Dan

I have conceivably asked Dan thousands of questions over the last twenty-five or so years.  Dan might suggest that I have asked hundreds in a single day.  Dan, you see, works at Crescent Electric, an electrical supply house that I have frequented for most of my career as an electrician.  And he is a dear friend.   Let me give you an example of a typical phone conversation we might have had:

ME:  Danno!  Hey. Got some questions.

DAN:  Oh, boy…

ME:   Do you guys have any 3-sided, 8-phase, 6-throw, brown or black micro-widgets?

DAN:  What voltage?

ME:  Oh, yeah, forgot that part.  I need 120 volts.

DAN (working from memory):  That is a QW-3776.  None here.  Two in Kalispell.  One in Tallahassee, Florida.  145 of them in Mombasa.

ME:  Where is Mombasa?

DAN:  Second largest city in Kenya.  We opened a branch there four months ago.  They are big on industrial supplies. Flies are driving them crazy this year. 

ME:  Really?

DAN:  Yep.  And, don’t forget, the 82300 multi-zinger you ordered came in the other day.

ME:  Oh, yeah.  Why did I order that?

DAN:  For the bank job.

ME:  Right.  Got it.  Well, geez, I need one of them QB…QS…Q-whatevers right away!  What else can I do?

DAN:  An RT-5667 FISCO will work if you flip the orange and purple leads and then hit the reset button after you energize it the first time.

ME:  I’m not sure…  Sounds complicated.  What do you think?

DAN:  I can walk you through it over the phone.

ME:  Sweet, order three of them for me.  You ready for the rest of my order?

DAN:  Nope.  Not ever.

That might be pretty typical of a conversation between us.

So, yesterday, I walked into Crescent Electric to (wait for it…wait for it…wait for it) ask some questions, but Dan beats me to the quick.

“Hey,” he asks, “when are we gonna be in your blog?”

A good question.

--Mitchell Hegman