MORE SUMMER HEAT... lots of it (Part 162h)

MORE SUMMER HEAT… lots of it (Part162h)

Back at the bank the weather hadn’t improved by lunchtime when I headed over to the stock broker’s office. I was a bit damp by the time I got there. Seeing Lynda’s smile helped helped me overlook that and after I’d signed the paperwork to redeem the funds from the bond Lynda asked if I’d like to go across the street for a bite to eat. I didn’t expect it and didn’t respond right away, which, in retrospect, made me look kind of dumb. Lynda took my hesitation as shyness and sort of challenged me saying something like “It’s OK… I don’t bite…”. I was red faced, again, and to ‘save face’ said I would. We had to wait a few minutes until her counterpart, Ruthe, returned from her lunch break. As we did we made ’small talk’ during which I found out her husband’s father was a well known Chevrolet dealer and her husband worked for the dealership. Believe it or not, in hearing that my mind started thinking about racing because they sponsored a race car… but not for long.

The place we went to for lunch was right across the street called Michael’s Lounge. It was really nothing more than a bar but Michael’s wife loved to cook so they did serve food. Back when I worked in the data processing department for the County a group of us would sometimes go there to celebrate a department member’s birthday so I was familiar with not only the place but also with Michael. Right after we walked in he saw me and we went through the old routine of “How you been… watcha been up to?” and the like. Lynda kind of faded from attention for a bit… which was OK by me. After we ordered our lunch Lynda explained the reason for the invite. Her boss (and my broker) was on vacation and would be throughout the next week. She wanted to let me know that she could place any stock purchase order that I might want to make without him being there. That explanation put me more at ease but left me wondering why she couldn’t have done that back in the office. In any case, after she explained the procedure to my satisfaction it was time to go back to work.

A call to my father about what was expected for weather for the weekend confirmed (at least in my mind) that we wouldn’t be racing the car the next night. He also predicted that Sunday’s sailboat races might be cancelled as well as it was predicted we’d have winds over 20 miles per hour and possibly some gusts as high as 30. It was looking like a lost weekend as far as my competition 'fix' was concerned.

At home I came to find out it wasn’t just a lost weekend for me. Elle told me she’d heard from Bill, Barbara’s father, that they had canceled plans to move their stored furniture into their new home. With the rain that had been predicted Phyllis didn’t want to expose the things to getting wet. That, plus the ground around their house was too soft and would be muddy made him call it off. Phyllis and her two sons wouldn’t be coming which meant we had Barbara for a few more days. I called Cliffy to make sure the crew wasn’t going to be at the shop that night and he said he might go himself but there really wasn’t anything that needed to be done. Thinking about Saturday it was looking like it was going to be a very long day as all I had to do was my weekly trip to the landfill. I remember hoping (praying) that the weather wouldn’t be as bad as my father predicted for Sunday because that would make for two days with nothing much to do. I’d turned down some sign painting jobs for the Summer because I just couldn’t squeeze them in what with everything else I had going on. At that point I was wishing I hadn’t.

The only thing I can remember doing on Saturday other than the landfill trip was to check on “Big B’s” sailboat. He’d given me the sails and told me to use it as much as I wanted when he left for his temporary assignment for work but I’d not used it even once. In fact, since we hadn’t really had any rain since he left I hadn’t even checked on it. But, the little rain gauge we had in the garden showed over an inch of rain. I didn’t look forward to bailing the water out of it but I knew I should. At the marina I saw Edna’s (Barbara’s new friend that had come to dinner) father and commented on what a nice girl she was. I also asked what brought him to the marina on such a dreary, wet day. His answer kind of surprised me when he said he’d bought a sail boat. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he and his wife were friends with my parents so, even though I didn’t know him all that well, he, through my parents, knew me. He’d come to the marina to get some fittings for his boat and mentioned that he wasn’t sure they were the right ones. Looking for something to help fill up my day, I offered to follow him to his house and to check the situation out.

Even though it was raining and windy, the temperature was warm. With a rain slicker on I was perspiring. The boat, a 22 footer, was on a trailer in their barn so it allowed me to take the coat off. I was scanning the boat as I did and right behind the boat was a clothes line… with clothes strung over it. I draped my coat over a winch located on one side while all the while scanning the line hoping that I’d be lucky once again. Ed was the man’s name and just as I thought I saw something of interest he called me over to the bow of the boat. As I headed in his direction I remember thinking that all I’d needed was another 30 seconds. All I could do was hope I’d get another chance.

The problem with adding new fittings on a fiberglass boat was that you had to know how the hull was constructed before attempting to fasten them. With a wooden boat you could pretty much screw a fitting anywhere you wanted and knew it would hold. Not so with fiberglass. I spent a fair amount of time doing ’soundings’ on the hull to find where the wooden ribs had been placed so we'd know where to drill the holes. Even with that it was still a ‘hit or miss’ situation. The first ones we did were a ‘miss’ as we drilled a few holes that had no backing. We got a lot more ‘hits’ than misses as we finished up. Ed hadn’t bought enough screws and also needed some epoxy to fill the ‘misses’ we’d made so headed back to the marina. It was exactly what I had hoped for… for about one to two minutes, not enough time to even get started on checking out the contents of the clothes line.

Edna’s mother appeared in the open doorway with some cookies and milk. She was surprised not to see Ed so I explained the situation. I thanked her for the refreshments hoping she’d head back to the house but she stayed. She went into the details of how they had come to get a boat and, with agonizing detail, how they ended up with this one. I didn’t know how long it had been since Ed had left but I knew it took less than 10 minutes to get to the marina and he was probably due back at any second. I definitely remember looking towards the stern of the boat and at the various items of clothing on the line behind it that I could see and thinking there was no chance of ever ‘exploring’ them. Then I heard a young male’s voice calling from the house and right behind it the woman saying “Thank you for helping Ed" as she darted out into the rain running towards the house. A second chance!

To be continued…