DEALING WITH THE HEAT... & more (Part 174f)

DEALING WITH THE HEAT… & more (Part 174f)

There was no way I was going to pull the tab and develop the picture right then. I’d taken quite a bit of time after my inspection of the garage to run back home to get the camera and I knew Elle would be coming, at least to the hedge opening, to look for me. I didn’t know what to do with the camera only knowing I didn’t want Elle to see me with it. I made the decision to leave the camera on the neighbor’s side of the hedge when I went back to our yard. I made the right decision as Elle was almost to the opening when I pushed my way through. As expected, Elle wanted to know what I’d seen… and why it took so long. I made up a story of having checked all the windows since I hadn’t seen the car in the garage. I quickly added my theory about the women possibly off shopping and “making it a day”. It was obvious she didn’t agree and I hoped that ended the conversation. But she insisted that I call the number that Mattie’s sister had given me. There was no point in arguing if I was going to get anything to eat. I made the call only to get a recorded message. He’d given me his work number. Elle was not happy!

 Elle had decided, again, it was too hot to cook and had made up some tuna salad for supper. While eating I got a call from Dick asking for a ride to the garage which generated some ‘asides’ from Elle about being crazy to even think about working on the car in the heat we had. I was in my car and starting to leave when I remembered the camera that I’d hidden in the neighbor’s side of the hedge. Getting out of the car I hoped Elle was busy doing something away from the kitchen window because I had to cross right in front of it to retrieve the camera. I made straight for it and back never once looking in the window. I had my fingers crossed as I drove away. I stopped at the foot of Dick’s driveway to pull the tab and to look at the picture. As I said at the end of the last post it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped but it was good enough to add to the pictures hidden in with my stash of panties.

By the time we got the somewhat wrecked race car off the hauler, into the garage and up on jack stands there wasn’t much of my clothes that weren’t wet. It was the same for all the crew. I’d had the advantage of being in a somewhat air conditioned building all day whereas Dick had spent the day in the sun out on his farm and Cliffy had been at the garage all day. There was little ‘small talk’ as we’d pretty much looked over the car after the race and had a good idea of what had to be done. We all had an area to ‘attack’ with mine being the rear end. The left rear tire was blown and the rim ruined indicating how hard a hit it had taken. A cursory view of the rest of the rear seemed to indicate it was OK. But, Cliffy having been racing for far longer than I had, told me he wanted to measure it to make sure it was square. I thought it was a waste of time but I did it with Alan’s help. When we finished it up we found the tube was bent back about 3/4 of an inch. Not good news for two reasons… we didn’t have a spare tube and to get one would probably take a couple of days. Not only that but it would cost us money we were counting on to keep us in tires.  It was so miserable in the garage that Cliffy finally told us to get all the broken and/or bent parts off the car and then head for home hoping the heat wave would break by Wednesday. Before we left he called PeeWee who sold quick change rear ends and found out he could have the part we needed to his place by Wednesday. Robob, who lived and worked West of where PeeWee lived, said he’d pick it up for us potentially saving time. I was certainly glad to hear that.

It was another long night trying to sleep. The kids had been pretty good about the conditions but their patience was wearing thin. We only had one fan and by the time we got around to thinking about getting more fans it was too late. If I’d been thinking I would’ve brought the two we were using on the banking floor home with me there were none left in the local stores. When I walked in I found the three girls stretched out on the living room floor on top of their sleeping bags with the fan sitting on the piano bench blowing across the top of them. Elle had decided they could all sleep there since it was the biggest room and and the fan would do the most good. With all the windows open it was a few degrees cooler than the second floor as well but still uncomfortable. We debated about sleeping in the den as there were eight windows. Our thinking was that if there was any wind at all it would waift over us and, if not, we’d still get a little movement of air from the fan. Basically, Elle did the same thing on the sofa as she’d done on the bed the night before what with the rubber/flannel covered pad and the beach towels. I have to say that seeing her lying on the sofa in just her panties and like a crop top was pretty inviting… enough for me to think about a picture. But, as soon as I opened my mouth she knew what I was going to say and… there ended up being no picture.

After a fitful night of sleep I headed off to work with an admonition from Elle to call Junior. I happened to walk in the door with Liz who asked if I could come over to her desk. It was usually me to ask her for help but I was more than willing. It was still fifteen minutes until the doors opened to the public. She handed me a list of names and pointed at one and asked if I knew anything about her. I did… it was my grandmother only it was her maiden name. I asked what the list was about and she told me it was the abandoned property list she had to forward to the state. Any accounts that had no activity for ten years had to be reported to the state and the amounts in the accounts along with it. After she told me that I looked down at the amount next to her name and it was over two thousand dollars. When my grandmother had died my father was the executor of her estate and had told me that neither my brother or I were named in it. I didn’t think that much about it. While standing there I asked Liz if she had any more information on the account. She said she could pull the old ledger and signature cards we’d used before putting everything on line at the data center and would get it for me later. I didn’t dwell on it thinking that I’d let my father know later on that day. However, when she brought the card to me it took my breath away. The title on the card had my name on it as a beneficiary. I immediately remembered the dollar amount I saw listed on the report and started thinking about what I could do with the money. The immediate use would be to pay pro the stock I’d authorized Stan to buy for me without having to sell any other stock. I liked that idea!

To be continued…