Chapter 12

I finished my week in the course Bell gave, doing very well. Even my IP (Instructor Pilot) had been impressed, particularly when we were hit with a wind gust during auto-rotational practice. I almost panicked, but then did all my corrections gently, firmly, and landed in good shape. The problem with Texas, was the weather could be affected by storms from the sea. We were getting wind that day, from a storm that was still a hundred miles away.

After finishing the course, I received my certificate, and drove home. Well, I drove certain distances homeward, anyway. I cheated outrageously, and teleported myself and the car when the occasion struck my fancy, and when my computer assured me there were no surveillance satellites in the immediate area looking my way, or at where I would be arriving. I just did not want to drive the actual miles in between my home in Alaska, and the school in Texas.

The weather was definitely turning colder. It was late in the year, now. Cold, in Alaska, is a serious thing. I decided that while I wanted to keep this place, I was going to purchase a place in a more temperate climate... say Missouri, or Idaho, perhaps. Nice scenery in both states, and it didn't get as cold. Plus, I would be in the contiguous portion of the states for major purchases.

I was still going to retain my home in Alaska. I would be using it mostly as a retreat, though. I would keep up payments on the land I had purchased, and go to it in the event of an emergency, or when I just wanted to get away from it all. That was what I had originally intended.

With the bad weather moving in, my live in help arrived, which meant I was going to have to be extra cautious in anything I did that was out of the ordinary. Still, the two were very helpful to me. They had been worried about losing their jobs, when I had seemingly moved in permanently, but I assured them I still needed them. There were not that many cushy husband and wife jobs that paid what I did for just watching over the place. In my opinion, though, they were worth it.

I had been getting quite a collection of various things at my place. There were now the future car (which I referred to as the 'town car'), my 4 wheel drive vehicle (which I had used to transport my future self's body to it's final resting place), and what I called my farm truck (which was basically an older model pick-up, that my help used around the place, or to drive into town for supplies).

To the buildings, I had added a large garage/hanger for the helicopter, though I still had not purchased it. I'd had the landing pad I had built. The wind generator, the diesel power plant (in the event the wind generator failed), and miscellaneous items of equipment were in storage sheds. I had also had several hundred gallons of fuel on the property for the vehicles. All in all, it was a very well equipped place to live.

I got to know my AI better in the weeks after I had returned from my flight class. It had suggested St. Louis, Missouri, as a place to make a more permanent home. It was centrally located in the US, was a major transportation hub (as was Chicago), and the counties did not have the strict codes that cities and towns seemed to delight in creating. I could settle into the county, or in the outskirts of a city or large town, and be comfortable.

I had the AI start looking for property and homes, verbally giving it my parameters. It started producing lists quickly. I winced at some of the prices on some of the places it came up with. I quickly did some mental math. Unless something changed dramatically, it would set my helicopter purchase back, yet again. Still, there was no help for it. I wound up getting a place a short distance from St. Louis.

As the year 2000 came to a close, I had also closed on a place in St. Louis County. Far enough from the city proper to have privacy, but close enough to be a short drive into the county, then 20 minutes later, into the city itself.

The property had a well that provided water year round, even in drought conditions. It was fed by an underground stream.

The sewage was handled two ways. Previously there had been something like a cistern, but it had been upgraded. A better system was now in place.

Electricity was provided by the local power company, and a gas supply line ran not to far from the house. The previous owners had upgraded to natural gas for heating and cooking, when the pipeline had originally been run.

While the purchase of the property had taken a nice chunk of the "inheritance" I had remaining, I was still in good condition. But this brought me to another item of interest. Work, or visible means of support. I mean, besides being a day trader/investor.

I happened to catch an interesting show on the public broadcasting network, while visiting in the St. Louis region. It was showing the 100 years of the Twentieth Century. The early 1900's proved to be very interesting. It was part of a seven-hour long documentary, which a local gas company had financed back in the mid 90's.

I had a new vocation, and it excited me. Cars, back then, were works of art! At one time, there were over 30 auto manufacturers, making all sorts and models of cars. Most had failed or had been bought out. Some, however, had been very sharp looking cars. They just could not compete with Ford, or GM, or the other bigger manufacturers.

It would be perfect. I was going into antique car buying and selling business! I could always 'time dive', bring a car forward, and pretend to restore it or some such nonsense. Maybe have it actually restored somewhere, if I had to. There were several restoration shops for cars in and around St. Louis.

After closing on the property, I contacted several companies to do some renovations for me. One of the things I was pleased about, was an old huge barn on the property that I was having rehabbed. It would be perfect for storing the cars I wanted to buy and sell. Best of all was a phone line. I had a dedicated phone line put in for my computer. A generator was installed for the power outages I knew would happen during bad storms, or from natural disasters such as falling tree limbs. It was a recurring problem with all power companies.

Early 2001 saw the house I had bought shaping up nicely, and I had a couple unforeseen

problems crop up, that the company contacted me about. One was substandard wiring for my purposes. Not good. I agreed to shell out the money to have the place rewired, upstairs and down. New electrical boxes were to be installed, as well as modernizing the place a bit more.

All in all, it came to well above one hundred thousand dollars by the time they were finished. True, I had not taken into consideration the wiring, but the plumbing had been ancient, and had to be replaced, also. Those two jobs alone, were around forty thousand dollars! Plus I upgraded the heating and air conditioning. The money expended was over my original budget by quite a bit.

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