Chapter 5

I surprised myself by waking up at an early hour. It was only a little after seven. After a quick shower, I walked down to the huge patio to see if the place was as full as the first time I had been there. It was as full, if not more so. As soon as I approached the door nearest the street, it burst open, pushed by Ben excitedly saying, "Good morning, Gerry, glad you came for breakfast. Come in and have some coffee and something to eat. I have to leave right away, but my mom and the other mothers were just talking about you."

After a nice hug, he pulled me across the room to the bar where he drew me a cup of coffee from a big pot. Sue was there and gave me a big hug, saying, "Nice to see you this morning, Gerry. We were just talking about you."

Sue sat me down at a small table with her husband Steve and a guy name Charlie, along with one of the short redheads and Juanita. Steve introduced me to Charlie and Shawna and asked, "Ben said you have almost completed a degree in metallurgy, specializing in alloys and composites."

I smiled and said, "I still have eight hours to go that are important. Both classes are graduate courses, but really make up some of the most interesting information about the new alloy composite field."

Steve asked, "Would you like some help in getting in the university? Sue's dad is a major supporter of the USF and I'll bet a request from him would go a long way. Are you going to need financial assistance to go back to school?"

I was looking at Steve, trying to think of which question was the most important, when Charlie said, "Jesus, Steve, why don't you ask a bunch of questions at one time? At least let the girl have a sip of her coffee."

I smiled at Charlie, but turned back to Steve, "Yes I would love help to ensure my credits transfer and be able to get in the school and no, if I continue to earn as much as I have been, I should be fine for this last semester. If I go to grad school or think I need to, that could stretch my finances, but if I watch my money, I'll be fine."

The big tall guy, Tiny, that I had met before, was standing next to Steve and said, "You should get with Steve's father in law. If you need help making your money stretch and grow, the man is a wizard. He's handling a lot of the company's investments and is doing a hell of a job."

Juanita, who was sitting beside me, patted my hand and said, "See, you've met a bunch of people who will make your life happier. I'll be back. I have to get some of the kids on the school bus and some up to the rec center for home school."

Ben leaned down and said, "I have to get going to make my class. If you're around this afternoon, maybe we can do something together."

I smiled, "I'd like that. I don't have a lot to do today and even thought about going in to work this afternoon. I want to make as much as I can before the next semester starts."

Ben said, "If your car is home, I'll knock, or you can come down here."

Ben and Juanita took off and Steve was pushing his chair back. He said, "You should meet Dennis over at the R&D center, and you definitely need to meet Jeff who is working with our version of an alloy fiberglass composite. He could use some help with alloy metals that are stronger than regular steel, but weigh less."

"That would be neat, I'd like that," I answered, actually enthusiastic about seeing practical applications within my educational interest.

"Go over to the R&D center and speak with Dennis. He'll take you to our main shop, and I'll tell Jeff you might stop by. Just a second," Steve said, and hollered and waved at a guy getting ready to leave the patio. "Hey Dennis, come here a minute."

A young guy came over to us, and Steve said, "Dennis, this is Gerry, a new resident out here. She's still in school, but one of her majors is in metallurgy, specializing in metal alloy composites. I told her to go visit you so you could show her our applications. After you show her the R&D center, take her to the shop and show her Jeff's operation. He's out of town setting up a new plant in Italy right now, but you know enough about the operation to show her around."

Steve turned back to me and said, "You know you don't have to dress up to see our plants. What you have on is fine. How about going over to R&D then to the main shop right now?"

"I really would rather have some pants and a decent top on. Let me put on some jeans and a better top, along with something other than sandals. I can do that in five minutes. Would that be alright, Dennis?"

Dennis shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure, let me give you ride to your house and wait for you to change. I need to get in this morning to check on some engines in the environmental chambers."

After having only a half a cup of coffee and no breakfast, Dennis gave me a ride to my trailer in a cool looking golf cart. He said he would wait outside, so I went in and was dressed in jeans, a nice shirt type blouse, and tennis shoes. Back outside with only my keys, we drove through the park to the R&D building.

Dennis told a security guard that I was with him and led me through an office area into a group of labs with windows and doors leading into various rooms marked for their activities. There were two young guys pulling some kind of motor from a room marked "Sand." They were blowing excess sand from the engine before bringing it into the lab. In another of the rooms, I saw an older guy drying off an engine. That room was marked "Ocean air."

