Chapter 34

Monday started for me at 6 AM. I set the stove right, while the water for my shower heated. I not only had the coffee cooked, but a cup consumed before the water was hot enough for a shower. I carried a clean white short sleeve thermal tee shirt and a pair of white bikini panties into the outer bathroom. My choice of underwear might not be fashion forward, but they did sort of match.

I managed to get naked in the warm outer bath before I set the shower running in the huge shower stall. I quickly and carefully washed my body and hair before the water ran out. I stood under the hot water until it was all gone. The water was more cold than tepid when I moved from the shower room to the outer bathroom to dress.

The day before I had worn a bra for the first time in over two weeks. I intended to go back to doing without. The saline bags under my breast tissue didn't sag very much. If my breast had been real they most likely would not have sagged too much either. I was still moving toward thirty, not away from it. In addition to the whites, I managed a pair of cargo pants in the olive drab color favored by the older military dress. I drew the line on drab there. I wore a bright red thermal long sleeve top. I wore the thermal, because I planned to go out during the warm part of the day. I could pull one of the thick cotton sweatshirts on over the thermal and be good to go.

I decided that once my hair was dry, I would go to breakfast. I used the hand attached to my one good arm to brush my hair every few minutes till it dried. After many trial and error days, I found that it worked as well as a blow dryer and unlike a blow dryer I only needed one hand to make it work.

There was fresh snow on the ground, so I was just as happy to be driving the pick up to breakfast. I would have liked to get some exercise, but the truck was a more stable ride than the bike had been. I had learned something from the fall. Two wheel bikes and icy road equal eventual disaster.

I pulled the truck into the Hardee's restaurant in the plaza. I sat down with a less than inspired cup of coffee, but a great bacon egg and cheese biscuit. I saw the four of them walk into the side door. They were tall, fit, and would be consider hunks by anybody's standards. Okay by any woman's standards. Their shoulder patches declared them State Motor Patrol Division Officers. It was a new name and uniform for the old Highway Patrol. What it effectively did was to do away with the separate administrative structure of the Highway Patrol. I didn't really understand it, but I knew it was a further consolidation of power in the hands of the state police.

I also knew there was talk of the government getting to be too intrusive, but to me it really had no significance at all. Well except that they were really quite handsome. Unlike the old Sheriff's Deputies, none of the patrolmen had big bellies or bald heads. Well some of them wore their hair shaved off so I couldn't tell if they were naturally bald or not. But for the most part they were more fit than the old sheriff's system.

I walked out the door with the feeling that I was being watched and possibly talked about by the motor patrolmen. I continued on to the truck with the hair standing up on my neck. You know, if they stopped me in the middle of the night I would probably call them Nazi's. They did have that Arian look about them. Surely there were some black or Asian types in that division, I thought. Well it made no difference to me.

After breakfast I did more research on Salvage and building codes. It was perfectly fine to use recycled material to build the cabins, but there was a problem with sanitation. Storage tanks to store drinking water was a reasonable solution to the potable water issue. There was a problem with human waste disposal issues. The problem was simple what the crap to do with the crap.

Since we were going to have a water tank for each cabin, it meant a water truck had to come in every so often to fill the tanks. We were going to need a road of some kind for that, so why not holding tanks with deodorizers like the porta potty design. I just couldn't imagine a system that would work. I left Jeremy to worry about the infrastructure for his campsite. I am just going to build cabins I can hook to county water and sewer for now, I thought.

I found that I had researched and worried the morning away. That fact was bought home to me by Carlos's call. "Senorita Rose, I am headed for the church now," he suggested.

"I'll leave right now and join you," I agreed. It was about a fifteen minute drive to meet him at the church. When I got there Carlos was no where in sight so I moved the mat under the door. There I found the key then went inside.

The first thing I noticed when I got inside was that the inside of the building had been trashed. There was no real damage to the building. It just looked as though kids had been inside smoking a little dope and screwing. No wonder the deacon had been concerned.

The congregation must have been relatively small and poor. The church was no more than 20 feet by 40 feet in size. The interior walls were some kind of wood paneling probably some cheap plywood paneling, I thought. The roof structure was open. It had been painted white but it was badly in need of repainting. The old hand made pews were still in place. I guessed that there was seating for no more than a hundred worshipers at a time.

The floors were sanded and finished, but I had no idea what type of wood had been used. I had no idea what type wood was used for the structural elements either. That is why I needed Carlos. I waited for him at least twenty minutes in the cold then I called him.

