ENDING THE YEAR… Odds & ends (Part 167b)
On Sunday, even
though I’d committed to going to church with Elle and the kids at the
10am service, I wanted to be there at the 8am service to let those who
showed up know that the undercroft (basement) and toilet were closed due
to the mishap with the oil burner. The church smelled like fuel oil so
when I arrived I opened the windows to try and air it out. It helped but
not much. With the basement closed and no toilet facilities the
minister called off Sunday school so Elle stayed home while I went back
to do the same job of letting the parishioners know of our problem(s) at
the second service. In so doing I was pleasantly surprised to see the
young woman who’d answered the door when I was delivering the Thrift
Shop clothes to be washed coming up the walk. I greeted her as if I knew
her but she didn’t respond. It took a few seconds after she’d gone
inside for it to register in my mind that dressed as I was I didn’t look
anything like I had the previous day. I had to explain the situation
about the explosion at least 15 or more times and, even with that, had
to stop a number of people from trying to go down the stairs to use the
toilet. During the service I asked another vestryman if he knew who the
woman was. He didn’t and as she wasn’t sitting with anyone that might’ve
given us a clue he could only shrug his shoulders. I told him about
delivering the clothes to the house of one of the parishioners but that
didn’t help him. When the service was over I watched her leave and
visualized her wearing a pair of the panties I’d seen on the clothes
line the previous day.
There was a quick meeting of the vestry to
decide what to do about the condition of the basement. The soot had
coated everything. We’d made stab at cleaning up what we could but when
we wiped down the walls we seemed to just smear the black stuff around
and turned the walls a streaky gray. Re-scrubbing didn’t help so what we
had to decide if we wanted to paint them or not. I just plain didn’t
have time to devote to it and no one else stepped up. The only painters
we could come up with were known to be expensive. That’s when I
remembered the incident at the house next door to Elle and I and the guy
who’d been hired to paint the bedrooms. Andy, the realtor told me he
was new in town and had wanted to give him a break. So I volunteered to
get in touch with him to get a price.
Andy had told me where he
lived so took a chance on finding him home. I found him to be a little
‘dense’ but he seemed to be a nice guy. His name was Johnny and wanted
go look at the church right away so back we went. I guess it was worth
it as he offered to wash the walls he’d be painting with a solvent to
make sure the paint would stick and not charge for it. I was impressed
with the offer and volunteered to buy the paint. The cost to the church
was to be, give or take, around $100. We talked for a bit about his
moving to the area. It had to do with a relative of his wife living
there. I don’y know how we got on the subject of stock car racing but he
mentioned he was a big fan and had gone to races near where he’d lived.
When I told him I was a part owner of a car he went sort of ’nuts’
wanting to see it. By then it was close to 2pm and all I’d had to eat
since I got up at 7am was a toasted English mufffin with strawberry
preserves. Before leaving he said he’d be able to start cleaning the
walls the next day. I told him I’d get the paint and leave it at the
church on my way home. That had been about the most productive thing
that had happened all day.
The next morning at work I went out of
my way to avoid Woody. I’d thought about her and the panties I’d left
for her to try on before the whole thing with Woody had come up. I’d
asked that she not say anything about them to anybody but, now, after
Trish had compromised her by telling me about her ‘accident’ I was a bit
concerned that she might not honor that request. However, I tried to
ease my mind by going through the employees that she knowingly was
friendly with. Being new, not living close to any of them and riding the
bus to and from work gave me some bit of assurance that she probably
wouldn’t bring the subject up. In fact, the only person I could come up
with was her friend at whose house she was staying who she might share
it with. The only time I saw her where there was an opportunity for our
eyes to meet was when she came to Bret’s desk for him to countersign a
Teller’s check on a withdrawal. I pretended to be busy so didn’t make
eye contact with her. After that I pretty much put it out of my mind.
All
the costumes were collected and I had Mike, the messenger/custodian
deliver them to the dry cleaner by the end of the day. As I watched them
being carried out I actually breathed a sigh of relief. I closed out
the day by making a call to Stan, my stock broker. The last stock I’d
bought had gone up in value and I wanted to know what had been the
reason. Lynda, his assistant, answered. I liked Lynda but I liked her
more when I could see her. I’d had the benefit of a number of panty
peeks when visiting the office which always enhanced the visit. The last
time I’d seen her she was struggling with the fact that her husband had
been called up to active duty. It had been a bit emotional and I didn’t
want to reprise it so tried to keep the conversation about my stock.
But Lynda knew how to ‘push my buttons’ and wanted to know why I didn’t
come over to the office. I don’t remember what I said but what I do
remember is that she said that even though it the office was closed
she’d wait if I wanted to come over. There was no doubt I was tempted
but I managed to put her off promising I’d get there in a day or two. I
could tell from her voice she was disappointed but did connect me with
Stan. He couldn’t give me a specific reason for the ‘action’ of the
stock but did say that he thought it had a way to go to reach it’s
potential. That was good news and I immediately thought about taking
some money from our savings to buy some more. Since the market was
closed I didn’t have to make the decision right there and told him I’d
get back to him. On my way home I decided I’d go over to the office the
next day. That would accomplish two things… see Lynda (and possibly get a
panty peek) and get some detailed information on the stock. I left work
looking forward to the next day.
I stopped at Sears to buy the
paint for the church and headed there to drop it off. I saw Johnny’s
truck was still there and when I went inside was almost overcome by
smell of the solvent he was using. I asked if it didn’t bother him and
he just shrugged his shoulders. Im meeting him I’d thought he was a bit
‘dense’ and stood there wondering if that wasn’t because he’d inhaled
too much of the smell of the solvent. He was just about finished and was
picking up his drop cloths. The first thing he asked me had nothing to
do with the job but was to ask when I’d take him to see the race car.
When I told him I’d do it on Saturday he seemed disappointed. As I took a
look at the walls he assured me the paint would adhere and look great
when he was done on Wednesday. I didn’t believe him but he assured me
he’d be gone by the end of the day. I was impressed.
To be continued…
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