Chapter 68

Day Sixty-eight - Friday

Waking up with a firm bubble butt lying against a morning woody can give you some very erotic thoughts. Having bare tits and a tickling bush on your back and butt doesn't decrease the woody at all. The bubble butt in front of me was Mandy's, whose backside does deserve some notice. Some time during the night or this morning she had lifted her leg and trapped my morning wood between her full thighs.

I thought that I better not start something I didn't want to finish.

Knowing the two girls are sound sleepers, I pushed down the covers sliding from between them. As soon as I slid out, they pushed together to get that warm flesh contact back. Looking at them definitely brought a smile to my face.

I started coffee noticing it was only five fifteen. No matter, lying in bed with some bare babes would eventually have me changing my mind about ravaging their bodies.

After showering and quickly dressing, I woke my two sleeping beauties with some kisses. They both wanted me to come back to bed to snuggle, but I convinced them that it time to get going.

I was on the patio enjoying my first cup of coffee when Glenda came. "Well Steve, I guess it's like old times, you and me, guy."

"Yep, it is. Except that now I have a wife who sends ladies to my house to warm my bed over my objections."

Sandy came out of the house and gave Glenda a little hug saying, "He wouldn't do anything with us anyway. Sue told us to keep him warm for her. She didn't tell us to play with him, but she did tell us to cuddle him, and we did. He even sneaked out of bed this morning before we could tease him a little."

"You girls shouldn't do that to a guy whose wife plays with him in the shower every morning, and is now out of town. He's used to his morning fun, like my Martin is."

Mandy who had joined us said, "Well, his virtue is intact. He fell asleep on us quick last night. Sandy and I must be losing our appeal."

Folks began arriving to enjoy the beginning of the day together. It is a great way to start a new day. After eating and drinking a lot of coffee, we cleaned up and went to work.

I had just sat down to look at my calendar when the phone rang. Sue said, "I love you. Hope you slept well. Did the girls put you to sleep?"

"I made them go to sleep. They agreed that it wouldn't be nice for me to be fooling around with my employees' girl friends, regardless of my wife's permission. They were both good girls."

"Well, I wasn't. Hanna and I were laying here listening to Joan and Betty doing nasty things to each other and we couldn't help doing some serious playing around. If you had been here, you could have had all four of us. Funny how we got so crazy. I think we all feel very satisfied this morning. At least I do. They're all trying to shush me and not tell you about our fun. But you don't have a big mouth about stuff so I'm safe."

"Debbie said you turned down going to the hot tub with her, Hank, Deanne, Tiny, and Ruth, is that true?"

"Of course it's true, I don't do stuff like that if we're not together. We're a team, partners, or at least husband and wife. You're all I need."

"That's so sweet, you are so good. You're the one that turned me into a sexual being and now you're the one that is being so good. You're a keeper all right."

Sue took a deep breath, "Today, we have a meeting with the manufacturer and a meeting with another company that's interested in our line. This afternoon at five is the first general showing. We are somewhere in the middle. After the showing, we will have a booth where prospective buyers can come by to look at our stuff some more. We're having dinner with the manufacturer again this evening and by that time, we'll all be dead. You know, I think I can already feel this kid using up some of my energy. I'm just going to eat well and try to keep the energy up."

"Okay, Mom, take care of yourself and our critter in your tummy. You're responsible for our future, you know."

"You know I will, honey. I will take care of our baby very well, very carefully. Well, I need to get ready as we have our first meeting in about an hour. Love you. I'll call later today, before and after the showing."

When I got off the phone, Deanne and Debbie were both looking at me. Deanne said, "You tell your woman that we wanted you to come to the hot tub? You tell her that?"

"Sure Deanne, Sue's my wife, I tell her everything."

Deanne asked suspiciously, "If you had come with us, would you tell her then?"

With a smile, I answered, "Of course, I would. I don't sneak around. I'm sure Debbie has said some things and if you were with Ruth and Tiny, I know you were not playing twenty questions in the hot tub."

"That's what Ruth and Debbie both told me, but I've never met a man who acts like you. You look at me like you would like to do more than look and when you get the chance, you turn it down. Just wondered is all."

"Well, that's the way I am. And, young lady, the work place is not the place for us to talk about this sort of stuff. There's work and there is play. This is work."

"Yes Sir, Boss," Deanne said with a big grin before turning, wiggling her butt and walking back toward her cubicle.

"Sorry, Steve," Debbie started. "She wouldn't let it go after you passed on going with us. She told me you made her hot and she wanted to play with you. When I told her that you and Sue had played with Hank and me she wanted to head right down to the tub. She had fun with Hank and Tiny, but she really wanted you to come with us. Like I said, it's my fault for letting the cat out of the bag. Sorry about that."

"Perhaps when Sue gets back. We'll see. I just don't feel right about fooling around when she isn't with me. That's just the way I am."

"Don't let Deanne hear that you have our two almost lezzie babes keeping you warm at night. She will want to keep you warm too."

"There are no secrets in our neighborhood, are there? I think I'll go see how the new building is coming along," I said, wanting to change the subject.

It looked like the finishing touches were being put on everywhere. The air conditioning people had the place cooled down while the plumbers were finishing up the air pipe. The electricians were hanging the last of the suspended outlets. The phone guy was hanging the last of the phones in the shop area, and there were two security guys mounting cameras.

The homemade giant paint booth was complete and Shawna was painting signs on the walls and over the doorways. The 'Is it perfect' signs over the doors may be a little too much, but I didn't care if it reminded our folks that we will always try the hardest to be the best.

The large warehouse storage area was well lit today. It seemed that the big halogen lights had been mis-wired and were not receiving an appropriate AC supply. The electricians found the problem and wired some more circuits. It really did make a difference. The contractor was testing the doors and the sequence that they opened. He had installed individual controls to open each door individually instead of opening all of them at one time. Now you could walk up to the door you wanted to open and push the big button and just that door would open. There was a master switch at each location as well that would open all of the doors except the partitioned off area for the big lift shop.

There were two flat bed trailers in the yard with two gigantic lifts on each of them. I told the contractor that we needed a dock that we could back the trailers up to in order to unload the lifts. He said he would get right on it. It would need to be near the outside fence so that it would not be in the way of traffic but still easy for the drivers to back the trailer up to it.

The contractor drew up a quick plan that showed a twenty-foot wide dock with a thirty-foot long area before slanting down to drive the lifts on and off the trucks.

Next he drew what looked like a depression where the trailer went down hill to rest against a concrete, ground surface level, abutment. This would be considerably cheaper and maybe easier for drivers. Since the backside of the lot was right next to a huge drainage creek, it would be easy to keep the dock depression from filling with water.

When he asked which one I wanted, I said both. I wanted the depression type dock next to the back fence and the large concrete dock next to the fence bordering the original shop so we could load product from there easily as well. We could pull through the wide gate at the path, turn left right onto the ramp going up to the dock. And we could get at both sides if we were using a forklift to put generators or whatever on a truck.

I walked back through the rebuild shop but didn't see Abe or Jed. Abe's assistant said they were interviewing technicians for the new shop. She could go get them if I needed them. I assured her she didn't need to do that. Tom told me the frame guys were catching up. I told him to detail four of his men to help Al and Drew. It was at this point that I thought we needed to be manufacturing at least one more style of commercial body, one that we would sell to regular top dealers. We could also sell our original body to dealers too, but I liked the idea that we sold the whole thing as a package.

The motor shop was rowdy this morning. Sandy and Mandy were razzing Curt and Carl for getting turned on over some girl they were talking about. The militant lesbians and the hard core gay guys were being equally abusive. How would two gay guys be getting off on some girl?

Charlie just continued working on his project without even looking up. You could tell he was laughing continuously, though.

I went upstairs through the lunchroom to see how Phil's group was doing. He was happy, as he had several purchase orders from the military that had just come through. We were on a list of approved providers so the orders were rolling in from the military, the forest service, the border patrol, or customs, as they are known. Judy said she was having the girls call back every faxed order to ask the customer if there was anything else that we could ship them when shipping their order. So far, most of the folks added onto the order.

The place was running smooth.

Debbie wanted to know how to handle people that called in that needed an on site welder for a small job. I told her that was how I got started and what I really did in the beginning. That was also what our truck was for.

I suggested that Tim and Bob could handle most any kind of small job. I went out and got the two of them. I asked them if they would want to go off site in the big truck to do jobs. I told them that I thought Debbie had one right now, so I could get right back to them.

Debbie actually had two calls. One was from the Hillsborough County Public schools. A steel door jamb had cracked and was in danger of falling off the wall.

The other job was for a customer in a large metal building that wanted to weld a beam between two uprights to handle lifts and pulleys for moving large items.

Both jobs didn't sound that big a deal so Debbie wrote up work orders and called the customer back with what I thought was an exorbitant hourly rate for two guys and the truck. The school said they already knew our rate, as we had already worked for the county.

The other customer didn't think we needed a high lift and said he could provide a lift with a cage for our man and a lift to hold the beam in place. Debbie relayed this to me and asked if I wanted to use Tim and Bob for both jobs. I told her yes but to have them go to the school first, as that should be a quick job.

I was thinking of ways to increase orders within the frame department. There were probably thirty to fifty different types of race cars that were built from the ground up to compete in various classes. We needed to find out and get prints of all the different types of frames then find a means to advertise our ability to provide frames and, potentially, sheet metal.

One of the increasingly more evident facts with race cars of different varieties, was that fiberglass was becoming as common as sheet metal. I was going to poll my guys to see who knew anything about fiberglass and work from there to get into that market.

Where would we put a fiberglass molding shop? I wondered how big it would need to be. More questions came to my mind, but Debbie brought me back to earth.

"The guys at the truck races are on the phone."

I picked up the line they were on and noted that there were a lot of calls in progress. I wondered if we had enough lines, I'd ask Tiny.

"Hey what's happening, are you having a good race day?"

"We sure are, Steve. Tonight's the race but we have just about sold out of sheet metal, and darn near all of our suspension and brake parts. These guys really tear up their trucks. A lot of the body parts are fiberglass and we have been continuously asked if we have any of those parts. Could you look into getting us some panels? Oh yes, we have sold two motors. The NASCAR guys came by and put their stickers on the motors for us so the teams would know they were legal. We have two cases of T-shirts left, but no caps. I can't believe we have gone through twenty-two cases of T-shirts and twelve cases of caps. Some good news is that we have orders for seventeen frames and six orders for full sets of sheet metal."

"That's great. We will work on the fiberglass panels for you. I was just thinking that we needed to begin molding some of those panels for our customers. Write up a list of all the items you guys have been asked for and how many times. If we keep lists like that we can anticipate what you need on the truck."

"Steve, we have a long list now, complete with fence posts for the how many times they have been requested. Some items with only one request, we should probably forget, but some with fifteen or twenty requests we should consider."

"So what do you think? Do you like selling to your former colleagues instead of being on a team?"

"This is better than being on a team. We get the inside scoop from every team and they all consider us as a part of the party. Don't even think of not continuing with this program."

"Well, have a good time. Come in Monday so we can discuss your first outing. I want to get you ready for next week, plus I want you and the other team to get together and come up with some ideas on how to do more."

"Good deal, we should be back Saturday and see you Monday."

The trucks were probably going to make money. I had figured they would be good advertising for us instead of a money making project. One engine would make the trip profitable. And let's see a case of T-shirts was one hundred forty-four. And they have sold twenty-two cases or about thirty-one hundred and sixty-eight at ten dollars a piece. We're grossing three bucks plus per shirt, so that's right at ninety-five hundred dollars gross profit on T-shirts that I'm accused of giving away for ten bucks. Again, it's good advertising for everyone to be running around in an S&S T-shirt. Now we need some different styles with some of Hanks crazy cartoons. If we did that for both types of races, we would have a different T-shirt for every race with a new cartoon each week. And for only ten bucks a piece, we would be making money while advertising.

Debbie woke me out of my daydream with a call from Gene.

"Steve, I heard you have a sales trailer at the truck races," Gene asked.

"Yep, thought I would try one there to see how it went."

"One of my drivers who drives on the Busch circuit, as well as the Winston cup, said that you don't have a truck at the Busch races. He could have used you this past week as he wrecked during practice and they had to scrounge to put the car back together. He said several other crew chiefs told him to tell me, as they know you and I are friends."

"I kind of knew this would happen when the two races are at two different tracks. But what's going to happen when all three venues are at the same track? Three trucks would be pretty obnoxious."

"They are in three separate garage areas. Trust me when I tell you the track folks will set you up with a good location for your trucks as you're paying a license fee to be a vendor there. Hell, NASCAR is even recognizing your raceday contributions."

"Well, Gene, do you know any more ex-crew chiefs and/or team members that are looking for work? I lucked into the truck guys and you gave me a handle on the Winston cup guys. Do you think you could help me get lucky again?"

"I might. Depends on how picky you are. A former crew chief of mine, as well as the Lakeland team owner, could use a gig like your trucks. He even comes with the helper who was both a former driver and crew member."

"Why do I get the impression that there may be a flaw here?"

"Not really a flaw Steve, but these two live together and it is rumored that they are, a, um, a, partners. You know, they might be guys who like guys."

"They're not flamers, are they?"

"No," Gene replied, "they are very circumspect about whatever it is they do behind closed doors."

"How do they get along with all the good ole' boys out at the tracks?"

"That's the funny part. All those redneck drivers and team members couldn't care less. They drink a beer together and talk to them like they are buddies. Both are fill-in crew members when one is needed."

"You want to tell them to come in, or do you want to give me their numbers and I'll call them."

"I'll call them, go build another truck. Remember the Busch races are Saturday so you have to be at the track no later than Thursday morning to get the business. You know you're going to have to have some decals made up and give everyone a Coke or a beer to get your sponsor decal on all the cars. My chief was just asking if you had a decal. Let me give these two guys a call. They will call you soon, I'm sure."

I told Debbie to order equipment for another sales trailer, before I went upstairs to see Tiny.

Tiny always smiles real big when I come into his office and sit at his desk. "What is your new idea this time Steve, something new?"

"I'll tell you about the new thing later. Right now I need you to order another tractor and trailer combination. This should be the last one. This one's is for the Busch race series. We've been asked to be there. Did you know that the truck guys have already sold twenty-two cases of T-shirts? That's over ninety-five hundred dollars gross, just on T-shirts. I think we're paying for the trailers with T-shirts that advertise for us."

I asked Tiny, "How fast can you get T-shirts printed up? We'll need more of our basic shirt, but I was thinking of having some race specific shirts with cartoon characters. We might be able to sell twenty-four gross of those every race. We could get a couple of bucks more for them as they would probably cost more to make."

Tiny said, "I'll get your truck over here today. You line up the carpenter and the flooring guy. Get me a cartoon and I'll get you your T-shirts. Now tell me what your new idea is."

"I have to find out more about it first, Tiny. Anything I said now would be premature. Let me work it out then I'll talk to you about it because it will probably be expensive to start. We'll have to look at it to find out."

I went down to ask Debbie if she could research who was manufacturing fiberglass panels for the racing industry.

Next was Hank. He was the creator of the cool cartoons. I found Hank and Shawna together working out a paint theme for the bike Charlie was working on. They asked me what I thought but said before I could answer, "This is what we'll do."

I interrupted their session, "Since you're both here I have a couple of projects that I need help with. One: we are getting another truck for the Busch races that will need to be painted and decorated fairly fast. It needs to be at the track next Wednesday. Two: I need some of either of your funny drawings or cartoons to put on T-shirts. What I was thinking of was to have a series of shirts for each race event with a different cartoon or picture for each. That would mean three different cartoons a week. We can use the ones you have already created on the trucks, but would need to have one more specific for the Busch series."

The two of them were kind of blank, almost staring at me. I hope this wasn't too much.

They seemed to snap out of it. Shawna opened a file drawer and pulled a bulging file out of it. When she opened it, she spread out sheets of paper that had cartoons drawn on them. There were cartoons for all kinds of motor sports, including some Busch series cartoons.

"Hank and I have been doing these since we did the first truck. When he did the second truck by himself, we got into a contest to see who could do the funniest cartoons. That's why he did Charlie's bike that way."

"Do me a favor, find one for each race venue, fill in the colors and give it to Tiny so he can have the T-shirts made up. Better give him two of each so he can have next week's started as well. You guys are really good. This is awesome."

Hank asked, "Can the two of us do the Busch truck and trailer. Shawna's cartoons are more specific than mine are. Mine may be more laughable but when they are with hers, it gets really good."

"Sure, have a good time. The people at the tracks love the trailers and tractors. Some guys think we should charge admission just to look at them. It's all advertising. Advertising that's paying off."

I went to the frame area and asked Tom if he thought he could build the new trailer like we had the first two. He went over to his file cabinet and pulled out some drawings with dimensions on them. "When you did the first two, I measured everything you did to see how close you were doing them both free hand. All of your cuts and welds were within less than an inch of being exactly the same. I can go get the supplies right now and follow this plan. I even have a detailed step by step of what you did first, second, and so on. Do you want me to get the carpenter for you to do the cabinets and floor?"

"That is really great, Tom. You really did good to measure all that up and watch to see what I did. You really did anticipate me. That is what makes a good foreman and leader. The truck will be here later today. As soon as it gets here, cut it up quick so we can get started on the paint."

"I'll get right on it, Steve. Thanks for the compliment."

Back in my office, I mentioned to Debbie that I was really hungry. She said that Glenda told her to have me stop home for lunch, as she had something for me. I asked her if she wanted to come but she said that Deanne and she were going to eat with Hank.

I drove home, trying to think how I could find out more about the fiberglass manufacturing business. Glenda had some homemade vegetable soup and a big roast beef sandwich on a hoagie roll. Martin, Glenda, Sue's office assistant and the design girl that stayed behind, joined me and we ate together. When I was done, Glenda told me to go to the gym as Sue had told her that I needed to be reminded. I protested, as I should have gone to the gym before eating.

I went to the gym anyway and worked out for an hour. When I came home, Glenda was waiting for me in her swimsuit and told me that I needed some sun. I changed and we went to the pool to toast a little on both sides. Glenda and I oiled each other up, and chatted while we cooked in the hot Florida sun. After about fifteen minutes on each side, I swam some laps before we went back to the house where I took a quick shower and redressed to go back to work.

When I came around the corner near the shop, I could see the new truck, along with two more trailers with huge lifts on them. I hope Jed and Abe were going to be able to work with these giants.

As soon as I hit the door, Debbie came out of the office and said our fax was going crazy. She said it had been spitting out continuous orders since I left. Frames, panels, motors, bodies, rebuilt generators, everything we built. She told me that I had made the comment that we were catching up earlier. We weren't caught up any more. She was working on anticipated ship dates so she could call the customers back. I reminded her of the refills for the trailers and the fill up of the new trailer. Next week was going to be busy.

Abe was standing in the door of my office with Jed. They had big grins on their faces. Abe said, "Jed and I spent some more of your money today. We bought four parts washers and four bead blasters along with the biggest compressor we could find with all the toys. Then we made the Snap-On guy's day by ordering all the special tools we would need. Jed has eight men starting Monday morning. They will work in pairs so that is only four teams. We will need at least two more teams and probably four more to keep up with the demand.

"You see the eight machines out there now, well come Monday we should have at least ten more. These things won't be a fast turnaround. It'll take every bit of a week to rebuild them. The hydraulics is much more complex in these and will have to be pressure tested extensively. This is going to be fun."

Jed was grinning as he asked, "So what's next on your plan to expand. Have anything in mind?"

"I do, but I'm still trying to learn a little more about it first," I said, thinking that everyone constantly felt like I started something new everyday or so.

Abe surprised me with, "What're you gonna try next? Fiberglass?"

"How did you know I was thinking about that?"

"Hell, you're doing everything else with those race cars, why not make the fiberglass panels for them too?"

"I don't know anything about fiberglass production. I know how you make a mold and stuff like that, but I really don't know how to make something of quality."

"Got just the guy for you. He was with me at Onan. His crew made all of the fiberglass covers for the light generators and the smaller compressors. He did some big panels for the big displays they had for shows and stuff. Right now he's making panels for tractors as replacement parts. He would probably go ape shit to work here with you. He's a good man, too. As much of a perfectionist as you are, that's what got him canned. He was too slow making something that was very difficult. When he left, they ended up having to farm out the work, and it took a hell of lot longer than Jeff would have taken."

"Give him a call, Abe, and have him come by. He can teach me a little about what it would take to make some fiberglass panels. You know if we do this he's going to need a lot of people to keep up with the demand. We don't do anything half-assed around here, we do it big time and do it right."

"Jeff will fit right in, Steve. He will beg to have a job with an attitude like you have."

My next step was blueprints of fiberglass parts.

I quickly drove over to Gene's and began the conversation talking about the Busch series truck. He was happy to hear the truck would be at next week's race. Next I told him about wanting to supply fiberglass panels for NASCAR. He looked at me a little weird. "Are you going to be a reseller? That's a tough product to manufacture."

"No sir! Gene, my plan is to try to put together a shop that can generate enough product to supply my sales trailers and my customers. I think I can do it, now, I have to try. First thing I need though is a set of prints for all of the NASCAR vehicle fiberglass parts. Do you think you could help me get them?"

"Hell, Steve, I've got several copies of each car and truck, plus some copies for some other cars out there that are being raced. I should have known you would get into the fiberglass stuff too. It's a tough business, Steve, but then the frame and sheet metal business was tough too. You do motors too, and that's the most demanding."

Gene shook his head smiling and said, "Let me get you a dozen or so prints, and remember to bring me some of your first production. Don't paint them, let me see them and see how strong you make them. Since there really isn't a standard, you decide how good they will be for what you can get for them.

Back at the shop, Abe was sitting in my office with a small smiling man that was a little younger than Abe.

They both stood as I walked in and Abe introduced me to Jeff Fisher. Jeff wasn't bashful either as he instantly said, "I looked at the work your people are doing. I see your signs all over and I really like the signs over the doors. I want to work for you. I make perfect fiberglass panels. What do you want to make?"

Abe was behind Jeff and nodded to me, grinning as he left to go back to his shop.

I pulled a Chevy Winston Cup print out from the stack Gene gave me and showed Jeff what was first. He said that the panels would be simple. The expensive part would be to make original molds to spec so he could just build the part as it was specified.

There were hundreds of questions in my mind but I said, "Follow me." On the way to the new building, I asked, "How much space do you need to mold parts? And can fiberglass manufacturing co-exist with other shops?"

"Mr. Sharp, the size of the shop has to do with how many panels you want to manufacture and how big they are. A large space requirement would be for molds that are not in use, space for molds that are curing, and then there is work in progress. Car parts are large so you will need a fairly large area. The size of the space needed also has to do with am I going to be the only person making parts or are you going to be serious about building a lot of parts?"