Born To Win
I been riding rice burners for 20 some odd
years, with a friends old AMF sportster thrown in for good
measure. My favourite, without a doubt was my old around town
bike, a '89 Kawasaki 454 LTD (Sold it to pay for my wedding a
few years back. Don't have the bike nor the woman anymore.) Been
ride-less for the last 5 years. Never really had the money for a
Harley, always dreamed, someday.
Anyway, a little over 5 years ago, with a new
job and making a bit better money, I set my goals for the two
toys I always wanted... last year I got my brand new '99
Wrangler Sport TJ and in 2002 I would get my brand new Hog.
Christ, isn't that every man's dream, a Jeep for the Mountains
and a Hog for the Road?
So, it was, this July, on a Sunday,
the "Boss" sends this memo around our dept. which went
something like this;
Hi All,
Please join me at a very important
meeting, Tuesday July 18th. I need everyone to attend in person.
Thanks
This was basically followed up by a Monday, in
person, "If you're not there, you best be dead or in the
hospital." Ok, not quite those words, but close.
My gal calls me immediately Monday morning upon
getting this memo and tells me about it (she works in the same
dept. I do). Here it comes, they either are getting us all out
of Vienna to fire someone, they are doing another re-org or some
such crap. Trust me when I say, then entire dept's morale
dropped to zip.
All Monday people can only talk about who might
be axed.
Tuesday comes and we all meet, we are all
shuffling about and speculating. Here comes the dept Manager in
with a huge smile, saying, "You all are so wrong and I am
loving it all."
Ok, maybe it's one of those damn "feel
good, you're all doing great, and we just want to pat your back
meetings" that suck. Let me do my job and leave me the
hell alone.
He says, "Ok, we have a conference room in
the corp. end of the building, lets go... 30 people trudging
down thru this long ass building like a bunch of third graders
on the way to ... the devil only knows.
Finally we reach the other end of the building
and up ahead, the main corporate headquarters lobby... where
there has to be at least 200 people crowded... What the hell? TV
cameras, press, balloons, looks like a party.
Our Division Director points to me and my gal,
"Dave and Dianna, I need you over here."
WTF? So we walk over to her and I turn around
and there is this silver and blue Harley Davidson Softail Deuce.
Immediately my mind starts churning... End of the year
"Born to Win" referral
program contest prize? Wasn't that like in March?
Dianna, my gal, was my only referral! No way way in hell
...
This guy starts droning... my knees are shaking... please say my
name, please say my name... "... and so, out of the
thousands of referrals hired and put into the 'Born to Win"
barrel, the winner
is..."
ME ME ME! I friggin won my goddamn
dream bike!
If you never seen a grown man with tears in his
eyes, I won't deny they got a bit misty when the local HD Dealer
rep from Patriot Harley
Davidson, in Fairfax, VA walked over and in this HUGE lobby started that bike up and
those pipes started reverberating off the walls.
I am in shock, they got damn video cameras
pointed at me, flash bulbs are going off, everyone is screaming...
or at least that's what they told me, cause I don't remember
much of it honestly, I remember riding the bike around in front
of the building, I remember the AOL guy saying, you can have the
bike or $20,000 in cash... I remember my gal screaming at the
top of her lungs, "Screw the cash, we want the damn
Harley!" Damn, now that's a woman. More pictures for the Press
Pic.
Anyways, I was all set to ride the damn thing
out of there when they tell me, that's not the bike I get, it's a
dealer demo, but I have to be there at the dealer in 2 days to
order ANY BIKE I want and I have a check for $20,000 to do it
with!
Two days later, 9am, I was there, I would have loved
the Deuce, but since I got to order, I got what I wanted... a
2001 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide (FXDWG) with lots of
stuff. It was a spend it or lose it $20K and since the
bike's MSRP was $16K and after freight, tax, title, lic, 3
year ext. warranty, etc., I still had almost 2K to spend, I
spent it! (Ok, I went 2K more than
I was allotted, but, WTF!)
So anyways, I didn't sell my mother-in-law's car to get my bike,
didn't have to go into debt for 5 years to pay the loan, but I spent all the cash I had been saving for the down payment
on extra poser chrome and I still get to come up with 8+k for
the income taxes (they slapped the 20k on my pay stub as income) by next
April, so, it'll be beans and rice for a while, but hell, I got
my bike!
That's my story... and I'm sticking to it...
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