STORY DATE - the summer of 2013 to the fall of the same year.

LOCATION : Point St.Charles

Did a real quick service call in "the Point" tonight, Point St.Charles that is, a tough Montreal neighbourhood adjacent to St.Henri, the latter being a little less tough than "the Point". And since my shop is located in St.Henri, the call was only minutes away by car. It was still tough on the mind walking after parking the car on the south side of Wellington street and hearing the occasional unmedicated person screaming in the distance. Tough hurtin' little part of the world along with its' garbage piled up uncollected on the curbs. I saw a rain soaked carboard box for a flat screen TV which read "high definition for everyone", - yup that should make everything OK I shouted back at it. I started feeling at home talking out loud in the streets to piles of trash.

I had met Ron for the first time last summer, when he called the business line to tell me that he got my name and number from a collector who had sold him a bunch of machines at a bulk price. He really believed that he got a good deal and I guess that is what matters most. But to me something in that scenario smelled fishy, and I knew what stunk when I finally made the time to drop in to see the stuff he paid for and asked me to do a repair estimate on the lot. I was happy for the web forum member who got rid of his junk, but not happy about having to explain to this overly zealous and boisterous guy who really believed that he had made the deal of the century that I wouldn't do these jobs. At one point I had to raise my voice when he wouldn't take no for an answer. But Ron being a persistent person with the character of a man who has been fucked around in his time by a good cross section of nasty people kept pushing for me to help in at least getting a few of his favorite solid state pinball machines started. When he finally understood that I wasn't going to participate in this very lengthy three act play that was threatening to go on stage with him and his junk, he offered to pay me to just look at the machines and tell him what his options were.

Black Knight was one of the machines he loved, and wanted to at least have it flip a bit for old times sake. Wasn't going to happen that summer night when I managed a closer look at it and then finally got totally discouraged looking at the hacks inside the backbox when we finally got the door to open. I explained that if I got him started with this one, (meaning wake up the MPU), he was on his own for the rest of what would ensue, and explained that this could be quite the adventure. Again, I repeated that as a rule I don't usually fix fix solid state machines on the road, especially in this condition so as to maintain my mental health and stay in a good mood. In any case, there was no way I would be able to even do a clean up, let alone accomplish the rest of the fixes in his dwelling. The place was like a drunken Ali baba's cavern, stuff everywhere from slot machines to stereo systems, boxes and boxes of stuff filled with god knows what piled up high and animal cages and accessories everywhere else along the walls lined with his latest fixation - pinballs, they were everywhere. His home which he shared with his wife and at least two kids and some dogs and cats was impossible to maneuver in let alone do a proper service call. Ron seemed adamant in getting this done, so out of exasperation I told him that I knew a guy who could check and fix his system 7 MPU, but not before September. So all I did really that summer night in the point, was make sure the supply voltages were present and correct.

Again, I told Ron that as a basic rule and choice I only fix electro-mechanical machines, by repeating this I was trying to drive the point home. His house was still full of 80's solid states machines when I went to his place tonight to install the repaired MPU on his Black Knight and spark it up to get him started, he had lined up more machines for my inspection. In the hallway and bedroom and closets, there was no getting away from working for this guy - Bally Old Chicago, wedge heads, GTB Bronco, bingos anything  he could pick up cheap he picked up, there was no more room in his run down Point St.Charles apartment, so he was now looking for some loft space, but told me that his wife doesn't want to move and that he may leave her behind. I tell ya, pinball can be a serious disease for middle aged men.

Backtrack to early September when he called me back again and again, and I told him that I was booked solid with shop jobs and service calls until the new year, and to not call me anymore 'till I got in touch with him - he said he'd wait. There was no shaking this guy, he understood that time was the key in getting me to do work for him. I admired his patience from a distance and then one day in early October his wife Pina called me at work, and acted like his secretary.

"Hello, I am calling on behalf of my husband Ron concerning some pinball machines he purchased last summer and that you said you could help him with."

Well, put that way, I guess there was no way to deny any of those facts.

"Can we bring you some boards to have fixed by your associate who does this type of thing."

I asked them to come by the shop the next Sunday and I think that helped to make things clear as to what my repair orientations are. This was the week-end before a Montreal Pinball League meeting in my shop and the place was full of working pins. Ron practically passed out when he saw the place, maybe it was because he was out of breath from the 53-1/2 steps plus the fact that he is a heavy smoker, I don't know. But he was definitely hyper ventilating for one reason or the other, I had him sit down and later got him some water.

He left me the boards which I transferred to Mindstorm on the MPL night in question and tonight with the boards back from our local electronics master guru, Ron's Black Knight sparked up and did a bit of its thing. I tinkered and got his GI working a little better and told him that he was on his own until January when he would start hauling electro-mechanical pinball machines to my shop via the freight elevator for over-hauls. Life is crazy and it seems like these type of shop jobs will never end as long as I keep acknowledging them.

