Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
You’re underestimating the cost of your vehicle
How much does your vehicle cost? You may have thought of its sticker price, and on deeper reflection you would probably add the costs of gas, insurance, and of course, repairs by your friendly neighborhood mechanic. But even if you add all that, if you’re like most folks, you’re still under the real price. This Jalopnik article reviews two studies, one from AAA and one from Nature, that examined our ideas of vehicle costs, pull back the curtain on the real costs, and examine how this distortion is affecting the introduction of alternatives… like electric vehicles.
Bored people in lockdown reproduce famous paintings
from the Bored Panda article, May 2020– “It appears that boredom lies behind the most creative ideas. That’s why quarantine has produced some of the most entertaining activities. One of them is the Getty Museum challenge that so many of you have already seen in our previous article here. The challenge, which asks people to recreate famous works of art by using things they find around the home, has gained a lot of traction. Apparently, people love to dress up and compete with each other over who can recreate a well-known painting better.”
“The Great Realisation”- A post-pandemic bedtime story
The Coronavirus pandemic hasn’t inspired cheer or comfort, and may seem a strange subject for a cuddle-up bedtime story. But kids need to understand what we’re all living with, and the world we live in afterward can offer hope as well as disaster. Poet Tomos Roberts wrote a Coronavirus betime story for his 7-year-old brother and sister and it’s deservedly gone viral. Now with tens of millions of view and translated into multiple languages it’s a tender and hopeful look at the life we’ve lived before Covid and what we could… COULD… look forward to. The video is here, and an interview with Tomos is here. Your kids will thank you, and you’ll like it as well.
How are things going at Tom Dwyer’s?
Masked faces aren’t usually welcome near a businesses’ cash register, but we’ve been very glad to see them near ours! THANK YOU! Many of those masked faces have asked about the health of our people and the sustainability of our essential business during this crisis, so we thought we’d give an update from inside one independent business weathering the storm…
WE ARE OPEN! And we plan to stay open. People need safe and reliable vehicles even in a pandemic, so auto repair is considered an ‘essential business’. From socially-distanced in-shop service to complete non-contact pickup and drop-off, we are ready to serve you with slightly reduced hours for now (9a-6p weekdays; still 10a-1p Saturdays). Come by and see us!
Our people are healthy (and thanks for asking!). None of our Service Advisors or Technicians have gotten Covid-19 so far. Even asking around the shop, only a couple people know anyone impacted. We’ve been very lucky in our shop, in Portland, and in Oregon at large… we are very grateful.
Our business is functioning for now, thanks to you. Our clients have been spectacular in stepping up with their support. Though we saw a painful slowdown early on, we are still here. Granted, we’re just running at or near a break even to keep all the staff on board and are still well short of capacity, but thanks to you, our doors are still open and our staff is still working. Again, we’ve been very lucky so far.
We’ll continue our heavy discounting for now. We hope our recent Covid discounts have been a help to you, and again, thank you if you have participated! We’ll continue through the middle of May at least, but the country may be coming out of it’s bunker and we hope to drop our discounts (slowly!) to a more sustainable level.
The government may be here to help us all. We’ve filed for the business supports available, and we’re waiting to hear back just like almost every other small business (and way too many large ones!) across the country. Loans must be used for wages, rent, and so forth, not just dropped into our company’s account. If and when we get a financial boost, expect us to return any boost to our loyal clients… if Uncle Sam will help us with the cost of running our business, we are planning to gladly pass this help on to you!
We still have quarantine supplies for you. We’ve been making our own hand sanitizer and have (non-N95) filter masks at the front desk for our client’s use. Feel free to fill up your sanitizer bottle while you’re here and take a couple of the masks with you with our compliments. (If you or your organization have a need for more filter masks, send an email to charles@tomdwyer.com and we’ll see if we can get you some. We probably won’t be able to supply major needs, but if 20-40 masks would be useful then we’ll gladly help.)
That’s the report from your friends at Tom Dwyer Automotive Services. We’ve been very lucky with the virus and very privileged to have such strong support from our clients. The end’s not here yet but it’s slowly coming into view, and when it’s all over we’ll still be here to keep your vehicles “safe, breakdown-free, and operating at their best”. THANK YOU for making it possible!.
