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Post by CountryGuy on Jul 26, 2022 20:24:43 GMT -6
When I moved up to Newport News, VA years ago my corporate relo included a furnished apartment for the first 6 weeks, after that I was on my own. I had a mortgage and couldn't afford anything else. I was paying by the week for an efficiency hotel while my fam was still in SC while we tried to sell our house. So I was trying to pay a mortgage and pay for a efficiency hotel and feeding myself. Basically trying to support two households and it was killing me. One of my buds at work knew my situation and told me he had a friend whose renter had bailed on him. I looked at the place and it wasn't bad but guy said it'd be a few weeks till he had things cleaned and repaired. I couldn't wait that long and asked him if I could do the work for him. Id do the work if he paid for materials and I'd give him all receipts so he'd have them for his taxes. He was leery on what I could do but I told him let me do something, you check it out, if you don't like it, no deal. So he agreed and I plopped an air mattress in the one tiny downstairs room of my new rental house. I told him I'd knock out the downstairs carpet the covered the combined dining and living rooms. At first he said no, it was ruined and would need replaced and cost him thousands. He was pissed, the girl had been the daughter of a friend and he felt he got hosed all around. The living room looked like she never took off her shoes. The beige carpet was almost black in the traffic areas in front of where the couch had been. dining area looked like she never cleaned up after he toddler when they ate. I told him give me a chance and if it worked it'd save him a few grand, if it didn't he wasn't out anything and could still replace it. He agreed to give me a shot . I called my FIL who owns a carpet and upholstery cleaning business since '81 so he's seen about everything. They used to do fire clean ups, flood clean ups, high end rugs and furniture. Anyway, he sent me a gallon of his self concocted mix he'd come up with over the decades. I rented a carpet cleaner from Home Depot, sprayed the hell out of that carpet with that cleaner a few times and let it really soak into the badly stained areas. Then I added some of it to the cleaning machine rather than the cleaner they sell with the rental and went to work. It looked damn near new. You could see a light discoloration where it had been black and there was like two small spots in the dining area I couldn't get totally out that looked like they had been grape juice or wine. He was so happy and since it saved him a load of bucks he gave me two months of rent for free which was awesome for me. Then I stripped the popcorn ceiling in the kitchen where a bathroom leak had came thru. I cut out ceiling, fixed the pipe, patched, finished and painted the ceiling. He knocked off another half month. Mind you, initially he was asking 900 a month. Now he would pay for materials and I was just doing the work. Was a good deal for me till our house sold and I got the fam moved in. I had lived there 4 months for free and then when fam moved in we were there another 9 months and he knocked the monthly rent down to $725 for our remainder there. I did other things like paint all the rooms, replaced the kitchen faucet and dishwasher. I ended up making some extra pocket change from him doing some work at a couple of his other rental properties. I hated to leave that deal but the neighborhood wasn't our scene and was in a crap elementary zone so I found a different rental in another area of NN that had a great school for when our daughter started Kindergarten that fall. Not all people will take you up on it as most are leery of what people can do and I think are worried they're gonna get stuck with a mess and then have to pay a pro to fix it. If you can't do that kind of work and make it look like a high end pro did it, don't offer. I had a buddy who would get half rent helping this older woman by cutting her grass and doing the landscape and also doing her car maintenance like oil changes. Learn to sell and negotiate, everyone in life has to do it. Don't think so, go get a date. That's selling yourself getting the other person to buy you. Get a second date and more than a good night kiss, that's negotiating...
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Post by CountryGuy on Jul 26, 2022 21:10:35 GMT -6
22
Maybe ten minutes later, Edna slowed and pulled into the parking lot in front of the restaurant. Merv immediately noticed it looked to be an old school dinner that someone had built a roof over and a building around. Matt pulled in next to her and Merv hoped out and went around to open her door and offer Edna a hand out while Matt did the same for Tanya. “Why thank you Mervin.” “My pleasure Ma'am” “Not many young men have manners now days, I'm glad to see you both do. You must have been raised by good folks.” “Yes Ma'am and thank you. My Gram would have tore my hind end up if I didn't have manners. And if she didn't, I sure wouldn't have wanted Grandpa finding out or he'd have finished the job.” They chatted as they headed for the door where Matt and Tanya were standing, Matt's hand on the door waiting. “Mervin's not a very common name these days, especially for a young man like yourself.” “No Ma'am, my parents named me after my paternal Grandpa, he's the one I was talking about keeping me in line.” She chuckled “I see.” As they got to the door Matt opened it allowing first Edna and then Tanya to go in. As Merv stepped up, Matt stepped in front of him with a big smile and teased, “Beauty before whatever it is you are.” “No, Problem Princess, Grandpa told me to hold the door for any woman, no matter how ugly, he must have meant you.”
As they entered a young waitress waved their direction “Evening Edna, strange seeing you here for dinner. Your usual table is taken so sit where ever you want.” “Thank you Missy, I think we'll sit back here where it's a little quieter.” “Wherever you want, I'll be over in a couple minutes.” They followed Edna to a four place table and Merv slid out her chair as Matt did the same for Tanya. “These boys have such good manners, are they always like this?” she asked Tanya. “Most days, this one I'm still working on.” she teased as she looked to Matt. When the waitress came she got their drink orders and dropped menus off. They chatted a bit as they all looked over the menus. “Everything is different on their evening menu, I'm used to being here in the mornings for breakfast. I will say they always have good food and usually plenty of it.”