Robert A. Baraké  (RAB)

STORY DATE - the summer of 2013 to the fall of the same year.

LOCATION : Point St.Charles

Did a real quick service call in "the Point" tonight, Point St.Charles that is, a tough Montreal neighbourhood adjacent to St.Henri, the latter being a little less tough than "the Point". And since my shop is located in St.Henri, the call was only minutes away by car. It was still tough on the mind walking after parking the car on the south side of Wellington street and hearing the occasional unmedicated person screaming in the distance. Tough hurtin' little part of the world along with its' garbage piled up uncollected on the curbs. I saw a rain soaked carboard box for a flat screen TV which read "high definition for everyone", - yup that should make everything OK I shouted back at it. I started feeling at home talking out loud in the streets to piles of trash.

I had met Ron for the first time last summer, when he called the business line to tell me that he got my name and number from a collector who had sold him a bunch of machines at a bulk price. He really believed that he got a good deal and I guess that is what matters most. But to me something in that scenario smelled fishy, and I knew what stunk when I finally made the time to drop in to see the stuff he paid for and asked me to do a repair estimate on the lot. I was happy for the web forum member who got rid of his junk, but not happy about having to explain to this overly zealous and boisterous guy who really believed that he had made the deal of the century that I wouldn't do these jobs. At one point I had to raise my voice when he wouldn't take no for an answer. But Ron being a persistent person with the character of a man who has been fucked around in his time by a good cross section of nasty people kept pushing for me to help in at least getting a few of his favorite solid state pinball machines started. When he finally understood that I wasn't going to participate in this very lengthy three act play that was threatening to go on stage with him and his junk, he offered to pay me to just look at the machines and tell him what his options were.

Black Knight was one of the machines he loved, and wanted to at least have it flip a bit for old times sake. Wasn't going to happen that summer night when I managed a closer look at it and then finally got totally discouraged looking at the hacks inside the backbox when we finally got the door to open. I explained that if I got him started with this one, (meaning wake up the MPU), he was on his own for the rest of what would ensue, and explained that this could be quite the adventure. Again, I repeated that as a rule I don't usually fix fix solid state machines on the road, especially in this condition so as to maintain my mental health and stay in a good mood. In any case, there was no way I would be able to even do a clean up, let alone accomplish the rest of the fixes in his dwelling. The place was like a drunken Ali baba's cavern, stuff everywhere from slot machines to stereo systems, boxes and boxes of stuff filled with god knows what piled up high and animal cages and accessories everywhere else along the walls lined with his latest fixation - pinballs, they were everywhere. His home which he shared with his wife and at least two kids and some dogs and cats was impossible to maneuver in let alone do a proper service call. Ron seemed adamant in getting this done, so out of exasperation I told him that I knew a guy who could check and fix his system 7 MPU, but not before September. So all I did really that summer night in the point, was make sure the supply voltages were present and correct.

Again, I told Ron that as a basic rule and choice I only fix electro-mechanical machines, by repeating this I was trying to drive the point home. His house was still full of 80's solid states machines when I went to his place tonight to install the repaired MPU on his Black Knight and spark it up to get him started, he had lined up more machines for my inspection. In the hallway and bedroom and closets, there was no getting away from working for this guy - Bally Old Chicago, wedge heads, GTB Bronco, bingos anything  he could pick up cheap he picked up, there was no more room in his run down Point St.Charles apartment, so he was now looking for some loft space, but told me that his wife doesn't want to move and that he may leave her behind. I tell ya, pinball can be a serious disease for middle aged men.

Backtrack to early September when he called me back again and again, and I told him that I was booked solid with shop jobs and service calls until the new year, and to not call me anymore 'till I got in touch with him - he said he'd wait. There was no shaking this guy, he understood that time was the key in getting me to do work for him. I admired his patience from a distance and then one day in early October his wife Pina called me at work, and acted like his secretary.

"Hello, I am calling on behalf of my husband Ron concerning some pinball machines he purchased last summer and that you said you could help him with."

Well, put that way, I guess there was no way to deny any of those facts.

"Can we bring you some boards to have fixed by your associate who does this type of thing."

I asked them to come by the shop the next Sunday and I think that helped to make things clear as to what my repair orientations are. This was the week-end before a Montreal Pinball League meeting in my shop and the place was full of working pins. Ron practically passed out when he saw the place, maybe it was because he was out of breath from the 53-1/2 steps plus the fact that he is a heavy smoker, I don't know. But he was definitely hyper ventilating for one reason or the other, I had him sit down and later got him some water.

He left me the boards which I transferred to Mindstorm on the MPL night in question and tonight with the boards back from our local electronics master guru, Ron's Black Knight sparked up and did a bit of its thing. I tinkered and got his GI working a little better and told him that he was on his own until January when he would start hauling electro-mechanical pinball machines to my shop via the freight elevator for over-hauls. Life is crazy and it seems like these type of shop jobs will never end as long as I keep acknowledging them.

Robert A. Baraké  (RAB)