Thursday, September 10, 2009

After lunch I spent some time on the computer and also thinking. I even took a nap on the new sofa bed. The cube end tables made and excellent foot rest when equipped with a decorative pillow from the sofa. So I did find a use for the cube after all.

Either just before I fell asleep or sometime during the nap, I realized what last the night before had all been about. Becky had participated in what she thought was every man's fantasy as payback for ending her stalking problems. That and the decorating made sense.

Well it made sense in Becky's case. I was still in the dark as to Lucy's motive for going along. Like most things in life it would either move to it's own conclusion or it would just hang in the air forever. Somethings just became irrelevant as life moved on to its on conclusion.

On Monday I slipped back into my old habit of eating a bowl of cereal at home, then ride to the park to drink coffee and watch the boats. The old black man was there just like before. It was an uneventful day and I liked that just fine. Yes I knew I would become bored again, but for the moment the water and the boats were enough.

The first of my purchases to show up was the motor controller. The aluminum box not much larger than a pack of cigarettes cost me 35 bucks and change it showed up on Wednesday in a box with the throttle as well. I didn't even open the package. I just tossed it into the tall metal cabinet in the kitchen area. It had plenty of space since I had almost no dishes or food in the cabinet.

I had not seen Becky since Sunday when they showed off their decorating skills. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be seeing much of her. Lucy, I most likely would see because she lived next door.

On Friday the Motor and throttle arrived. I was trying to decide if I should borrow Lucy's car for a run to home depot, when I mentioned to the old man that I needed someone to do some welding for me.

"Call my son-in-law Lucus. He has a shop that does some metal work. Mostly he makes vents and things but he can weld I know."

"I need to run to home depot to buy the metal first," I replied.

"Go see Lucus first, he has all kinds of stuff layin' around. Just tell him what you want he can do it I bet." The old man gave me directions to his son-in-laws shop before I left.

It was Tuesday of the next week before I went to Lucus's shop. I had to wait for the wheel. After it arrived I had to have the diagrams printed out. I left for his shop with the trailer full of parts.

"You must be Lucus?" I said as a greeting to the middle-aged black man with the scruffy beard.

"Yes sir I am," he replied.

"Your father-in-law sent me over."

"So you must be the man from the park. I was expecting you last week."

"I had to wait for some parts to arrive." With that I put the box of parts down. I handed him the diagram and explained it all to him. There were drill holes to make and two of the four corners to weld. It wasn't a very big job but I didn't want to tackle it because I didn't have the tools or the skill to make the welds.

"So you want to get the angle iron or let me use what I got laying around?"

"Well what are you going to charge me to do the job. Give me a price with the materials included."

"Fifty bucks to build and I will supply the angle. I can make you that fancy hinge thing out of a piece of channel so it's no big deal."

"When can you have it done?"

"Well I got a roof vent to build this afternoon, how about you call me tomorrow after lunch?"

"Let's do it then." I didn't offer to leave a deposit since he had well over fifty bucks worth of my parts. The motor had been 45 bucks and the wheel 30 bucks. I expect that he knew I would be back for my parts if nothing else.

I rode the Tomos to the Walmart store near Jacksonville. I looked at bikes for a long time. I had narrowed it down to a bike the size of the Tomos and one a little larger. I bought a 24" woman's cruiser bicycle. The tires were a little small but it would do.

It was too far to ride it home, and I had the Tomos to deal with so I just paid and agreed to pick it up before Saturday.

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