Chapter 58

I sent Norm down to help Rod the next day, and he said he would likely just stay there. “I might even get a few things we might be able to use here. Nothing big, but a few tools might be a good thing.” I said that was fine, and settled in to work.

Most of that week was the same, on Thursday I went down to the shop, and Rod told me he had hired on fifteen of the workers for as long as it took to pack everything up, and three were wanting to move to Idaho. “A few others are thinking about it though. Next week I want to use one of your trucks and move some of the equipment up there right away. I am going to take one of them up with Harry and I, and let them see what is up there. He might be able to talk some of the others into making the jump.”

I said that was fine, he could use one of the trucks we just took possession of. On Friday, I went ahead and rode out to Long Beach, and after a big hug and kiss from Holly we were sitting in her living room with Dan and they were telling me about their plans.

It would be held outside, and that they were expecting about two hundred guests. She told me all that she had sent invitations to, and that most had already agreed. I asked her if Mandy had been sent one, and she nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think she will be there. I sent one to Rosie also. I do not have an address for Linda, but I sent an announcement card for her through Rosie. I added a note, saying that Linda was not invited, but a notice is the proper way to inform her, and to let her know we were thinking about her. Even if we did not want her there.”

“I guess I can see that. I’m sure Rosie can explain that to her. After all, it has been a long time, and some rough encounters since we had all been together.”

“You mean since the night Mandy slapped the shit out of her?” Dan said. “Yeah, I saw that, it was brutal, man. And yeah, a wedding invitation would not be appropriate, but an notice is a polite way of informing somebody they are not invited. But one of my groomsmen knows who she is and what she looks like, and will run interference if she does arrive.”

I raised an eyebrow at Dan, and he slowly nodded. “Yeah, he has never met her, but he knows her from her films. So if she shows up he will discreetly try to take her out of there.”

“Good idea, Dan. Remind him she has longish dark brown hair now, and mostly straight. But to be honest, I think she will get the hint. She is nowhere near as bad as she was a few years ago, I think she will follow Holly’s request. Although if I can make a suggestion, sometime a week or so after that, see if you can arrange a dinner with her. Up to you guys of course, just the three of you. That may help heal any rifts I think.”

Holly reached over and took my hand and nodded. “Great idea, Pete. Yes, I will do that. Baby, is that OK?”

“Of course it is, you do not even have to ask. And I would like to meet her, a better meeting than the last time.”

The next morning I met the three girls that would be her bridesmaids, and they all giggled when we arrived at the dress shop. And I refused to take part in the trying on of dresses, but I did flirt with the two that were single. But the only one that had any interest as far as I was concerned was the girl from England. Ginny had a wonderful accent, and a lovely little body. And we did flirt back and forth that day, but I could not tell how serious she was about it. Finally they had picked out their dresses, and Ginny teased that I would look out of place if I did not wear one also.

“Well, I do have some Scottish in my background. If Holly begs hard enough, I suppose I can get a kilt in my clan tartan.”

“Oh goodie!” Ginny said. “Girls, we can have him wear a kilt! And even suspenders and stockings under it! But you know, we would have to leave off the knickers, no true Scotsman would wear such under their kilts.”

The girls all laughed, and I took a moment to hum a few bars of an old Irish Rovers song. Ginny laughed out loud, and said she was amazed I knew it as the rest of the girls looked on in puzzlement. And I had only got out a few lines when both Ginny and Holly joined in.

Now the Scotsman woke to nature’s call and stumbled towards the trees Behind a bush he lift his kilt and gawks at what he sees And in a startled voice he says to what’s before his eyes “Ah, lad I don’t know where you’ve been but I see you won first prize”

We all busted up laughing, and then Ginny went on to explain what a true Scotsman did not wear under their kilts, and what exactly the first prize was for. And they all laughed along with us, and admitted that I should do that.

“I’ll even provide the ribbon,” Ginny said. I smiled and gave her a wink. This might be an interesting wedding indeed.

They then asked me about the Bridal Shower preparations, as that was also one of my duties. We all decided it would be on Wednesday night in Santa Barbara, but that Ginny would take charge of that aspect. “I’ll be there, of course if you want me there. But I will leave that up to Ginny. It might not be appropriate for me to do that.” They all agreed, and said they would make sure to include things so I would not feel out of place.