Dennis checked with the people working with the engines making sure they knew how to teardown the engines and how to lay the parts out for inspection. He turned to me and said, "This is a new engine we're making for an airplane Steve wants to build. We have already built a larger model, but it was too powerful for the type of aircraft we're building. This one should be the perfect size and we're putting it through every test we know of in order to get it certified for aircraft use. Look over here in this room. That is the same engine that has been running through tests now for right at six weeks. It shuts off every five hours for ten minutes, restarts, and then is put under load for another five hours. We service it every 100 hours of operation just like a regular aircraft engine. We want to get five thousand hours on it, but as soon as it hits two thousand, it will have passed its certification hours. That's about another six weeks."

Dennis said, "These folks are all set, let's go down to the main shop. You'll love the place, it's always interesting there."

When we drove up to the front of the building with a big S&S sign on top, Dennis said, "Over there, across the street, are two of the clothing plants. The rest of the plants are out at the business park and the new park by the naturist resort."

I asked, "Are there really three thousand people who work over there and in the other plants?"

Dennis smiled, "Probably more, I really don't know the exact quantity of employees they have, but it's enough for three shifts in most of the sewing areas. Come on in and I'll give you a tour."

We walked through an impressive showroom with a racecar and motorcycle hanging from the ceiling. There were a couple of big machines that looked impressive, along with a golf cart.

Dennis led me to an area that was obviously for manufacturing. Men were doing some welding in one area, while other men were stamping large pieces of sheet metal in another area. We walked into a room with six separate work areas, each with two people in white lab coats working on car engines. The place didn't look like a car shop, as it was bright white with no oil on the floor. All of the work areas were spotless, neat, and organized.

Dennis said expansively, "This is where they build racing motors. S&S supplies several NASCAR teams with specially built motors. We're known for our quality and performance."

The short redheaded lady that had been sitting with me on the patio this morning was directing people to do things. She must be some kind of boss.

Dennis took me back through the manufacturing area and through an area where old machines were being torn down. There were several work areas with machines in various stages of being rebuilt. They even had a couple of forklifts torn down.

We walked across a large lot to another very tall building. Through an open area, I could see some large machines being worked on, then farther on, we stepped into a busy shop with people pressing fiberglass mats into forms. Dennis said, "This is our fiberglass shop. It is also our composite forming shop. I don't see any of the forms set up for composites, but let's go into the warehouse area where some of the finished product is."

In the last half of the huge building was what looked like airplane fuselages and wings, scattered around on stands. Dennis said, "These are parts for the new aircraft S&S LSA is building. Ah, LSA means light sport aircraft. That's a special classification of aircraft that is small, lightweight, and becoming very popular. When you get a chance, you should go out to the airpark where they are putting together three types of these LSAs. The person heading up this project is a guy named Wes. He was at breakfast this morning, but you just haven't been introduced to him yet. He was the guy sitting with DeDe and Star. They have been experimenting with various blends of materials for the strongest composite bodies. Steve isn't satisfied yet and wants the absolute best. But then, he's that way. Everything has to be the absolute best or he isn't satisfied."

"DeDe and Star introduced Wes to me the first morning I was here," I said happily, then thought of Steve Sharp's motto of perfection and commented, "I'll bet it's hard to work for someone like that."

Dennis laughed, "You would think so, but it really isn't. The whole company thinks that way. We do it perfect just like that sign over the door, 'Is It Perfect?'"

I nodded in agreement, but wondered whether I could produce something perfect every time. It would be a good goal.

"Gerry, I really should get back to the R&D center. We need to have the analysis of those engines complete today. Let me run you home, okay?"

Dennis drove me to my trailer and took off for the business park. I picked up my purse and headed to my car. I was just about to get in when I thought, 'Why not go to work and earn some money after your errands.'

Back inside the trailer, I showered, did my hair, and put together the outfit I would wear at work. I put on a skirt and blouse with some flats to do my errands, and took off to go to the Best Buy for a cell phone.

I ended up with a middle of the road phone that had a keyboard for text and pretty good deal on a new kind of unlimited plan. Before I left the store, I had a working phone with a home and car charger. Now I was no longer out of contact.

The first thing I did when I got back to my car is to text Ben. I wrote that he now had my new telephone number and that I was going to work and would probably get off around nine or so.

When I showed up at the Mons before noon, Cindy greeted me saying, "Glad you came in early, Tess, a couple of girls are out sick today. If you want, get ready and you can take the next set on stage."

After locking up my purse, I picked my music and waited for the current dancer's last number to finish. As soon as she had gathered her tips and was off the stage, I strutted on just as my music began. The guys around the stage were hooting and hollering, so I knew I was going to have fun today.