I have been friends with Dan Weseman, aka: “Ford Man” for a dozen years. Ask any builder who knows us both, if they are being honest, they may say something civil about me, but Dan is nearly universally loved, thought of as a ‘nice guy’. He not only enjoys this, he actually cultures it by quietly needling my temper, with stories of silly builder stunts, and if I publicly boil over, Dan will step in as the calm voice of reason, affirming his ‘nice guy’ status. Its a fun game, and I fall for it nearly every time.
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Would your like some insight to why Dan really isn’t the super nice guy he is publicly perceived as? Here is a simple example:
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Above, Ford Man fuels the ford on the ride home from the 2018 Zenith Open house.
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We departed the Zenith factory about 8pm on Saturday night to take a chunk out of the 1,050 mile return trip. We hit a motel in Paducah about 1 am, and set the alarm for 6 am, hoping to eat dinner at home in Florida. We are exhausted when the alarm goes off, but this doesn’t stop Dan from singing the entire theme to “the Brady Bunch” in a very loud voice. It was his insidious plot to get it stuck in my brain for the rest of the day. It’s a cheap ploy, but it worked. Grabbing a coffee in the lobby, he sets the mental hook by singing the chorus under his breath; I pretend I don’t notice, but it’s sticking; every hour or two in the truck he hums a few bars, and by the time we are nearing Chattanooga, the song is playing on a tape loop in my head, and he knows this. Progressively through the long day Im losing my mind, and he is getting calmer appearing by the hour. This is how I end up with the reputation as somewhat short fused. If anything happens, Dan will step in and be the calm voice of reason, explaining that I have been under considerable stain, but failing to mention that strain started at 6 am with him blurting out “Here’s the story, of a man named Brady…”
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By late afternoon, I’m thinking of strangling him, but he is too big to take on physically, and even if I did, I already know that people would say“Dan is such a nice guy, wonder why that nut William attacked him for no reason…”
