One of a Kind
My first experience with him was quite some time ago now, probably last spring. The CV shafts in my ‘86 ‘Lude had been creaking something awful ever since I’d bought the vehicle in November ‘07 from my brother. This is a situation of more urgency than I thought at the time, so I didn’t get around to having them replaced until I’d driven the vehicle for a half year or so, but eventually I did decide to reluctantly sink some money into my car.
My dad recommended talking to a fellow named Jim who apparently worked for cheap – cheap being $30/hr. So we went down to his place, then on the Fraser Highway halfway to Aldergrove, to see if he could do the job. He was home, and had obviously just completed a job for another client, because as we pulled in, we were treated to the rather odd sight of a man tucking bills into Jim’s pockets, saying that Jim wasn’t going to get away with it this time. Jim obviously didn’t want the money, but reluctantly accepted it.
He ended up doing the job for me as well – both CV shafts, for which I bought the parts and he installed them. Afterwards, I was elated, because although the job had taken longer than he’d estimated, he wouldn’t take much money for it! I think I paid him around $150 for it; far less than a repair shop would have charged.
Then, just a couple weeks ago, the car overheated while my dad was driving it. Turns out it had lost its coolant solution; there was a leak in the block heater, Jim diagnosed after coming out on the same day to have a look. So I cycled out to Lordco to pick up a new one; a block heater is something you can usually do without in temperate southwest BC – it keeps your water lines warm at night if you plug it in during cold nights.
Anyway, Jim ended up replacing the block heater for me. It took about four hours, yet all he would take was $40 that I gave him. Tried to give him an extra $50, as it was easily worth that, but when I handed him the envelope he looked at me in horror. “What’s that?! No no no. You’ve already paid me.” And with that he was gone. For $40 he gave up a good chunk of his Sunday so I could be back on the road in time for work.
So this post is a tribute to Jim, and all men and women around the world like him. They’re people to whom money is no object, not because they’re awash in it, but because they only want what they need to get by. What’s more, they think nothing of working long and odd hours. To Jim, I’m sure, life is full of frivolities; there are so many distractions and pursuits that can fill up your time if you let them, but at the end of the day, they don’t necessarily bring happiness. For that, I’ve a feeling Jim would say, all you need is a good day’s honest work to do, sufficiently compensated, a wife, husband, or lover, and some basic comforts are really the main ingredients.
The way things are going however, some of those might be in short supply. How much time is left to prepare for what’s coming? Problem is, it’s people like Jim, and more than likely you and I, who pay the price when people like another Jim I could name bungle up our economy. To be fair, the seeds for our current harvest were planted decades ago.
Mighty poor seeds they were.