"Something came up, but I'm on the road and ten minutes away," he said when he answered the cell phone he always carried.

I stood in the parking lot to greet him. "So you did come after all," I said.

"Yes, so let's go take a look to see, if it's worth salvaging," Carlos said. Once we were at the door he said. "The door is old, but nothing special."

"Well, it is at least oversized for sure," I said.

"Yes, but where would you use a massive door like that. It was probably half of a set from some older building," he advised me.

"Okay what about the floor is it hardwood. Yes it is oak but it isn't an expensive oak. I have seen this before. It was a floor made from scrap oak boards. At one time the sawmills burned better oak boards than they use for lumber these days. This flooring was part of that lot. It never was finished. What you see here is rough cut oak with just enough finish so you could walk on it without picking up splinters. Now it probably has some value to people like you. It's a good building material, but not a high dollar one."

"What do you think the exterior walls are like?" I asked.

"Underneath that asbestos shingles on the outside walls, there will be sheeting just something used as a nailer. If they could get sawmill scraps for flooring, my guess is there are more scraps on that wall. The frame was probably not scrap since the walls have settled a little but other wise they seem to have held together pretty well. Mostly the roof is post and beam," he said.

"Well there is no plumbing, so that's something to consider," I said. "So tell me, could we get enough lumber to build two twenty by twenty cabins?"

"Not everything you would need, but you would have maybe 85% used lumber in the cabin," he said.

"We are going to call it vintage materials," I said with a laugh.

"A Rose by any other name can still make you bleed," he said.

"How long to take it to the ground?" I asked.

"Me and Juan five working days, then a couple of days with Jose to clean and load it up," he said.

"Okay, let me see what I can do. So how much do I owe you for your expert opinion?" I asked.

"No charge, as long as we get to do the work," he said.

"The price is satisfactory as long as you do a good days work for a fair days pay," I said.

"Have you ever known me to do less?" he asked smiling.

"No I actually have not, but most of the work was done when I was out of town. I am going to be here for this," I explained.

With that we parted company. I left the key under the mat and headed home. I stopped by Jeremy's house.

"Well I went to look at the church. Now I need to make a decision," I explained once I was inside.

"What's to decide, you want to tackle it or not?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes, but do I take the lot, or try to get the church building free. I can always explain that the lot will be worth more, if the church is gone," I said.

"They might buy that," Jeremy said.

"Yes, or I can build two small cabins on the one lot. You can use them as demonstration pieces, or I can sell them outright," I said.

"I like that idea. Neither of us has to put out any money beyond the cost of this project," Jeremy said.

"Yes but we need to come to an arrangement before we get too far along in the project," I suggested.

"Build your cabins, I'll bet they will be sold before you drive the last nail into them," Jeremy said.

He kissed me goodbye in front of Alice and it was more than a friend's kiss. It was a lover's kiss. I didn't make any comment. I just acted as though it hadn't happened.

I had thought originally that I would just offer to take the church building down free and give them the land. Without a place to build the cabins, I just decided to build them both on the church lot. They would be small but if they didn't sell, they could be models for the nudist village. That was if Jeremy ever worked the deal.

So there we were with no plan going forward for a combined front. I really didn't care all that much, since I was cooling to the project. I was determined to push forward with my part of the project, but I didn't have the same enthusiasm I had in the very beginning.

I went home and did the things I usually did except with a little less pain. For a couple of days I had been able to carefully move my shoulder with almost no pain. So I had removed the sling. I wore it if I went out, but hardly at all around the house. The necessity of the sling had made several things more difficult. Without it I found cooking, cleaning, showering, washing my hair, and even typing was easier. Those and many other things I had taken for granted previously. I was more than a little appreciative of each since the accident.

When I awoke on Tuesday, I did almost everything as I had before the accident. I still had trouble washing my hair and of course I didn't have a bike to ride. Since the roads were still icy in spots, and would be in the morning for the rest of the winter, I wouldn't have ridden it even if I did have one. The state secondary roads were in pretty good shape. The traffic kept them dry on no snow or rain days. The county roads however didn't have enough traffic to keep them dry. Those could be dangerous, of course I did about a third of my travels on them. I had done almost all my bike riding on them, with the exception of the trips to the plaza. The plaza was built on the state maintained road between Roaring Gap and County Seat.