Chapter 22

Day Twenty-two - Monday

I woke at six snuggled to Sue's back with my left hand clutching a breast. I squeezed the breast and kissed her neck thinking that we might get something started. She moaned and turned over for some wakeup kisses. We kissed for only a few seconds when her eyes opened wide and her hand shot down to her crotch.

She brought it up and looked at it and said, "Shit," getting out of bed quickly and going to the bathroom. She came out and grabbed her panties, put them on then stuffed some toilet paper in them.

"I've started my period. I think it's early as I still have a couple of pills left. I have to go home and get some supplies. Don't mess with the sheets, I'll wash them later. I've got to go, I'll be right back."

She left in a rush. I looked at the bed and there was not a spot anywhere. I put on the coffee then took a quick shower, put on jeans, one of my new shirts, and my new boots. Grabbing a cup of coffee I went out to the patio and turned on the light.

This was a neat signal. Glenda came walking across the yard with Hanna while Tiny and Ruth came from the other direction. A minute later, Shawna walked up. The girls were all wearing conservative terrycloth or thick robes this morning. Not showing anything.

Shawna bitched, "I got my damned period this morning, now the world has to pay for me being female for a couple of days. Warning, I am not a nice person when I get this."

Hanna laughed, "Must be in the water out here, mine came too, I don't think I'm early but then I'm not the best at keeping track."

Tiny looked at Ruth and rolled his eyes. Ruth spoke up, "Don't feel like the lone stranger, I popped my gasket this morning too, right in the middle of some damn good loving. Sure glad the giant isn't put off by that stuff. It was too good to stop. But I had to put the sheets and mattress pad in to soak."

Sue had come up during Hanna's exclamation looked at Shawna with a questioning look who nodded then said, "Damn, all of us at once? Well at least we must be in sync with each other."

Glenda laughed, "I guess I have all the men to myself for a couple of days. Okay guys, take a number, I'll be with you as soon as I can."

"You wish," Martin said as he came onto the patio, "You wouldn't know how handle all these guys. They would be way to much for any one woman."

Charlie came up on the patio and said, "Where do I get my number, Glenda's a prize. I get firsts."

"First at what Charlie?" asked Jim said as he arrived. "You're always trying to do something with someone."

Shawna, the least bashful of the bunch proclaimed, "For you two sleepy head's information, all four of us have begun our periods this morning which means the bitchiness begins, as of right now."

Charlie and Jim looked at each other and groaned at the same time, "Oh shit."

I brought out more coffee and made some more.

Ruth asked Sue if she was going to the gym or get some sun saying, "If you don't get back out in the sun, you're going to lose that dynamite tan."

"I guess I'm going to have to work out a schedule for myself too. The gyms important but I don't have to tan. I can always use the tanning booth they have," Sue said thinking about the problem.

Ruth said, "I don't have to stay out in the sun long just about ten to fifteen minutes on the front and the back about same. You can afford a half-hour right. Besides you could swim a half-hour and tan a half-hour getting your exercise and tan all at once.

"We might do that," Sue said looking at me. "Steve has a bunch of things he wants to do today though."

I asked Jim, "I'm going to bring my bike in so if you have the used parts, put them on, otherwise order them in and do whatever service is scheduled on that thing. I really want to get back on the road.

"That'll work, I'll let the service guys know your family. They'll take care of you," Jim said. "Time for me to get, I have to punch the clock."

Charlie said he had a bunch of work to get caught up on and said he would see us later. Shawna smiled and followed him.

Tiny said to Ruth, "Stay out in the sun a little longer today and get your vitamin C. It will make you nicer to be around. I have to get going early, I have a big day."

Hanna looked at Ruth, "I'm off today, can I come with you? I need some sun."

"Sure honey, we'll go over and tease some guys. They don't know that we're out of commission," Ruth laughed.

"I ain't out of commission," Hanna smiled. "That's what plastic sheets are far. Are you kidding, I'm not giving up dick just because I'm bleeding. I have to be a little careful but Jim is as gentle as can be. Not to worry Ruth, if Tiny needs some help, I'm ready and just as horny as ever."

Shawna advised us, "Charlie won't let me go to work when I have my period because I am a bitch when I'm on the rag. I'll send him over to you Glenda or you Hanna cause I don't want anything to do with men for a couple of days," Shawna said then continued. "I want to sunbathe with you guys though, it might make me feel better."

