Ok, so Christmas came early this year.

Hello everyone, this is a personal blog which ends up just being a huge “thank you” to Lennie here at Mission Repair.

I’ve been wanting to get into the “Big Green Egg” club that’s growing around the country. Do you know about the “Big Green Egg”? The Big Green Egg is a blend of the best of ancient wisdom, modern technology and proprietary processes, resulting in a far superior product that is stronger, more durable and provides better heat insulation than any other outdoor cooker on the market. Once you get to know these cookers, apparently they overtake the backyard as the BBQ cooker preference.

It’s simple to start, it has precise temperature control, it’s safe and is easy to clean up.

I’ve been talking about this thing for some time now…and Friday evening, Lennie surprised me by saying that he bought it for me! We brought it home and put it together; Saturday we made some ribs as my wife Dandra stood in the window wondering what all of the excitement was about. I went “big” by starting with a piece of meat that’s typically difficult to cook – loin back ribs!

You’ve got to cook these things low and slow…and after about 5 hours of watching and waiting we feasted on these for dinner.

You can even see in the picture my dog Shadow waiting me for to drop a piece. What a good little beggar he is 😉

There you have it. A guy that likes food (me) receiving a totally off-the-wall and unexpected gift from Lennie. I think it was a strategic move on his part because every time I cook, he gets to come over for dinner. In the long run, he’s going to make out financially – so he should be thanking me, right?!?

Lennie “paid it forward” this weekend, I’m going to need to do the same for someone as well, it was a great feeling.

Take care, Ryan

A good deed on the way to Colorado.

Hello friends,

It’s Sunday night and we’re sitting in our hotel room here in Lakewood, Colorado…yes, we are getting ready for the big reveal of our new Lakewood Mission Repair that’s opening one week from tomorrow!

On the way in to town this morning, we were driving along highway 70 from Kansas and about 45 minutes from Denver, I spotted a duffel bag on the side of the road. It was just sitting there, so I decided to stop, grab it, and see if I could figure out how to get it back to it’s owner. I pulled over, backed up a bit when the traffic was clear and Lennie who was riding “shotgun” jumped out and grabbed the bag.

Once inside, we found the person’s iPhone, which was passcode locked. Kudos for him for keeping his device safe from someone that might want to do some harm, but it didn’t help our mission today. It was time to dig a little deeper.

There was a clue in the bag along with all of his belongings. There was a flight log book, and a certificate of completion on a training flight that was from the “Front Range Airport” in Denver…signed and dated just yesterday.

So we took a detour and gambled that there would be someone at the airport that could help.

As it turned out, this bag came from part of a group of teenagers that were there yesterday, and they had the contact information of the group leader. All was well…and we handed the bag and all of it’s contents over the airport official who promised to return the bag to it’s owner.

It felt like we did the right thing even though it took us off of our initial path. I just thought “What if this was mine?” I’d want it back too, and I can only imagine how this thing ended up on the highway.

All said and done, this good deed lead us to a great day here in Lakewood and we’re ready ahead of schedule for our Grand Opening next week. We can head back home tomorrow knowing that we’re ready to go.

How about one more good deed from us today? Sounds good to me. I’ll issue a 15% off coupon that is good today through tomorrow January 26th, 2015 at midnight. Just use coupon “gooddeed” to receive your 15% off on any repair that we offer on MissionRepair.com Remember that it expires tomorrow night so act fast, but remember that it cannot be used in conjunction with any other coupon of discount, and it’s also not valid on an “Got Repair” discount benefit repairs.

I’ll be back from the new location tomorrow with a few blogs, a great press release, and a few more pictures to satisfy your curiosity. Talk to you soon!

Ryan

Well, we can’t all be perfect.

Hello friends,

We have to change our Mission repair “workplace accident” sign to “ZERO” accident free days starting today. Until now, we had over 2,000 accident free days at Mission Repair, which is a number that I am truly proud of! I pride myself on having a safe work place… But today marks a day in our company history. Lennie Martin actually pushed a screwdriver through his index finger. In one side, and out the other. I would show you a picture but it’s just a bit to graphic.

It’s interesting timing too, because Matthew Vaughan actually smashed his finger in a wind-blown door while on vacation a couple of weeks ago. So now I have two technicians with faulty index fingers. Here’s a shot of them this afternoon:

Matthew on the left, Lennie on the right.

Even though I’m not terribly proud that I had to rush to the emergency room today with Lennie, I was compelled to take a pic of my battered team members that are pushing though the pain. Matthew has had a couple of surgeries but Lennie’s injury was surprisingly “simple” (the doctor just numbed up his finger, and pulled the screwdriver out. I have it on video, it’s interesting). But it makes me reflect on the fact that we have been very injury free due to our safe environment, good training and scheduled safety meetings.

So let’s hear it for the wounded warriors at Mission Repair that keep fighting the good fight to get your repair right! I hope I don’t have to post another “injury” update blog like this for a long time; but I’ll keep you in the loop!

Thank you, Ryan