December 2007
Goodbye Wave, You're Sorely Missed...
I've been a charter coach mechanic for over five years now and have invested well in excess of $20,000 in Snap-On, Mac and Craftsman tools to enable me to do my job efficiently and effectively. But, in spite of all that, I can't tell you how often the first place I went for on site repair was my Wave. You see, my now wife purchased the Wave as a heavily requested Christmas gift before we were married and it instantly became part of my daily apparel - work day or not. Five years went by and I was always the "go to" Uncle during Christmas and birthdays to either extract a new toy from its excessive packaging or to assemble a scooter with my hip side tool box.
Then one day last winter my coworker and I received a phone call from his former employer (also a charter bus operator) that his bus had shut down about 45 minutes north of where we were and would not restart. Needing our help, as coach mechanics are hard to come by in our area, we finished our 12 hr. day and packed up tools etc. to see what we could do for him. By the time we reached the bus it was pitch black dark along the highway and well below freezing. We checked the usual (and some not-so-usual) suspects, of course using my Leatherman to nip wire ties and access conduit along the way, but the bus was going nowhere soon.
After a half-hour or so on the phone with the coach manufacturer tech support we found that we needed a simple application specific resistor cap before the bus would run again and it had to come from Florida to us in Michigan. The decision was made to have it towed back to our facility to anticipate the resistor's arrival the next day, and we were thrilled to get back out of the cold. So we quickly packed up and headed home, leaving the wounded coach to be picked up by the now in-route tow truck. The next morning we began going about the business of unpacking all of the tools we had brought with us the night before.
Only at that time did I realize that while the many tools that never left my tool bag that night were all accounted for, my "I don't know how I lived without this thing" Wave was nowhere to be found. I checked over the bus and called the wrecker company to ask if they had found it anywhere in the 12 + inches of snow I had been crawling around in along the road, but nothing. I even drove back to the site with my wife as soon as the snow thawed but found nothing. Both of us disappointed, and a little bitter, eventually gave into the fact that it was gone. I've been ogling your new Charge TTi for a fitting replacement to my past companion, since several months later I still instantly go to my right hip whenever I need any one of the multitude of tools I used to have in my worn Leatherman belt case.
Shannon L.
West Olive, MI
OK, you voyeur, you. Enough of reading other people's stories. It's time you told your own tale of gripping heroism or even just neat DIY'ism. We know there's a Shakespeare in you somewhere. Don't make us use the Steens to find it.