Day Sixty-five - Tuesday
My eyes popped open to see the red numerals on the clock say four-forty five. I listened to see if I had heard a noise and awakened because of it.
I closed my eyes to get that extra forty-five minutes of sleep.
"I'm gonna be a dad," was running around in my head. "Well dummy, you were fucking like bunnies, and she did tell you that she was trying.
"I always thought it took a month or so after you quit taking birth control pills before you could get pregnant. Did I think that, or was I just wishing for it.
"Wow, a boy, my boy. The little sucker will get two of the nicest milk spigots around, that's for sure. He'll have to be a big'un to drink all the milk Sue is going to produce. Women's breasts swell up when they are pregnant and give birth. Hope Sue's don't pop,
"This whole thing has been fast, really fast. My vacation plan was to do what? Enjoy some leisure, not working. Perhaps meet some new friends. Do some interesting stuff that would give me memories for when I went back to the platforms.
"Well, I have some good memories, that's for sure. I also have some damn nice prospects to look forward to. Funny, I'm not worried about the future at all. Somehow I just know Sue and I can take anything on. Even when we're not together, I have a comfort level, just knowing that we're getting back together in a little while.
"Now that I've pondered about all this, it's time to get up. Oh boy, I get to kiss my wife, wow, MY WIFE, awake. Makes my heart go pitty pat, that's for sure."
I gave a nearby nipple a quick suck, or would that be a quick deep throat. Next, I kissed her lips as she moaned and moved about from the intensity of a nipple suck when a person is asleep.
The more I kissed her cheeks, eyes, and ears, the faster her breathing became until Sue opened her eyes, and seeing me, hugged me tight, saying the magic "I love you," over and over again.
We got up to go our separate ways. Sue to the pot and me to the coffee pot, then we met in the shower. Our mutual washing became fondling that became, oops, fucking, until my no longer needed seed was running down her legs. We finished washing, weak-kneed, but with pleasant smiles on our faces.
When we turned the light on right at six, we were greeted shortly by Sandy and Mandy, accompanied by Drew and Bob. Those four all had nice smiles too. Phil and Judy showed up right after six with boxes of breakfast sandwiches and pastries, claiming they were still celebrating winning the bids.
"So, Phil, what's happening with those bids from South America that you were working on that you felt were a lock?"
"They will come, these others take precedence today," Phil told me. "I'll take care of the others when the time comes. Nice to know that you remember what I've told you though. You really do keep up better than any of us have a right to expect."
Sue said she would front the money for the new property for a month. I was determined to really do a pay as you go. The cost of the property, the cleanup and the repairs to the building was just more than Tiny could squeeze out of cash flow, and still pay bills and make payroll. The company could have borrowed the money commercially but why not pay Sue the interest instead of a bank.
So Tiny started off the day making sure the owner was setting up a closing. Since he had a contract for the building, Tiny had called the contractor to do the repairs to the building and to prepare it the same as he had on our place. We were not going to pave the full twenty acres though. The thought was to clean up the property and put in grass where it was not paved. We could always pave more of the property, as we needed it.
Abe wanted to begin putting rebuilt equipment over there as soon as possible and needed more space to store old equipment before he could rebuild it. We were going to open a large part of the fence separating the two properties and pave a wide strip to the paved area around the big building.
Tiny was letting the contractor into the property, so I went over to look at the place in more detail. The offices were a small area in the front corner of the building. It was just three rooms and a bathroom, with windows looking outside and to the huge warehouse. When you walked out of the office area you felt small, as the ceiling was so high and the warehouse so big. The place was two hundred-fifty feet deep by seven hundred feet wide, which figures out to be one hundred seventy-five thousand square feet of covered area, enormous. I finally realized what the building reminded me of, a large airplane hangar. Too bad we weren't closer to the airport, as this would be an ideal hangar for small to medium planes and helicopters.
The place was too big to air condition so it really wouldn't be good for a manufacturing facility. But part of it could be partitioned off and insulated sufficiently that we could air condition a large area. I paced off the office width. It was approximately thirty-six feet. If a partition followed the line from the office, all the way back that would be nine thousand square feet. That would be large enough to use for almost any kind of manufacturing and it sure would not detract from the useable remaining space. I would keep this in mind and make sure Abe began storing his equipment on the other end. I couldn't see him ever using the entire building for rebuilt equipment.
Enough of the daydreams, I checked on the shops to see how everyone was doing. Everything was humming smoothly. The contractor's cabinetmaker and helper had commandeered the area nearest the door of the frame area. He had a large stack of materials that he was working his way through.
