MAYHEM IN MAY ... life goes on (Part 159o)

MAYHEM IN MAY… life goes on (Part 159o)

In a way I felt guilty making the call. It had been a couple of years since I’d talked with my cousin, Jenny, even though she lived less than 10 miles away (long story that I won’t go into… say “thanks!”). Benny, her husband was a good guy and I got along well with him. I had to make my way through Jenny to get to him though and that was a bit of a battle. I explained my predicament and didn’t waste time before getting to the point and asked if there was any chance of getting the job done. I didn’t mention anything about cost with my focus on just getting the signs up. He said he’d get back to me the next day, without fail. I remember being somewhat thankful that I’d gotten that far.

Elle and I were watching TV when the phone rang. It was almost 11pm and she wasn’t happy that someone would call at that time of night. It was Benny and the answer was a “yes”. Certainly a relief but my work on it was hardly done. I told him that I’d pick him up at his shop the next morning and go to the site to get what was needed pinned down. On a personal level it was almost to the point that I couldn’t make any plans at all because they’d be changed before execution.

I made a command decision to not have Jerry there with us and I knew there would be a ‘cost’ for doing it that way… but I didn’t care. Benny and I were ‘on the same page’ right from the time we arrived on site. I was back at my desk by mid morning. I let Hobie know what was going on and about not including Jerry. He didn’t come right out and say it but I got the distinct impression that he’d ‘cover’ for me on it. I took it as a win.

That night, at the race car garage the primary job was to mount the new tires. It was the first time for me and the other guys had a lot of fun watching me struggle. Finally, Dick felt sorry for me and gave me a hand. I was thankful but took advantage of his help and made notes on just how to do it. When Robo, the new crew member who arranged for us to  get free racing oil, went to change the oil so we could put the new Quaker State oil in the motor he noted that the color of it didn’t seem right. Cliffy looked at it and made the decision that it was because we hadn’t changed it after the first race. Other than my struggle, it was a relatively easy night and I was home before Elle headed for bed… definitely a ‘plus’ for me.

The want ad for employees for the branch had been run in the local newspapers earlier that day and it was expected we’d be getting a fair amount of ‘action’ on Friday. Arrangements had been made for a place to do the interviewing that was fairly local to the branch location. The exact dates were to be determined after seeing how many responses there were. Jerry was beside himself with anticipation. All I had was trepidation. I’d been told to stay out of it even though I’d eventually be involved after Jerry made his selections. Only time would tell.

To end the day with a positive I got a call from Xerox that the ‘provisional’ contract had been approved and we’d have our new machine on the last day of May. That gave me almost a week to find something to do with our existing copy machine. Kelcy, the saleslady for Xerox had told me something I pretty much knew… it had no value at all. When leaving I got the idea to ask Mike, the messenger/custodian, to dispose of it at the town landfill and I’d pay him $20 out of petty cash to do it. He said he'd take care of it early the following week. Walking out the door I actually felt good about how things were going and now it was on to the weekend.

It started out to be a typical Saturday… chores (a trip to the ‘dump’, the lawn, watching the kids while Elle shopped) when Phyllis, the neighbor, showed up. I hadn’t seen much of her or her kids and nieces for a while. Elle had talked with her a bit and was told she was trying to expose the visiting German girls to as much of rural life as possible while they were with her. And that was what she wanted to see me about. With an American iconic holiday just about on us, Memorial Day, she wanted to know if it was worth taking the girls to the parade in the town where I worked. She’d been told it was “real Americana” but wanted to know if it was worth the trip and to miss seeing Mo and Barbara, her daughters, in the local parade. I told her a little about what they’d see… decorated floats… horses… lots of big fire trucks… many marching bands… veterans marching (or trying to) and exhibitions along the route. I told her, because it was so big, they might get a kick out of it. She thanked me and headed back through the hedge. I felt that I’d gotten off lightly.

Cliffy and the race crew stopped and picked me up for the races in mid afternoon. The general feeling was more upbeat than it had been the week prior because we now had competitive tires to race with. Things at the sign-in were better with almost everybody knowing (more or less) where they were to park. We ended up being early which, after unloading the car, gave us time to do some visiting. I saw CJ’s father, ’Seeg’ and walked over to chat. I’ll admit there was an ulterior motive… to check out Karen, CJ’s girlfriend and to see if she was wearing the white pants with the VPL I'd seen the previous week. We talked mostly about the new tires and the fact that we could only get one night of racing out of them. 'Seeg' told me he’d figured out that they would have to finish no worse than third just to pay for the tires each night. That wasn’t a good thought, at all. I didn’t get to see Karen until just about the time the track was opened for practice. On my way back to the car I saw her and it appeared she was dressed the same as the week before. I knew I’d be back.

To be continued…