Chapter 23

As I was reading the paper, I saw an ad for a government surplus auction that was taking place all day Friday, at some warehouse just outside of the city. I thought that they might have some stuff that I could use for my new house, so I borrowed Annie's car for the day, and drove to the auction.

I was looking for some office furniture and other odds-and-ends. The warehouse was huge and it actually consisted of three side-by-side warehouses. There were many people there, but not as many as I thought there would be. I guess some people actually worked on Fridays. Before coming to the auction, I stopped by the bank and withdrew plenty of cash if I saw something that I just had to have. The lots were in order, so we just walked up one row and down the next. We then went outside only to then come back inside to the next warehouse. It appears that our government purchases all kinds of stuff.

I saw a bunch of furniture, but most of it appeared heavily used. As I continued to look, I found three or four that came out of some high level offices. When I finished the day, I had won most of the items where I had placed a bid. I had a complete office set up with a two-part L-shaped desk. I bought a pool table, a bicycle, a pair of decorative planters for the patio and a complete dark room for the basement. I didn't know how I was going to move it, so when we finished inside, we went out to the vehicles, and I was the high bidder on a 1977 Ford F100 pick-up truck. It was in good shape, so even if I just used it once, I could easily sell it for more than the three hundred that I paid for it.

I barely spent a thousand dollars all day and ended up the happiest with the purchase of the dark room material. The equipment I picked up was nicer than John's was and since I was the only one bidding on it, I felt dumb for starting at a hundred bucks. I paid a guy two bucks, since he was smart enough to buy a lot that included a bunch of rope, and I needed some of it to hold down my purchases. I still had too much for one trip, but I had receipts for everything and took the truck and the dark room equipment and some of the smaller items first.

There were people there to help load, but there was a line and the notice said they would be there on Saturday and Sunday to help load as well, but we had to move everything out by 5PM on Sunday. I drove over to the house and unloaded the photo developing equipment in the basement. I drove over to Annie's and took her to an early dinner. From there we went out to the auction site, so she could drive her car home. She liked the truck, but thought I was crazy to buy it. We walked into the warehouse and I showed her the office furniture and the pool table I still had to pick up. She pointed at other things and asked why I didn't bid on them. I could see where buying a couple dozen wine glasses may come in handy, but I didn't want to store twelve dozen.

The crowd was thinning out and I had some help to load the desk and bookcases. I even got the leather desk chair to fit in the passenger side of the truck. After a call to Shawna, she got Bob and his roommate to come by and help me unload it into the house. I gave them each twenty bucks for their twenty minutes of help and told them that if they came by on Saturday and helped get the pool table to the parlor on the second floor, that I could possible find a couple of fifties and some cold beers for them. They were happy to help. Shawna came over and everything was ready except the furniture and food. She was going to move in, and since I had a truck, I moved out of the Hay and put my clothes in the closet. I had scheduled the delivery of all the furniture on Monday, so Shawna took the day off to supervise along with one of her decorator friends.

Annie picked me up Sunday morning after I slept on a cot that I ended up buying. I should have stayed one more night at the hotel. Shawna had talked me into moving in, but then ended up going back to her place to sleep. We parked in the lot and I checked us in for the flight. We flew non-stop. I bought her a coach seat, but then used my frequent flyer points to upgrade her to first class with me. She felt excited being on the trip and nervous as well. To calm her down, I had her drink a bit on the flight. When we landed, I had already hired a town car to take us to the office. I paid him and then turned to Annie and said, "Here we are."

"This is an office building. Aren't we going to stay at a hotel?"

"This is cheaper. I slept on a cot last night, this can't be any worse."

I let us in the building and then used my key on the elevator to get us to the top floor. I opened the door to my apartment and she followed me in. When she looked around, what she saw, impressed her greatly, but she then got a shocked look on her face, when she saw that there was only one bed and a shower in the middle of the room.

I said, "Don't worry. You are a tae kwon do master. You can keep me away from you."

She didn't look convinced, but I opened a cabinet and grabbed the key chain for one of the apartments across the hall. She smiled when I held it up and she followed me out. I opened the door and we walked into the smaller unit and found John naked and just pounding into Beth. They heard Annie gasp and both looked up to see us standing there.

I said, "I am sorry I didn't see you on the registry as I checked in. We will try the room next door. Carry on."

We left and I grabbed the other key. I knocked this time, but with no answer, I entered into a perfectly empty and perfectly clean room. I handed Annie the key and told her to come back to my place after she finished settling in. She came by about fifteen minutes later. John and Beth were over soon after. I introduced them both to Annie, and I think Annie was the most embarrassed of the group. I apologized, but also told them that they need to put out the do not disturb sign next time.

Beth said that they came up earlier this time to see me and spend some time away from the kids. I took everyone to the Bluebird for drinks and music then out to dinner. Annie wanted to get back and go over her presentation one more time before she went to bed. I asked if she wanted to go first or last of the three groups and she said that if she went last that she would be fresh in our minds when we made our decision.

I said, "If you feel nervous just picture everyone naked. Maybe I will have Beth come and sit in the meeting, so that it will be easier for you to picture."

"I think I would be more nervous talking to a bunch of naked people. Beth is welcome if she wants to sit in."

The board meeting was first thing in the morning and then we broke for lunch. I told Annie to go down and have an early lunch, so she could relax her mind and be ready to deliver the presentation when her time came. It wouldn't look right to take her to lunch, unless I took all the firms to lunch and then it would have been too hectic with everyone trying to start their pitch.

The first two firms were from New York and were very similar. They did a good job. At the end we asked questions and since everything in the presentations were similar, Craig and I asked the same questions to both groups. Craig asked about prices and resources. I asked about how they would handle different aspect of our company and some of the issues we expected to face.

"I expect that at some point we will find ourselves accused of being called a monopoly, and they will try to break us up. How would you deal with that issue?" Followed by, "We force all the trucks to fuel at certain truck stops, and our actions are forcing the rest of them out of business."

Both firms didn't have a ready answer and came up with a very shallow answer to my questions. Annie was up last and did a similar presentation as the first two, but was vaguer about the history of her firm and many contacts she had in place. She was honest and had strong messaging planned for our company.

Craig asked about pricing and got an answer that was a description about the standard practices of a PR firm without the specifics. I asked my questions, and she responded, "I would point out that the concerns about monopolies are about the elimination of the competition. The competition in this case can't compete at the lower prices. It is not fair to your customers to make them pay more just to make certain that another carrier can stay in business. Should you have to raise your prices to make him more competitive? Should you lay off your employees, so they can go work for someone who pays less and has fewer benefits for his family? As far as the fuel for your trucks is concerned, you are stopping there to trade loads, and it is the most logical place to refuel. If they want to build out the infrastructure for you, and it makes good business sense for the company, then you would consider stopping and fueling there."

I asked if Craig had any other questions and he didn't. Annie thanked us and shook our hands before packing her stuff and heading up to the room. I looked to Craig, and he said, "What was that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Britt, she was sharp on our business, and glossed over the rest."