No Love Shovel

I went and picked up the Atomic Bitch today. Where as with most times when you get to pick up a bike it is a time of anticipation and excitement. But that was not the case today.
I dropped off the shovel almost a year ago to the day to have a very well known and respected builder go through the motor and do some other changes to the Bitch. At first I kept in constant contact with him and got semi-regular progress reports but in time they got fewer and fewer. With the summer gone and the riding season coming to a close the urgency to get the bike back lessened and I backed off and let the builder work on it at his leisure throughout the winter.
As spring came around I began to call again to find out the status of the build and when I could pick her up. The response was always the same..."call next week, should be making good progress by then." But when I called a couple of weeks ago, I found out that the builder was on the East Coast until the end of July. Finally I said enough and made arrangements to pick the bike up.
With the help of the Mayor of Renton (thanks again, man) we went to the shop and retrieved my bike (or what we could find of her). After a quick inventory I came up missing my transmission, primary set up, various engine covers, my S&S B carb (I got one in the box but it's incomplete and not the one that I ran on the bike), and numerous other internal bits and pieces.
And although I am glad to have her back even with all that is missing, it is a very bitter sweet homecoming.
So in the end, I am going to just write the whole f'ing mess up as a tough life lesson and move forward with rebuilding the motor and the bike. It will get done, and it will be everything I wanted, and I will ride again this summer.
And as for the builder, well, let's just say I'm a big believer in karma and it will come around to bite him in the ass!