Hank had painted the trailer already but this time he had winged pickup trucks chasing motors and the S&S logo. The way he created the paintings against the light blue background caught your eye instantly.
I went to see how he was doing with the tractor, but he was in the paint booth with the red light on, indicating that it was unsafe to enter without protective gear. I would see it soon enough.
Phil said that the coming week he was going to have a seminar in our large meeting room. The seminar was going to be like a trade show with representatives from our major manufacturers. He had sent out over five hundred invitations and had already received back over three hundred confirmed attendees. He had speakers on preventative maintenance issues, plant-manufacturing problems, and even had some speakers on small business financing. The idea was to educate our buyers and let them know about our ever-expanding line of commercial products. Phil was planning these seminars, at least quarterly, to targeted customer groups also.
Abe was in my downstairs office with a guy a little older than I was. He introduced Jed as the person who was going to be his second in command within the rebuild shop. It had become too much for him to watch over, so he had been proactive about it and found a guy he trusted to work with him. Jed had been a production supervisor at a large forklift manufacturing plant. Abe had met him while buying parts to rebuild a forklift. Jed was fascinated with the quality of our work and told Abe that he could work for a company like ours. Now he did.
Abe took me aside and said, this guy is going to be my replacement one of these days. I don't know how long I can keep up the pace you've set. You and I started out real small, but the place has really grown far beyond what I could ever believe. You've paid me so well, it's like I have more than enough for my retirement years. I'm not quitting, or retiring yet, just letting you know it could happen. Get to know Jed, he's a good man, you'll like him.
Debbie had me returning calls for a while and talking to our steel supplier. Their prices had gone up a little, but we were now in a high enough discount level that our margin wasn't really affected yet. I sent Tiny a note so he could keep track of our costs per unit.
The local car builder had an order for three frames, three sets of sheet metal and three motors. That was a bunch of bucks for him. The order had been paid for in advance on a credit card. Since there wasn't any dickering with him this time, I called him and thanked him for his business. He said the blueprints for the frame and sheet metal were to be delivered later today, so the sooner we could deliver, the better. We had the entire conversation without him digging me on price, amazing.
Debbie said that since they had separated the faxes, her job had become considerably easier as she wasn't calling people back that she couldn't help. She also said that she was getting a good handle on the racing business, saying we had a great reputation so far. All we had to do was maintain our quality and we should be successful for a long time to come.
I called Sue to see if she wanted to have lunch and visit the gym. She did, of course, so I took off for home. We changed clothes and worked out for a solid hour, then came home to eat with her people and Glenda. Martin joined us today, talking about the manufactured home next to Sue's being for sale. He thought that we should buy it so we could rent it to Sandy or Mandy, as it appeared to him that the two of them were about to set up separate households. Sue said she thought so too, and would look into it.
Sue and I went to the pool to refresh our tans. Sue was brown enough to look of mixed heritage, while I was tanning nicely but nowhere near Sue. The time we spent together was nice though. We never spent much more than a half-hour at a time, just enough sun.
Back at work, I noticed two very large cranes next door. The contractor had the weight of the door suspended now and was working on how to straighten the rail that had broken. I asked to be lifted up to look. The heavy steel had bent about four inches. The only way to straighten it out was to heat it. This would take four or five guys with torches along with something to either raise the bent area or pull it up. The contractor got on the phone and within twenty minutes a flat bed pulled up with four more lifts. I went over to the frame shop and took five guys that could handle gas torches, along with my portable backpack from the truck. It took longer to get equipment together than it did to get the lifts to the site.
The contractor had a cable attached to the rail with just slight pull added. I directed my men to heat the rail along the bend. While they were heating the rail, I was cleaning off the old weld. The problem probably was the sloppy weld in the first place made the wheel jump the rail. After they had been heating the rail for about ten minutes, I had the contractor put more upward pressure on the rail a tiny bit at a time. When the rail had pulled past the other side, I told the guys to shut down for a minute. While the steel was cooling, I had the contractor let the rail come back down then signaled to him when it was positioned correctly. They had pulled the outer end to give an inch clearance so I had them release pressure there until the ends were touching.
Using my backpack, I welded the rail closed. Using a battery operated grinder, I smoothed the weld so a wheel could easily pass over it. Next I had the contractor let me down so I could go get a couple pieces of steel to put under the rail for additional strength at the weld. Once that was in place everyone on lifts got down then watched as the door was lifted back into place.
