I flew into West Yellowstone this weekend, and the tie down area was setup up for much bigger planes than mine, so my usual tie down ropes I always carry wouldn't reach. A nearby fire fighting helicopter outfit didn't have any rope I could borrow either ("when it gets windy, we just put the chopper in the hangar"), and the FBO was closed. But then I noticed a crane boom sticking up down the line, turns out they are building an addition to the terminal, so I rode my folding ebike I carry over to the keep out fence, waited for a bit of a lull, and went over to the Grove RT operator and after showing him my CCO card and business card and BS'ing a bit, told him I really needed some rope, bad, and sure enough, he had an old tag line I could use, worked out perfect!
Earlier that day, Friday, while in the air halfway there, I got a call from a trucker needing a 10K piece of drilling equipment loaded, way back in town. For once I decided to blow off work and told him I couldn't do it until Monday morning, he said he'd be there, as he had no other options and the drilling equipment manufacturer wanted to use me and no one else I was told as it was a fairly tricky pick to rig but I'd done it a few times before for them. So, Saturday morning, back in the air, cruising west, still feeling a bit guilty about passing up the work, I had to make a decision to either hang a right/
north and head up to Butte MT for a fly-in and car show, and remain overnight there as afternoon thunderstorms would make leaving no fun at all, or hang a left/south towards home. I texted him, he had no idea I was airborne, thinking maybe he was locked in for Monday, turned out that doing it in a few hours would be very much preferred, so I blew off Butte and peeled off towards home. 3.5 hrs later, still before noon, I had him loaded up and got paid in cash. The punch line is this morning, low pressure and wind has moved in, and I would have been stuck in Butte all day, so it was a win/win, not sure if that story is too much about flying and not craning but they get mixed up with me!