It’s hard to find any humor in what happened to Santa Cruz Harley, the great employees, and the wonderful customers.  There just isn’t any.  But, then this post on craiglist pops up in my email.

Gotta love it.  Why didn’t I think of this?

I’ve known for some time that our staff was the best in the west bar none.  “No place friendlier than Santa Cruz Harley” was a constant refrain.  So far, I’ve received more than 700 emails saying heartfelt variations of that.  I received 1 nasty email.  Nasty like, “we gotta check the dosage of your meds, dude.”  And, then I read one pissy opinion letter in the Sentinel.  I’m glad said-opinion-writer gave his name and town.  Be easier for the tar & feather team to find him.  Anyhew.  722 to 2.  Even with more opinions rollin’ in, I’d call that a landslide.  Lots of you have been kind enough to write the Typo and praise the staff.  For your time and your energies, I thank you.  By putting this on the Typo Blob I’m sure many of the staff will get it and pass the word along.

Corporate wonks wrenched control of the dealership Friday.  So.  All that is left of me is a voice.  Maybe the Typo will continue into the future or maybe it should be retired.  To be determined.

Now.  Lots of questions by lots of the customers affected.  A huge thank you to Jimmy, Laura and Becci for spending their days working for you (for free) to make sure that we got bikes back, and parts distributed.  And, another thank you to Shane for coming in Wednesday to put a bike back together for a customer.  He stepped up and volunteered to do it.  Good people all the way through.

For questions about whether other dealers will honor our programs, bikes in the shop, parts on order, etc.  I recommend you contact Stacy Alberto from the mothership.  She missed a key meeting and got the assignment to be the point person.  Short straw deal.  Stacy can be reached at stacy.alberto@harley-davidson.com.

Final thought.  The past few days, and yesterday (Saturday) especially, reminded me how elephant herds respect the family unit.  They return day after day to morn the sick and the dead.  It almost felt that way at the store on Saturday.  At times there were more than 50 bikes in the parking lot.  Customers and Harley riders milling about talking.  20-30 minutes.  Then they would mount up and leave.  More would come.  By dusk, the unofficial, and fairly unscientific count was more than 350 riders had cruised the parking lot.  We’re all in disbelief.  It’s just a shame the mothership won’t see “film at 11″ and be reminded it’s about the family.  It’s about the customers.  Ride safe everyone.  And, thanks for you care and kindness.

Santa Cruz Harley is closed.  After nearly thirteen exciting years and a presence in Santa Cruz since the ’20s, our lights were turned out for the last time tonight.  Plain and simple, compounding debt upon debt to try to ride out a long and painful economic downturn was not prudent.  Lots of good people are adversely affected.  And, I am sick about that. I was the Captain of the ship, and I go down with the mistakes that I made.

These are the times you count your friends.  And, I am proud to say that our employees to a person were there for the dealership, for each other, and for our customers.  Technicians working on their own time and without pay to complete customer jobs.  Other employees delivering parts that were special ordered.  Again, on their own time and without pay.

What was disappointing was Harley’s self-absorbed, garbled response.  Avoid.  Don’t make a decision.  Lack of care and concern for the welfare of the customer and the welfare of good and decent employees.  With a buyer willing to invest and carry our collective vision forward, this never should have happened.  A grave lack of focus and leadership resulted in a wonderful opportunity slipping away.  Shame on you Harley.  As we learned long ago - you take care of your customers and you take care of your employees at all costs.  Perhaps the importance of that has been lost among the cubicle rats.

Enough of that.  I seldom call out the mothership.  In this case, they need to be accountable.  But, alas.

This is my opportunity to sincerely thank you on behalf of myself and our great employees.  Harley customers, and Typonians in particular, have been a wonderful group of people for us to serve.

So.  Without belaboring and running on and on (as I’m prone to do), from our family to you, I say, “Thank you for giving us a great life.”

Ride safe.  Over.  And, out.

Today.  Today would be a great day to find a vet and say, “Thank you.”  It’s not a random act of kindness; rather, it’s a pointed, very direct effort to recognize in a small way, that we appreciate what they gave for us.

Many of you have seen these slides before.  A project I shot a while ago now.  But, it’s one way for me to say, “Thank you.”

Whew!  This video will give you the cold sweats.  Yup.  I’d fly with this cat.  He’s got nine lives, baby.  Never seen anything like this.  No fly-by-wire here.  This guy understands aerodynamics at the sub-conscious level.  Damn if this isn’t amazing.  Big Typonian thanks to the Guido for contributing.

So, this might be the last opportunity to get some parting politicalality in.  I’ve been getting lots of funny and warped things.  Here are just a couple that will hopefully make you laugh.  Disclaimer: not meant to offend.

1. Mobile phones of the candidates.

2. From the Republican War Room - understand this replaced one of those “motivational posters.”   Finally, a map you won’t see on the networks.