I woke to an empty bed, since I sent Ester home after the video. Yes it was hard and it wasn’t a moral judgment or any sense of outrage. It was purely business and self preservation.

My problem was with Earl pure and simple. He had taken advantage of his mother. There was no doubt in my mind that he would try something against me. Most likely drop a dime on a load of hooch. I had absolutely not desire to go back inside.

I had done three years in the state Pen. That was three years more than enough time for me. I might have done a dime had I not admitted my guilt. I admitted it every time anyone asked me. I had three DUI convictions in one year, when I was twenty five. When I got out I join AA. It was five years before I began driving for the distributor of fresh meat. I worked for them off and on until I was eligible for Social Security.

The liquor delivery was good money, but not good enough to risk going back inside. I called Earl Monday morning.

“Earl, you guys need to find someone else. Also Earl, this better end my involvement with you and your family. If this shit keeps coming around, all the things you planned to do to me, I can do you you and much more. Do you understand?” I asked.

“Far as I’m concerned, it’s a clean break,” He said. I didn’t answer. I simply broke the connection.

The winter months were coming to an end by the time I got restless. I knew there was no money in custom bikes, so I began thinking of it as a hobby. I didn’t really needed to more than break even on them. I began by tossing the idea of the high tech electric scooter out the window. Well maybe a special order now and then. That I would only if it were prepaid.

What I did plan to build was a small, light weight, self contained push trailer. ‘One bolt converts your bike to an electric drive’, was going to be my motto. It was a simple design. It was also cheap and easy to build.

Like my bike trailer it was cheap and easy to build. Everything but a few pieces of metal for the frame came right off the shelf. In my case off the shelf of a salvage yard. It was almost totally plug and play. I even planned a couple of battery options, including a solar powered charger. The batteries and electronics were going to have to be new and full price.

Of course I had to build one first. The actual work began March 15th. The plan was to have it completed and ready to introduce by April fools day. It was my idea of a joke.

March 15th I started the day with a small, but heavy bran muffin. The spreadable cream cheese probably removed it from the low calorie list. I didn’t care that morning.

After breakfast, such as it was, I drove to home depot to purchase four long pieces of angle iron. Each one of them was four feet long. I wanted to have enough to experiment with. The tools from my bike trailer build were stored in the spare bedroom. I was ready to begin when I pulled into the drive way with the scooter and trailer. I had removed Jed’s create before I left home.

Since I wasn’t sure about our new walk on the trail, I left Jed’s create sitting in the drive. I didn’t bother to remove the trailer either. I felt it might be necessary to go out for more parts or something.

I got the parts, I had removed from a junk yard’s electric scooter, from the house. The trip doubled as a warm up break. While in the house I also added yet another layer of clothes.

When I got back outside I had the international development cooperative’s trailer design in mind. I had used it to build my own trailer which worked great. Well it did once I reinforced a couple of spots. With my improvements in mind, I began cutting the wheel supports. The four of them mimicked the wheel holders on a bicycle. There were however two sets of them, rather than one.

Since I was using two wheels from a disabled scooter, I had to make them each long enough for the wheels to turn. The wheels were twelve and a half inches, so I made the runners fifteen inches long. I also had to predrill them in order to assemble the trailer perfectly square.

I wanted the trailer narrow but wide enough to hold all the batteries and electronics. The trailer’s actually width would be the bed plus the width of the two wheels and the motor. I wanted to keep it under thirty inches, so that it would roll through the door of an apartment.

Once I had both wheels installed inside the runners, I determined the finished width. I decided to allow fifteen inches in width for the bed. When it was completed the trailer was twenty eight inches wide. That made it small enough to easily fit through the door easily.

With the frame finished on day one, I took a break. I warmed up then secured the bike and all the hand tools under the portable garage. I covered Jed’s trailer, and create with a tarp, just as the day began to get really cold again.

After I warmed up again, I went outside to clean up after Jed. Since I clean up almost every day, it didn’t take long. Once back inside Jed and I played fetch. In his version, I had to wrestle the piece of rope away from him, then throw it. It worked to give us both a little exercise.

I added the metal to my project’s cost sheet on the computer. The fifty odd dollars of metal brought the trailer’s total so far to seventy eight dollars and change. I still had to figure in the batteries, charger, and other electronic components. I decided to leave it until the next day. I needed something to do then as well.

Jed and I watched TV on my computer. I didn’t even have a way to watch local TV. I had dumped cable TV long ago. The TV set was hooked up to the computer with a wireless gizmo of some sort.

I had a sandwich for dinner, with a few corn chips and some ice tea to wash it all down. I also ate another bran muffin. After that I sat watching the computers TV shows from the night before.