I was not surprised when the next morning Harry left early, saying he had planned on spending the day at Disneyland. I wished him to have a great day. I decided to ride over to Or’bit. I told Julie about what all was going on, and of course was not surprised when she told me she was also invited to Holly’s wedding. And since she was between boyfriends again, I promised to at a minimum save a dance for her during the reception. I then rode to to the machine shop, and saw that there were now twenty people involved in going over the various machines, cleaning them, then removing them and preparing them to be moved to Idaho. I met the ones that were going there, and one was a woman. Gail had two kids and was divorced, and thought a new life in another state was just what she and her kids needed. I did warn her that as she was from South Central, she would really be a minority up there, as would her kids.

“Well, I like Rod a lot, and from what he said there is really not many racists up there. Despite what some would want us to believe. And that we would all be treated as outsiders, me no different than any others not originally from there. I can accept that, and hope to show that I really do want to get out of LA and to a place where things make sense.”

I smiled and said if that was what she wanted, Idaho would be a perfect place to do it at. “Oh, and yes, the inbred Neo-nazi assholes are all way up in the northern area of the state. But even then, do not think they are locals or that is the local belief. The founders and most of the members are actually from here in the LA area. They just moved up there because land is cheap, and most of us from Idaho tend to have a ‘Mind your own business’ attitude. By the time those in the area realized who they were, it was too late.”

I left them to work, and went into the office to call Dee. She of course was involved in most of the aspects of what was going on, and I laid another one on her. “Dee, can you get four camping trailers? And look into more. We have at least four machinists moving up there, and they will likely need a place to stay when they get up there. I figure we can put them up in those until they get on their feet. Put them up on pads at the ranch, or at the campground. Then after they are moved on, we can sell them off, or find another use for them.”

“Good idea, Pete. Yes, we can do that. In fact, I think we can use them ourselves afterwards. You dad and I have been thinking of getting one, and we can put another at the shop. We may want to hire a security guard, they can use that to stay in. And others maybe rent to the hands to use as some only have little trailers.”

“OK, good idea. Tell Dave to go ahead and add in a slab for one at the shop, if it gets used or not. And one for the complex where you are also, we may want to think about security there also.”

She said it was a good idea, and they once again were waiting for the weather to break to start construction. “The ground is ready, and the stakes in place. We’re just waiting for a spell of warm weather so they can pour the concrete.”

I then decided to call Mandy, and see how she was doing since I had not talked to her since New Years. Her boyfriend answered, and I no more got out “Hey dude, it’s Pete. Is Mandy there?” than he hung up on me.

Fucking bastard. I thought of calling back, but said fuck it. I would try again another time.

I went back out onto the floor, and was a bit surprised to see that the first machines they had finished and moved into a corner of the floor were the ones that Rod did not want. “Pete, it’s simple. These are the ones we are selling. This way if somebody wants one it is ready to go.” They had also loaded the truck from Idaho with pallets of cases. “Once again, these are ones we can use ourselves, or sell. About a third are Gem cases, the rest are copies of them. Those 8 pallets over there, those are already tagged for IBM or Apple. Both should have crews here next week to pick up. And I told them if they do not do so, we would just dispose of them.”

“Ouch, that would suck,” I said. He just shook his head.

“Not like you would think. I’m pretty sure Apple will get theirs, and probably just dump them in a landfill. If IBM does not, not a problem. We just remove the front, and design a new face. Make some major changes, paint them Gem Blue, and then tell them what we are doing. I will not propose that unless they let the deadline lapse, but if we do we tell them right away what we are doing and why. We should be alright, so long as we tell them we will not make any others, it is just so they do not end up in a landfill.”

“That’s a great idea, Rod. OK, if they are still here then we will run with that. What will you do with them?”

“Well, there are about eight hundred of them. I figure, we turn those over to Harry. Use that for the conference center computers. Should be enough there to last a few years I think. And if nothing else, we can recycle what is left at the end.”

I had Rod follow me home that night, and on the way we stopped off at the office in Van Nuys for ‘The Recycler’. A local advertisement newspaper, running ads in it was free. But those who wanted to read the ads had to pay $1 for it. He filled out several slips for equipment he knew he wanted to sell already, and took several blanks for ones he would add in once he had them checked over and priced. That done, we went to my place and hung out and had a few beers. Turns out he had become a machinist in the Navy, and kept doing it after he got out. Then he got a serious look on his face.