By now the sun was getting Florida bright. I looked around, "Alright girls anyone that wants to go for a swim and get some sun, get your suit on, grab your lotion, a towel, and let's get. Times a wastin'."

The five women went in mostly five directions. Martin said, "You sure know how to get them moving. Man, five women, four on the rag, you're nuts. I'm stayin' right here. Leave the door open and I'll have some more coffee and clean up. I'd either stay here or watch the place."

"Okay Martin, it's a deal," I said going in to put on my swimsuit and grab a towel. As I passed the counter I added tanning lotion to my 'things to buy' list.

Hanna, Shawna and Ruth stretched out in hot morning Florida sun while Sue and I got in the pool and swam. We pounded the water fast and hard for close to a half-hour before we gave up. We spent long enough oiling each other down that the other three were chiding, "Get a room."

Sue watched the time and had us flip at fifteen minutes. When the next fifteen minutes was over she said, "Let's wind ourselves again in the pool then go get some stuff done. We did a good job tiring our bodies out, as my arms are almost numb."

Sue went to her place to shower and dress while I showered and dressed in my trailer. I redressed in the same clothes as I had on when I started the day and met Sue outside. I had her drive the pickup while I rode the bike to the Harley store on Dale Mabry. Jim was at the service desk when I walked in and said, "You're in luck. You have a choice of new or used."

The bike was used so it didn't make any difference if the dash, fairing and windshield were used. I saved over one hundred fifty by buying used. Jim said I could pick it up this afternoon if I paid the people up front now. He told me that paid for work always goes to the front of the line. I reminded him of the service work and he said he knew the bike and it wasn't due for much. He would make sure it was done.

Sue and I left for an opportunity to pick up some used Onan mobile generators to rebuild and resell. The place was actually a junk dealer. He had almost new stuff to some old machinery that was made before he was born and he was old.

He had seven big generators and four compressors. At least half looked like they could be put back into service. The others were questionable. He had it in his head the eleven pieces were a package deal. I think he just wanted to clear some space. We were not anywhere near an agreement when I spotted something. He had what looked like a brand new group of equipment setting together, just what I was looking for. A commercial compressor, a big parts washer and a bead blaster. The gloves in the bead blaster didn't look like they had ever been used. The other pieces of equipment were a sand blasting unit and a commercial pressure washer.

The guy saw me looking at the equipment and he said that if I would pay him a grand a piece for the eleven units he would throw the stuff I was looking at in for five hundred.

That probably wasn't a bad deal but I really didn't want five of the units and that represented five grand. I tried to explain that to him. He threw his hands up and said, "okay, okay, give me seven fifty each and I'll give you the stuff you want."

I grimaced to make it look good then shook my head. Take a check or do you want a credit card. And how much to get it delivered. He soaked me another five hundred to get them all over to the storage place but said they would be delivered around three. I called the shop and asked Abe if he could be there at three to take delivery of a bunch of stuff and he said he could be. I told him that he would be busy for a while. He laughed and said, "Bring it on." I mentioned that he needed to arrange a couple of parking spaces together so we could store the units before they were rebuilt.

That took care of a bunch of items on my list. I took Sue to lunch at a little café in an industrial park I had seen. We found out it was run by a Greek guy whose family had run the restaurant there for fifty years. This kid knew everyone in business in the area. Hopefully he enjoyed Sue's cleavage within her industrial strength bra as he stared at it the entire time we spoke. He kept coming over to our table to get another look. I know Sue's chest is the eighth wonder of the world but jeez, the guy was really obvious. Sue thought it was funny.

From there I went to see Gene real quick to get an estimated timing on when they would need the next frame. He said I could do another with materials he had any time. The sooner the better but it wasn't critical like the last one. He also said that a couple of team owners had looked at my work and wanted me to call them. Gene went to his office and came back out with names and phone numbers. He gave a little advice. Some owners are good pay some are really slow. You might want to make sure you have an agreement in writing when you will be paid, you know, like when the work is accepted. He also suggested that I should sell the tubing and make a profit, as most of the owners didn't shop the price very well.

I told Gene that when he buys tube steel next to let me prime the place where I got my materials and perhaps we could do better. He said he wanted to try a frame with my idea of 18 percent stainless and see how the car drives.

From there we went to the car builder to make sure he had his tubing and the copies of the blue prints. He did and I said I would set up and start tomorrow. I wrote out a simple agreement that said he would pay me upon acceptance.

