I cluttered desk is the hallmark of a cluttered mind, the implications of a
pristine, empty desk should be obvious.

I have two nominees.  One with matching character has a recycling dog, who
diligently recycles your empty plastic after giving them a good workout, the
other has a shop cat who keeps the restroom neat and tidy, the waiting room
with flowers and current magazines.  Both do exeptionally fine work.
(Sierra German Motors, Bishop,CA and Stephans Autohaus, Sacramento,CA)

Pix may be posted in my not so infinite spare time.

Pensionerd.  (also knows a shop in S. SF called Tassi's, comments witheld,
they don't particularly cotton to Vanagonese)

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Joy Hecht <jhecht@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I recently found myself in Roanoke Virginia, where two nice women drove up
> alongside my van and handed me a slip of paper with the name of a repair
> shop, saying "if you have any trouble with your van while you're here, come
> visit us, we work on all kinds of VW vans."
>
> Well, Matilda was having some slight incontinence problems (otherwise known
> as dripping fluids), and I figured maybe I should have this looked at while
> I was in town.  So I took her over to Salem Imports, Mark Dearing's repair
> place in Salem, VA (next town over from Roanoke), and he replaced my water
> pump.
>
> But what struck me was the wonderful character of his shop!  Especially as
> I'd had a dream, the night before going there, that it was clean and
> pretty,
> with red-and-white checked curtains and a cleaning staff scrubbing the
> bathrooms (plural).  Not!
>
> I thought it would be fun to seek out the vanagon repair place with the
> best
> character - Mark's is definitely a contender!  So do have a look at some
> pix, and see if you can top this:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/hecht.joy/VanagonRepairShopsSalemImportsSalemVA#
>
>
>
>
> Joy
>