“Pete, I have something I want to talk over with you. You know, this is no longer my shop. It’s yours.”

“Nonsense, Rod. It will always be yours.”

“Nope, hear me out. I’m in my 50’s, and time to start thinking of retiring. Oh, I’m not leaving, I have another ten to twenty years of work left in me. But my son has no interest in following me, so it might just be best to resolve things now. You already gave me 300k for half my business, give me another 300k, spread out over the next ten years. 30K a year, and leave me as 10% owner. I will sign it all over to you, and stay on as your foreman. I like what you are doing, and you are doing great things. Let me promote one of my people to learn my job so they can take my place. I want to start taking vacations again, something I could not do as the boss. If we can do that, trust me I will be a happy man.”

I nodded, and reached out and shook his hand. “OK Rod, I agree. But this is only a handshake deal. You do not actually work for me, you work for Jeff and Dee. Convince them, and you have my blessings. I will agree to anything they do in this area.”

He said that was fair enough. And with that I broke out the 24 year old bottle and we toasted each other. “So, what would you call it?”

“Simple, the name stays the same. One thing Dee got me to understand early on, keeping businesses separate is good business sense. If Gem goes under, it does not affect Intermountain. And the reverse is true also. Plus I hope we can continue to make cases for other companies, that is revenue to grow and expand the machine shop, not the computer business. We handle it all as separate businesses, who just feed each other. You still make cases for Gem, they still pay the machine shop for them.”

“Good plan, I like it. And I agree, we are already starting to see requests from some companies who want us too make cases for them also. And Morgan is courting a few designers at the college to come and work for him after they graduate. We have been talking about some really special cases, already designed and prototyped that we can shop to others. If nobody buys, we just sell them ourselves.”

“And see, this is why I want to keep you on. I knew early on you were a good boss and manager, you just had some bad luck there.”

“Oh you know it! When HP killed that contract, it almost bankrupt me. And it was not that they were not happy with our work, they simply decided to do like you guys did and moved it in-house to cut costs. And if you want to get into the printer business, I have contacts there still. We were not actually making computer cases, but the cases and metal chassis for laser printers. I know you are looking into things like keyboards already. HP will happily sell you complete laser printers, without the case. And I know we can do that, I still have copies of the molds. You can either license them from HP, or we can design our own to be slapped around their guts. Slap your name on them, and Bam! You are now in the printer business.”

I told Rod that was a great idea, and to mention it to Jeff to revisit at a later date. Printers probably would be another good line to get into, especially as the prices had been dropping, and more than a few customers were asking for them.

We talked about printers, and then about more general things until we both headed off to bed. It had been a long day, and an even longer month.

Over the next week, I was talking with a lot of my friends. I had dinner with Becky, and she told me she and Taylor were going to be at Holly’s wedding. As were the entire Geek Crusader’s. “Pete, do you honestly think she would have anybody else play at her wedding? We’re all going to be there, all of us. And Mike is going to be the MC, and act as DJ when we take breaks. But we are not just there as entertainment, she made sure we knew we were also guests.” I said that was great, and I got her to promise me at least one dance when she was on a break. She grinned, and swore she would.

On Monday night I again called Mandy, but her asshole boyfriend once again hung up as soon as I said who I was. So I sat down and wrote her a letter, saying I missed her and asking if she would call me when she could.

On Thursday, I spent the night with Holly and Dan again, and met the Rabbi that was going to officiate the ceremony. He was a nice guy, and he said that it was really no different than a Christian ceremony, just with a few special chants and prayers, and of course the custom of breaking a glass by stepping on it at the end.

Dan grinned, and said he would work on me to give the traditional Maid of Honor toast in Hebrew, and Holly smacked him. “Shut up husband to be! No Pete, there is no such thing. Just a regular toast is fine, in English. The only Hebrew you are expected to know is ‘Mazel Tov’.”

I repeated it, and got a few lessons in how to shout it out properly in celebration, and we all smiled when the Rabbi left. It turns out that she got back most of the reservations she had expected, including Julie, Kimmie, and friends and family she had not seen in years. In fact, she said the only refusals she understood but would miss came from my dad and Dee, as well as Rosie. I asked her of any she had not heard back from, and she sighed.