Been A Long Time, but It's good to be here

Hello from sunny New Orleans! I finally gave up working for that soul sucking, shitty paying job, I had here. It's givien me a lot more time to work with bicycles. Which as many of you mechanics know, can be dangerous. I've probably purchased 100 or so bicycles in the last 6 months. I wholesaled most of them, but I've set aside about 40 for New Orleans. I'm slowly working my way through them. The response has been pretty good so far. I'll post pics of some of them soon. What really bought me back to the blog however, are the experiences I've had at local shops here. I have a friend in town,as I often do in the fall/winter months. We decided to attend the local blues fest the other day. It's held in Lafayette Square, a pretty ok venue, if I might add. Knowing ther'd be very little parking and it was a nice warm day. We bicycled down there. We stop for roadie beers on the way. Things were going swell when suddenly my buddy said, "something a'int right. Sure enough he'd gotten a pinch flat. It's crazy of me, but sure enough, I left the house with no extra tube, no small adjustable wrench. (single speed wheel)no tire lever even. It was a Sunday and we were passing through the quarter, (French). There was only 1 shop opened that actually stocked tubes. This is were it gets shitty. Walked his bike over to this shop who's name ryhmes with "Tide this Bike". The person on the phone was flipant, So unneccesary. I need a 700x23/32 presta 48 mm. Pretty standard tube at this point. They said we have an 80 mm. Thats way long but of course in a pinch i'll take it. Here's the kicker, $25.00 installed... What the actual fuck? I'm sure there are soje shop owners who are ready to argue this with me, but that's some bullshit. I can have a flat on my fairly large old 4x4 truck fixed for 20.00. That includes jacking it up, taking the lugs off with an impact drill, using a tire changer machine to remove the tire, repairing it, using the machine to re-mount the tire, checking it for leaks and the mounting it back on the truck and lowering the jack. $25 bucks for installing a $2.49 cent tube (wholesale) is criminal. Add to it the ineptitude of the (mechanic) I use the term loosly. Just watching him use a wrench was like nails on a chalk board. I've seen this before with inexperienced mechanics. Here's a tip.Learn how to use your body for maximum leverage when turning bolts or anything that requires torque! That any mechanic doesn't understand this, says to me that their training is flawed. One of the first thing you learn as a mechanic is never to push on a wrench. You always pull, bringing it toward your body. Not only will it prevent busted knuckes, if it slips while pulling it slips toward your body. You also get much better leverage when placing your bodybehind the wrench. Long story short.Buy good tools! Please when in New Orleans, choose your shop wisely. We got us some hacks here.