falls with no luck. Finally Cindy and I go to South Austin Machine Shop in hopes of finding someone who could repair ours or build another one. The burly guys in the office on Friday afternoon all shook their heads and said I needed to go to Apollo’s Machine Shop down the road. He had the equipment to do it. “Go down past the light, turn left on the next street and it’ll be down there on the right”. Easy enough.
So Cindy and I jump back in the crazy traffic on South Lamar in search of Apollo. Turning left, we drive down the street passing several warehouse/office looking buildings, but no Apollo anything. Seeing a fabrication sign, and some metal work and a welder near an open shop door, we pull up, and I go in to ask if he knows of Apollo’s Machine Shop or anything. Going through a wide open garage door into a dirty machine shop looking area, with a car engine in rebuild and a variety of welders and other grimy looking tools, I see somebody turn into what appeared to be an office. I walked the roughly 30 feet to the back, winding around a big welder and say “hello” and poke my head into the office.
He had just shucked his clothes.
The look on his face was priceless as he was scrambling for his fresh change of clothes. I popped back out REAL FAST, as he exclaimed “WHAT THE F&%#!” I laughed and said “Dude put some clothes on!” and backed up even further because I needed to give this guy some room. Due to his shouting, it appeared he was coming unglued. He comes out in jeans, pulling on a shirt. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Umm, I was looking for some guy named Apollo or a machine shop of the same name? I heard it was on the street in this area” I said sheepishly.
“DID YOU SEEN MY SIGN? DOES IT SAY APOLLO?!” (he really was yelling).
“Umm, no. It didn’t. “
“THEN WHY DID YOU COME IN HERE?”
“Umm, I was hoping that maybe you could just point me the right direction”.
“Man its not even in this building. Not even on this property! They even have a sign on their door too. You know what it says? APOLLO!”
At this point, I was grinning. I was biting my tongue to not egg him on, he was SO mad. I was one slip of the tongue away from saying, “Man, you really are an a$$-hole aren’t you. But he ducked back into his office to grab his shoes.
“Hey did you say it’s further down the street on the right?”
He comes back out of his office, incredulous that I’m still standing in his shop. “Look, I would be in a better frame of mind if I hadn’t just gotten back from a six hour drive. And been f-ing naked.”
I still grinned… this guy was so pissed I couldn’t get angry myself. Did he not realize he was right off a main road, with a sign on his door, his shop wide open, his office wide open, and he’s naked. I was just as shocked as he was.
“Okay, further down on the right, another building and property. Thanks for your help! Hey and sorry about the whole barging in thing.” And I left, laughing all the way to the car. The guys at Apollo were very nice in contrast. The manager found the part I needed on-line, printed out an order form for it, and said it would be cheaper for me to order it than for him to make it.
When I drove past the naked guy’s shop, his garage door was pulled almost closed. I think he wanted his privacy. This incident made the search for the broken part worth ALL the trouble!