When everything appeared to be where it should be, the contractor had us move away from the door. He hit the button to open the doors and the electric motors began pulling the giant doors open. The entire back of the building opened up. Like I said, this place was just a big hangar not at an airport.
The contractor reversed the action and the doors closed. I went up on the lift to check the weld and it had held perfectly. The only thing that would be better was to put some supports close on both sides of the weld. I suggested that more supports be added at all of the weld locations in order to insure a repeat of the problem didn't occur again.
Using the lifts that were on site, all of us welded in new supports at all the welds and welded an additional piece of steel under each joining. This should make the doors safe for a long time to come.
The guys and I cleaned up our equipment while the lifts were put back on the flat bed and hauled away. The crane folks were using the cranes to inspect the roof. The contractor was planning on painting and sealing the roof right away.
I showed the contractor the idea I had to divide an area off. He said it could be done easily and that he could use a new type of foam to insulate the ceiling and outside walls. He though I might want an overhead door installed at the rear so we wouldn't have to use the big doors to move equipment in and out. I told him to hold that thought while I weighed what to do.
Abe and Jed came over to me to ask about what they had heard me speaking about. I told them my thoughts, but we really didn't have a product to manufacture at this time.
Jed said, "Yes, you do. You are rebuilding a few forklifts, but really don't have the space to do a lot of the bigger lifts. You know the kind that handles cars, trucks, large overseas shipping containers. That market is huge, but hardly anyone rebuilds them. A few contractors will come on site and repair them but the machine doesn't look or feel any different so the users are just as brutal with the machine as they had been."
"Do we buy them and rebuild them, or do we offer rebuild services, what's the best way to do it, what do you think?" I asked.
"All of the above," Jed began. "We can rebuild them for customers and we can buy whatever we can get our hands on to rebuild and sell. If we rebuild the big lifts, we'll be the only ones on the eastern seaboard doing it. We should be able to have customers ship us their lifts from as far north as Canada."
"Can you give me an estimate of how many units a month we could expect?"
"I'll make some calls today and see what we can get over the next month, then you can pretty well times that by ten, as there are that many users of those big lifts. We need to do one and doll it up for an advertisement. If we could show a before and after picture, that would get some excitement."
"Do it, sounds like a good business."
Even though I was enthusiastic about the niche business, I thought I should wait to see what kind of numbers he might come up with before committing a bunch of resources.
The big truck was complete and the trailer was being fitted with the cabinets and sales trays. The tractor was truly a work of art. Hank had the entire tractor covered with cartoon race trucks with caricatures of the drivers. He must have been able to get pictures from the Internet, because they were very good, but funny caricatures. One guy was sitting on the hood of his truck. Another was hanging on to the tailgate as if the truck had gotten away from him. Another was standing beside his truck with his thumb out hitchhiking. It was fascinating enough that several employees were gathered around the truck, trying to see the various cartoons.
Since the truck races were often on Friday night, I called our two new driver/salesmen and asked if they wanted to get a started a day early. They instantly agreed and arrived at the shop as we were finishing loading the truck. We went over how to open the trailer canopy with the poles to hold it up and how to let down the side that was used as a display panel. We went through the inventory and the pricing sheets so they knew how much to sell merchandise for. Tiny had gone over the sales procedure for credit cards, telling them that a credit card was the best way to take payment.
Tiny issued them a credit card for fuel and hotel expenses, plus a cell phone so they could call us and we could call them. They said they were ready and excited about their new job.
We watched them pull away, hoping this was another successful venture.
When I went back into the shop, the evening cleanup process was in progress. Jed stopped me and handed me a list of companies that committed to shipping us their lifts for repairs if we opened a repair shop. Jed said, "Often, only one lift can fit on a truck and you know how expensive that is, so you know these folks desperately need a repair facility."
"My plan would be to hire men experienced with all varieties of forklifts and industrial lifts. We will repair for other forklift companies in the area and get their business, as we are not selling against them. They will welcome a company that can take a wreck and turn it back into a productive machine."
"Thanks, Jed, did you get me some numbers to work with as far as what we might be looking at for repair costs?"
"Steve, these will be just like the other items you're rebuilding. Whatever is your average parts cost on your average big generator will probably be the same on a big lift. A big cost difference will be paint. Some of these machines are huge."
"Will an area, thirty-six by two hundred-fifty be enough room? That's nine thousand square feet."
"Should be, but if you have the room to spare why not make it an even fifty feet wide. That way we can have room to get another machine around one we are working on."
"We should be able to do that. Well Jed, looks like your idea will be the next venture for S&S Enterprises. I'll run these numbers by Tiny and see what he says. We'll probably start construction on your air conditioned facility tomorrow or Thursday."
"Thanks, Steve, Abe said you would go for anything we wanted to do if it made the company better. You will be able to sell a lot of equipment to the people who send you their lifts to repair. You'll be surprised. I'll work on a bigger list of prospective customers, and see if I can resurrect some of the abandoned lifts that are out there, for us to rebuild."
Before I went home, I walked over to talk to the contractor a minute. I told him that the plan for the wall was shifted out a few feet to make the area fifty by two hundred and fifty. He looked at me a second then said, "That building is seven hundred feet long. Why don't you make the work area that you will air-condition an even hundred feet wide? With that much space you will be able to possibly grow the production facility you are planning, or you might even divide up part of it later into sections of fifty by fifty feet for small production items that do not require a lot of space. It will be easier to do it in the beginning instead of waiting till later. You're going to be putting air in a very large cubic foot area so I'll get Honeywell out here to fix you up."
"Do you think we can make the tall door on the end that we will partition off operate individually? That could allow us to open that door without opening the entire half."
"Sure, that will be easy. We will reroute the door to outside of the other door when it opens, and install a separate motor to just operate the one door. Nothing to it."
"Glad you think it's easy, and thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure we'll use up the space fast anyway."
The contractor was laughing as I walked to my truck.
Ah, home is where the heart is. Today home was where the beer was. I drew myself a beer then sat with Tiny to go over the numbers that Jed had fed me. Phil was listening and when I said that Jed felt we could sell these people a lot of equipment, Phil said, "I agree with that. Those big operators are tough to break into but once you deal with them, they will spend some big bucks with us. I would repair their lifts for free just to get all of their other business."
Tiny said, "From these numbers, I'd go ahead and try it. You just bought twenty acres and an almost two hundred thousand square foot building. Put it to use. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure you'll have something else going by then."
I told him what I had planned for dividing the building and how the future partition should work. The new building and property was becoming more important by the hour. I wondered what else we might do there.
Sue was sitting next to me and finally told me that she had Ben talk to Mr. Wainwright and was able to get us a little better deal. We would not be liable for the taxes that had not been paid yet and the county easement that no one knew about would not affect our operation. Ben had the title searched and was ready to close in the morning. I would be the representative for S&S and write a check for the property from our cash flow. Sue would lend the money directly to the company without any encumbrances. That way, the loan would only appear as a short-term debt.
Tiny said, "The cash is there, but we will need to fill it back up for bills and payroll."
"The money is being transferred tonight, Tiny. I'm loaning exactly what the check will be for in the morning, okay?"
"Perfect," Tiny said obviously relieved.
Sue said, "Believe it or not Uncle Ben is happy that we are buying more property. He said we should research all around us to buy up all we can as property is always such a good investment."
Sue and I spent some time chatting with Charlie as he was having some cabin fever issues. He said he needed to do something even if it was only one handed. I told him to come to work with Shawna and work on the bike project she's doing, only to do it with one hand.
"Charlie, if you need a jeep, someone to chase parts or hold the other end of something, I'll get a high school kid that needs an industrial arts part time job. How about it, why not put you on the payroll for a while and be productive."
Shawna had been listening to me and came over and sat in my lap. "Thank you, Steve, I've wanted him to help me anyway so this is a perfect way for him to work with me again. We like to work together. This will just be a little different."
She bounced up, gave Charlie a kiss then went to get them both refills of beer.
After supper, Sue wanted to go for a ride. Sandy and Mandy wanted to go too, but didn't want to leave Bob and Drew behind. I told them that they would have to work that out and have the guys get bikes and learn to ride, as I knew the girls were not going to ride behind anyone.
So tonight's ride was Jim and Hanna, Hank and Debbie, and Sue and me. We rode out highway forty-one to fifty-four then went east to I-75 then down to Brandon to a bar Jim knew about. We had a beer then went back through Tampa to the Vanishing point then back home. A nice ride with a lot of wind in our faces.
Back home, we didn't go to the hot tub but Sue and I did go for our walk, ending up at the pool to swim hard for the exercise. We did go into the hot tub for a few minutes. Sue said that she wouldn't be able to use the tub when the temperature is over one hundred degrees. She thought that she should be able to use it most of the time though, as it was hardly ever really hot. The bubbles were what made the tub nice.
Back home I had a last drink and Sue had a small glass of wine. We were in bed making love by ten-thirty. We were both tired from a long day so we both were asleep quickly.