It was still early enough so I drove to the DMV and stood in line to get my picture and permanent carry permit. With that done, we went to the shop.

Abe was showing a guy with a big flatbed where he wanted the units. The delivery people had a forklift that was able to pick up the units and put them right in place. Abe had looked at them and told the driver to put one at his workshop along with the flat full of the extras I had gotten thrown in.

We wrestled the compressor we were going to use into place where the electrician could wire it. I told Abe to have a plumber put pipe around his shop and around my future shop with air connectors. We also needed a good dryer for the air compressor so any tools we used would stay in good condition.

We put the washer and bead blaster in place, the sand blaster in my space, and the pressure washer in the storage area.

I wrote in my 'to buy' note book, fluid for the parts washer, beads, shop towels, air chocks and some air hose.

Abe was already messing with the generator he picked out. He said he needed some diesel fuel so I told him to take it out of the big truck if he wanted then we would order fifty-five gallon drums of fuel with a hand pump like the stuff used on construction jobs. Abe suggested we buy gas as well because some of the units are gas burners and some are diesel.

I went up to the office to ask about hazardous storage. The owner said he appreciated that I came to ask him. He said to store it with a lock and key in one of my parking spaces. He gave me the name and phone number of some fuel delivery people. I used my cell phone to call them. The guy asked if this was for construction or off road use. When I said generators and compressors, the guy gave me a price that was sixteen cents a gallon under what you pay at the pump. I ordered the two products with hand pumps and locking nozzle. The person who I talked to said a driver should be by before we closed today. After I gave him my credit card number, he said a driver would check and refill the barrels every two weeks on his regular route.

Back at the shop, Abe asked me when my steel tubing was coming. I thought that since it was coming by truck, delivered from either Akron, Ohio or Dunedin, New York, the tubing and flat steel would be here probably by the end of the week.

The electrician came by to finish the lights in the big unit so I had him wire the compressor. The bead blaster and parts washer operated off 110 and we had an outlet where they were needed already.

Telling Abe I would be back in less than an hour, I went to ACME industrial supply. I bought two types of parts washing fluid in five gallon bottles. Next was a hundred pound bag of beads. They had a huge case of shop towels with a fifty- percent rebate if you used their cleaning service for the towels. I knew they had a bunch of air equipment so I bought the dryer, a kit with all the different types of air tools except impact wrenches, a thirty foot pull down air hose and two twenty-five foot hoses with fittings already on them.

On the way back we stopped at a gas station and repair shop that had a Snap-On driver making his regular route visit. I asked him if he covered the storage place and he did. When I said that we were a new shop and needed a complete set of impact tools, he asked if he could stop by after this call. I smiled happily saying, "Come on down."

Back at the shop, I unloaded everything, filled the bead blaster, put the jugs next to the parts washer and worked on installing the dryer for the compressor. As a temporary fix I used a twenty-five foot hose to connect the reel pull down unit that I mounted on the door side of the big work bench.

There was a motor starting, coughing and spitting then catching and finally smoothing out. It ran for a minute then shut off. A couple seconds later, it cranked up again, this time smoothing out instantly.

Outside Abe was busily making adjustments of the big generator he had put down by the shop. He shut it down saying the motor was in great shape as was the generator. The best he figured it had probably been used only once or twice before being set out to be left unused, rusting. He said the oil was old but still clean, that's how unused the generator was.

Abe made a list of, tires, paint and oil saying this and two others we had bought were the largest top of the line industrial generators available. He bragged that Onan had made such a good product about ten years ago, they had not changed one thing on them since.

When he told me that this generator sold new for over thirty thousand right now, I asked him where we were going to find a buyer for something so expensive used. With a big grin, Abe told me that if the local guy didn't buy it, he knew of several big construction companies that would willingly pay fifteen or better for a good used product. The idea of doubling my money on the first item sold made me giddy. I choked while drinking from a water bottle.

Sue was standing in the shop with her hands on her hips, laughing at me, "You were so afraid to take all of those units, you made the man take far less than they were worth. Aren't you ashamed."

Abe answered her, "Never be ashamed of negotiating a good deal. If the guy was going to lose money, he wouldn't have sold Steve everything he brought here. I don't know what he paid for all this, and I don't care, what I know is that I have six or seven months of work out there plus anything else that Steve or I can bring in. This is the happiest I've been since I retired. I work when I want to and I get to work on what I want to. This," he waved at the shop, "is becoming a first class shop."