DEALING WITH THE HEAT… & more (Part 174t)
Cliffy’s father was
in the garage when I got there which made it easier for me. I’d felt he
was the most resourceful and creative man I’d ever met. He always
seemed to be able to come up with a solution for any problem with
anything mechanical. He’d actually created some things that could’ve
been patented. Some of his ideas were part of the race car and, to make
polite conversation, asked where he’d come up with the idea for them. He
was a very humble man and just sort of shrugged his shoulders. He was
in the process of creating a platform to attach to the back of a common
riding lawn mower. Back in the 60’s, they had no add-ons. The man had
adapted a kiddy wagon to trail behind it but he could only go forward as
it was impossible to back up with it attached. With a platform he
realized there was no limitation. In any case, I got no answer to my
question and he continued on with his project and I started mine.
I
was almost finished and was tightening the bolts on the oil pan when he
startled me by tapping one of my feet. I was on my back and on the
creeper so just rolled out from under the car. He was squatting down and
asked to see the bearings I’d just removed from the motor. I always
laid them out, in order on a piece of cardboard. I slid it over to him
and sat and watched as he carefully went over them. Still on his
haunches when he finished up, he looked at me and made but one
statement… “You’re wasting your money…”. I didn’t know what he meant and
I had to ask. That was when he stood up… and I did too. He proceeded to
show me that the bearings were showing barely any wear and where they
did, it was only a small area. He told me they were good enough to run
at least three, if not four, races. I found it interesting but not
something I’d be able to suggest to Cliffy. That was when I asked if
he’d speak to him. I didn’t get an answer right away and didn’t know
where to go with it. I remember him putting the cardboard with the
bearings on his workbench and saying “Good night”.
I didn’t have
any notes on what the cost of the bearings were but I knew they were
pretty expensive. They were among the items that Cliffy charged to the
garage. He paid the bill off as his father pressured him so we never got
to know what they cost. To me, any cost savings was good. So, I went
back under the car to finish up and wondering if Cliffy’s father would
pass his observation on.
It was on the trip home that I changed
my focus from the race car to “Big B’s” boat that I now owned. If there
was one thing that I would’ve liked was for it to have a trailer. “B”
was a really good friend with Davy who owned the marina and he’d haul
the boat and take it to “B’s” parents house for the Winter. I was
wondering how much it would cost me to do the same thing at the end of
the season. It didn’t really matter because I’d have to pay it anyway.
The next thought was on just when I’d get to use it. I’d gone over my
commitments with Elle trying to figure out how to squeeze in playing
some tennis with her and I hadn’t come up with a lot of free time. By
the time I got home I’d decided to take a sick day the first really nice
day that I didn’t have some sort of meeting schedule. “B” had said he’d
take care of getting it in the water for me so my new focus would be
getting out in the boat.
The best part of Wednesday was in seeing
“Gee’ “, the Trustee/attorney walking across the lobby and headed in my
direction. He had the affidavit from the former Trustee about my
grandmother’s maiden name being on the accounts for my brother and I.
With that in hand I took it to Liz, the auditor, to have her free the
accounts up. It was still before 3pm so bank was still open. I signed
the necessary papers and had a check drawn to pay for the new stock I’d
purchased. I called Lynda to tell her I’d be over before 5pm to deliver
it. When I did she was more interested in knowing if I was going to take
advantage of the open house invitation on Friday. The one thing I
remember about her reference to it was in hearing the admonition “It’ll
be worth your while…” again. I tried to ask what she meant by it but all
I got was a wry smile.
I was curious about the sailboat so, on
the way home, made a trip to the marina to see if it was in the water.
It was so I stopped by the marina office to say hello to Davy. He wasn’t
there but his wife was. Piled up in the corner were the bags of sails
that went with the boat. Davy’s wife was far from pretty but she did
have one thing going for her… she was a big fan of short shorts… very
short shorts. This was the first time I’d been to the marina in almost a
year and had pretty much forgotten about that. When she went to pick
one of the bags up I got a what I called a ‘double peek’ where her
panties stuck out from the leg openings and the waist band of her
panties stuck out on top. Although I was only a matter of feet from
where she was I couldn’t identify the maker of the panties from the
waist elastic. But, as I walked out the door with the gear I knew I’d
have more than few more opportunities coming up.(54)
I was late
getting home because of stopping at the marina. For once, I didn’t have
to take any grief from Elle once I told her what I’d been doing. I also
told her about my plan to take a sick day to take the boat on it’s
maiden voyage. I told her she’d have to help me out what with her
schedule with the kids at the sailing club. It was obvious from her
immediate response that she was excited about it and got the calendar
off the bulletin board. I’ll admit I was disappointed that the earliest
day she was free was the following Tuesday. Now I had to pray that it
would be a nice day (nice meaning sunny with some wind). But… it would
give me time to go over the boat to get it ‘seaworthy’ before we went
out in it.
Before heading for the garage I managed to get most
of the framing down for the floor in the shed portion of the garage. I
was about to quit when I spied the small wooden file cabinet that I
found to the landfill. I couldn’t remember ever having opened the drawer
so went over to it an found it was either jammed or locked. I knew I
had to get going but was now intrigued with what I’d find once I got the
drawer open. It wasn’t locked but, with all the humidity we’d had with
the truly hot weather, the drawer was swollen shut. I ended up drilling a
hole in the back of it and then push a wooden dowel trough the hole. I
took my hammer and gave it a good swing… and the drawer popped open.
There was nothing in it but I immediately saw it was a perfect place for
hiding more of my ’stash’. With that, I headed for the garage.
To be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment