Chapter 54

Sue was still partially laying on me. We had fallen asleep after some strenuous lovemaking that left me in a stupor, and put her out, falling asleep using me as a mattress.

During the night, Sue had slipped to one side of me, while Mercy had snuggled closer and thrown a leg over mine. Nothing stimulates the mind and the lower extremities of a male like breasts smashing into your chest, arms, and face. The kicker was that there was a hand encircling my dick, squeezing, then relaxing, squeezing, then relaxing its grip.

As I awoke, if this kept up, I would reward the squeezer with a fresh batch of millions of little squigglies, ready to populate the Earth. I began to slide from the bed to free myself of the pile-on technique the girls used to keep me in bed.

A few minutes later, after the triple S (shit, shave, and shower), I was dressed and sitting on the patio smiling to myself about a great weekend effort by all our people. Glenda and Martin came in and joined me, followed shortly by Tiny and Ruth. Ruth said, "You needed to stay up there at least another day so we could go do more shopping. We hardly had any time to investigate stores.

Henry and Nancy came in and Nancy immediately said, "We needed to stay up in Montreal longer. We didn't have enough time to shop around."

I said, "Personally, I thought we did great. We were in and out of there, accomplishing everything we wanted, and it was even on a Saturday and Sunday. We even stayed over Saturday night, but that was mainly because we were celebrating our success.

Terrell came in and said, "I think the two guys up there are going to work out well. They both have good references and a lot of experience with General Steel construction. I'm glad they're doing it and not me. I'd freeze to death.

The patio was soon filled with excited, hungry, Monday morning workers, eager to begin the week. The girls all straggled out, one at a time, with the kids. The older kids were soon running around, excited because it was a new day they could play together.

Mercy said, "Sue and I have to go over to the boat and finish with what we want to do to it before the trip. Missy, Glenda, Maggie, Juanita, and Kate are coming too, so unless we leave the kids at the daycare, they will be coming with us."

Sue took a deep breath thinking about it, "I hate to leave them at the daycare, but they will probably have more fun there than with us. We'll probably get more done that way too."

I was given some go-to-work kisses and left them to begin their final outfitting of the big boat.

On the way to work, I realized there were only a couple of weeks till Christmas. How many did I need to get presents for. Sue and Mercy of course, but now I should probably get something nice for Juanita and for Kate. She may have a rough Christmas.

I didn't ask her what she did with making an appointment with the attorney Ben had referred her to. Charlie didn't get me aside to talk to me about Jim, so I guess he's being okay. The girls and I are probably not being good by keeping Kate if she's going to get a divorce. A little too much hanky panky going on.

I patted my shirt pocket to make sure I had my notebook and committed to myself that I would come up with presents for people. Stevie is going to have fun this year. Sue and I will have to tell Ben and Beth to not go overboard. I can see them borrowing my truck to bring boxes and boxes.

Lizzy and Mike are beginning to be pretty active. It won't be long until they will be walking too. I hope the two of them and Sean are buddies as they grow up.

First thing was a call from up North. Marso and Butch were both on the phone at the same time. They had a detailed bid they had worked up together and wanted to go over it with me. As I was talking to them, Debbie came in and gave me several pieces of paper, fresh from the fax machine. I asked the two to hold while I got Tiny involved.

Once Tiny was in the office, sitting with me at the little conference table, the Canadians went over the bid in detail. They were only including an office build out that matched St. Louis. They said they could use our blueprints from there to finish this building. Tiny said the bid looked pretty good, but there was a lot not yet included.

Next, we went over a rough drawing for the second building. I told the two that we would work up a plan for the manufacturing plant that would resemble our plant here. I asked them, "When can the two of you come down to Florida to see how I like my buildings. Your numbers may change when you see what I like."

There was a pause where you could hear the two talking to each other then, "Can we come tomorrow. We would both like to get to work on the first building. Our men could use the money. It's close to Christmas and a couple of weeks of work would go a long way to keeping them happy."

"I'll transfer you to Ruth to set up your flights. We'll put you up in our hotel out by the business park, so you won't have to worry about that. We'll cover your expenses while you're here, so you won't be out any money. I just want you to make the Canadian shops like the ones we already have."

I transferred them to Ruth and told her what they needed. She told me that she was going to call the charter company and use them. There would be less hassle to get them here quickly and it wouldn't be that much more.

Ten minutes later, she transferred them back to me and I told them they would be here only one night and would travel back to Canada, via St. Louis, so they could see the shop there on Wednesday.

Tiny had been looking at the estimates and commented, "This is a very comprehensive bid. They can add any changes easily. Their pricing seems reasonable and all of their numbers are in U.S. currency. They converted all of it. Their time estimates are a little tight, but then they will be using two groups of workers. The only thing we don't have is references of their work."

"Call Terrell and have him call General Steel. They should have some references for both of those guys."

Tiny smiled, "Good idea, I'll do that now."

I went down to the welding area to see how they were doing. From my window it looked like they were having trouble with a bunch of tubing. I went down to the shop and asked, "What's up, guys? Are you having a problem with something?"

Tim said, "This is the most screwed up design I've ever seen. It's for a monster truck. The guy said this design would give the truck enough flex to handle the big bounces, yet be strong enough to handle rollovers. But look at this, this thing is going to be hinged all over the place. The sheet metal will be popping off left and right."

I looked at the plan and specifications over and over, thinking I was missing something. Finally I said, "How far away is the buyer for this?"

Tim really was frustrated, "The guy is from South Carolina and wants this ASAP, like everyone else. I'm not sure this is going to work. The guys can do this easy enough, but they were confused, so they called me from the school to help."

"Okay, let's call this guy and talk turkey to him," I said picking up the blueprint. "It's his money."

Tim and I went into my downstairs office. Star wasn't there, so I used the phone there to call. After explaining our feelings to the guy, he said he would pay us to make it exactly like the blueprint. If it didn't work out, it would be his problem. He had been assured that it would work. Tim told him his feelings on what would happen to the sheet metal or fiberglass, but the guy was adamant. I asked Debbie if we had done much business with this guy and she assured me we had. I told him we would ship him the assembly tomorrow.

"Don't ship it. I'll have my guys come and get it. We'll check the measurements in your shop."

I had one last comment, "You don't have any holes noted on the frame to attach sheet metal. You don't have any steel platforms for the firewall or braces for it either. And lastly, if you've ever bought a frame from us, you know we paint them. There is a notation on the blueprint for no paint."

"We're going to do the rest of the truck up here. Just make it exact to the blueprint and we'll pick it up tomorrow."

After we hung up, Tim said, "I'll give it to the guys and tell them to be exact. It sounds like they'll nitpick before they take delivery."

I smiled at Tim and said, "Come on, let's you and me do this one. Give the guys something else. You and I can knock this out by early this afternoon."

Tim got a big smile, "Yeah, let's do it."

We took the blueprint back out to the shop and tacked it up. We put a plastic overlay on it and began checking off the already cut and bent stock. Our guys had done a good job. Everything was exact. Tim and I set up some stationary jacks, with jig guides, so we could begin. Tim started out with the bed and I began with the main body. We could work on the front end together.

We took a break about ten-thirty for a quick cup of coffee and for Tim to grab a quick smoke. We went back to work and completely finished the front end together by noon. We had to clean it up and connect all of the flexible areas, but we would be done by probably two or three.

Tim and I ate with the other welders and the sheet metal guys in the cafeteria. I didn't want to tell them, but it was my first time eating there. The food was good. They served large helpings and the meal was cheap. At twelve-thirty, after a quick smoke for Tim, we were back at the task. We ground, filed, sanded, and tweaked, until we were down to the last measurement of the whole job. While we were triple-checking the frame, we noticed a fairly large crowd gathering. Once the frame was complete, we put it on some rolling jacks and began cleaning up the work area. With everything put away and the floor clean, we stood back and high fived each other.

The people, men and women, watching began applauding. You kept hearing, "The boss can actually do that stuff." "Hey, the teacher did a good job with him." "The man is earning his bread today."

One of the four guys who had been tasked with the job told the crowd, "They just did the eight hours of work planned for each of us four combined, from nine this morning till now with a coffee break and a lunch break. That means they did thirty-two hours of work in what, four and a half times two, ah thirty-two hours of work in nine hours. I hope they don't come back to work out here. We'll be out of a job."

Tim and I slapped each other on the back before we headed off to do what we were supposed to be doing this morning. There were a lot of hoots and hollering as we left. I'm glad Tim and I did the job. It helps the men know we can work too.

As I went upstairs, I kept thinking, the two of us were rusty and slow. Just think of what we could do if we were in practice.

Ruth told me that the Lear was picking up Butch and Marso right about now, and should be back by seven. She had booked the two into the hotel for two nights, but if we were able to give them the tour early, the charter people said they had plenty of men who would enjoy flying the Lear.

I checked with Phil to see if he had a plan made up for sales. I was planning on opening the doors for business in Montreal the day after New Years. To give someone time to get up there, it may have to be a couple of days later.

Phil listened to what I was thinking and said, "I'll make up a plan with Abe so we can begin hiring the week before Christmas. We'll advertise a full week before we begin taking applications. I'll handle this just like St. Louis. We'll use the personnel company that worked for us and have them do the interviews and check out of the people. Abe and I will do the second interview between Christmas and New Years. The store will be in the black by Valentine's Day, Boss. Just stand back and watch."

When I went to see Tiny about the budget for up there, Henry was working with him on just that. The two of them had worked on St. Louis so they had a benchmark to go from. The only difference was the Canadian dollar exchange.

Everyone was taking care of the details. This place was like a soapbox derby. You build the car, take it to a hill, and give it a push. Everyone here was the hill and did the rest with ease.

I went next door to see if Jeff might be interested in starting a fiberglass shop up there. Jeff was all for it. He said, "I need a new challenge. Everyone here does such a good job, that I just sort of wander back and forth between here and the park. I do bids and work out new contracts, but I have to tell you, the men do the job."

"That's because you trained them to do a good job, Jeff. That's the key. You busted your ass getting the place wound up and now you can just squirt some oil on the gears from time to time."

"Steve, I have five tools that I think we can market. I have more but these five are really good and save time making fiberglass molds and the panels themselves. I've given the write-ups to Star so she will come to take pictures and videos. I think it's a great idea to market special tools. It's going to be a money maker."

When I left the fiberglass shop, I walked next door to look into the warehouse. What caught my eye was the entire side wall was taken up with various project cars in various stages of being put together. There were several Mustangs, a couple older Corvettes, several Camaros, some old pickup trucks, a wild looking sixty-six Lincoln convertible with suicide doors, and a bunch of other old cars being worked on.

As I walked down the row of projects, looking at the various stages they were in, Abe walked into the warehouse. "See what you started, Steve. After the El Camino, lots of guys want to build their own car. They stay late at night and come in every weekend. I'd bet there has been three dozen great looking cars come out of here. When we did Tina's Mustang, a bunch of other guys began working on theirs. See that antique pickup over there in primer? That's Jeff's. He's built the entire truck from fiberglass. The guys helped him build a frame and he's done the rest. That's going to be a real crowd pleaser when he's done. That you let them all work on their cars here is a great morale booster. It's got them all working together in what is it now, over fifty projects at once."

"I knew some of the guys were working on cars, but I had not seen where they were. Now I know. We'll have to get one of the magazines to do a story about our guys and the cars they are building. It's obviously not taking away from their work. The whole place is producing quality goods, making good profits."

Abe laughed, "You're damn right we're making good products at a good profit. It's our money we're making. They get a piece of every dollar made here. You did that, now hundreds of men would like to work for us so they could get in on the plan."

"We'll just have to keep finding new businesses so we can keep training more people to do our perfect work."

Abe and I laughed and joked all the way back to the shop. I left him with his people, passed through the motor shop to hear from them about actually working for a change. I went upstairs and said goodbye to everyone, and went downstairs to say bye to Debbie. Star was at my desk, working on some descriptions.