(09-18-09) Now we are driving through central Iowa and well on our way to Lincoln, Nebraska to see Terry again and drive Fräulein Zuffie for the first time!
At some point after Des Moines, I called Terry Worick to ask him how he was doing. He said fine, as always, but still with some minor things left to do. This bothered me, since I was told that the car would be "done" by the time I got there, and earlier I had been assured that the car would be finished early.
So, I asked Terry what he meant by "done." He told me that "done" meant that I could drive the car on Ferry Porsche's 100th birthday, which was the second reason for my trip. The first was to road test the car, drive it for a couple of hundred miles, and then have it sent back to Lake Bluff, Illinois after an oil change. Now I learn that the car wasn't done and wouldn't be done for a while yet. This after I had previously scheduled a delivery truck pickup for Tuesday afternoon based on the mistaken assumption that my car would be completely finished.
But in all honesty, the car was not completely done. Obviously there was a wide gap between his definition of "done" and mine. After all, I can't have the car shipped back to Illinois and Wisconsin if there is still work left to do and parts left to be ordered.
I spent the rest of the drive through Iowa in a giant snit.
After all, it is not cheap to drive all of the way to Nebraska, stay at a bed and breakfast, and eat out two meals a day for five days.
Sandy once again jumped into the breach and suggested that we just make the best of it, since the weather was absolutely perfect and I will still be able to drive my new Roadster.
All of you who have restored 356s are well aware of the fact that nothing goes according to plan and it is almost useless to set timetables for completion. I called Ibrahim and crabbed about what the meaning of the word "done" is. Ibrahim called Terry and then called me back to tell me that Terry had been up working on the car until one am the previous night. Furthermore, he has put in more than a few late nighters working on my car just for me because he knew that I was soon coming over to Nebraska.
After hearing this, I stewed in my own juices for a while...
Then the guilt trip started. This poor guy was killing himself for me, and all I did was squawk at him. He didn't deserve that, and I began to feel like a heel.
I called Terry back and apologized profusely. After all, the guiding principle all along was to do it right, not to do it fast.
Fortunately, I was able to reach my classic car dealer friend in Lake Bluff even though it was 5:05 pm on a Friday afternoon in order to cancel that truck pickup. Now on to the new reality...