They visited and got to know each other. The boys explained they were both engineers and worked and currently lived down in the District but they'd had enough of it. Tanya told her she was a nurse and that she and Matt had been dating a few months but she was looking at moving up here and getting a job. They placed their orders when Missy came to take their orders and to refill their waters. It was very comfortable and Edna was a pleasure to chat with.
“Well Mervin, you mentioned wanting to talk about something. So I'm assuming you all are interested in renting the house?” Merv looked at his friends and got head shakes before he proceeded. “Yes Ma'am, we are interested but I wanted to propose something and you can say no and we're still interested in renting. You mentioned and we all know that the house is in great shape but it's very dated, you said that had been an issue over the last many months.” Edna had on her business lady face “Yes, that's true.” Well what if we could work out to where we would do the work in exchage for it going towards the rent?” He could see she was thinking...”I'm not sure I totally follow how this would work, tell me more.”
“Yes Ma'am, and mind you I don't have it all figured out myself and we'd need to work out the details. But this would all be above the board, no scam or anything. In fact once we agree on a plan, we'd be happy if you had your lawyer write up an agreement or something to make sure everything is on the up an up.” She nodded at him and he noticed Matt and Tanya were listentng intently. “Again this is all new and even these two hadn't really heard my thoughts. So lets say the rent is $1,200 a month, what we could do is provide a portion of that in cash and then apply the balance towards work and items on the house. So lets say one month might be $600 cash and then the other $600 for say new light fixtures. We'd give you all the receipts so you could claim them on your taxes and then we'd keep track of the hours we spend to do the work and then we'd first agree to what an hour would be worth. I don't have that part all figured yet and of course you'd need to agree to the rate. We could sit with you to get a list of priorities you'd like to see done first or we could give you a list as we see them that would help you renting it out in the future or for selling it. Before we did a room we could get you an estimate for what things should cost, give you options and let you pick out the style.“ Matt spoke up “and if you need ideas, Tanya here has great taste, she has her house decorated beautifully.”
Edna asked “So you own a house?” Proudly Tanya replied “Yes Ma'am I've owned it about 4 years now. It's had quite a few fix ups but the boys here are going to help me do some more as I'm trying to decide if I want to sell it or get into the realm of becoming a landlord.” “Oh that's good to know. I will say at times it can be difficult but the extra money coming in is nice.”
About that time Missy came over to the table with a large servers tray full of steaming plates. She set the food down for them, dropped off some ketchup and asked if they needed anything else. As they all shook there heads no “Well you all enjoy and I'll be back in a bit to check on you all”. And then she scurried away headed to another table that had just seated themselves. “It's busy here in the evenings. In the mornings there are maybe 10 or 12 of us that come in. Some of the old men just have their coffee and sit around telling lies to each other.” Merv laughed “Sounds like how Grandpa operated. Gram would make him breakfast every morning but he'd have to go down to Barney's which was the small diner in town. Sort of like here but a lot smaller. He'd say he had to meet up at the Farmer's club. Gram also said all those 'ol farts just went down there so they could tell lies to each other and flirt with the young waitress.” “Oh they do there fair share of that to, I'm sure Missy could tell you about all their shameless flirting.” The all laughed. Merv liked the vibe here, so much seemed like back around his grandparents place. Maybe that was just how small town America was everywhere.
Merv picked back up on his idea “So on the house, as an example let's take that small front bedroom, the one with the orange carpet. Well we'd look at what needs done and get you a price for all the materials that we should need. Now on occasion as we get into things we might find we need more things or different things to fix it but we won't know that till we get into things. But with that room, once you said go we'd tear out the old carpet, go over the walls and fix any holes, making sure their flat and smooth and sand them. We' d strip that peeling popcorn ceiling and finish it smooth. We'd replace that broken bi-fold closet door, paint everything, replace the ceiling light with something more modern, replace the light switch and receptacle covers. Then we could put in new flooring if say each room will be different or leave it til last when all the other rooms are done and it can go down in one shot.”
“Or on the outside, I think you'd agree the house and garage are looking pretty dirty. I noticed there's some mildew in a few places and on the north side in the shady areas I saw algae growing. That old vinyl siding looks to still be in good shape so we could rent a pressure washer and some ladders, buy some house wash or mix use a mix I know and we could clean the house and shop to spruce things up. Then we could do a little landscape, like edging the drive and walks, pop in a few flowers or bushes, some mulch... little things like that really dress up the curb appeal. It'll make it blend in to the rest of the neighborhood. You'd get to inspect and approve everything. In the end, you end up with a remodeled house which will let you ask for more rent money per month down the road or drastically increase the selling price and sale-ability of the place. Well and we get lower rent by putting in some sweat equity.”
“Well what makes you so confident you can do this sort of work and how would I know I'm getting quality work?” “That's a fair question. First I don't do anything halfa... err... half way. You always get my best. Now admittedly my 'crew' here is green but lucky for them they have an awesome boss and crew leader to teach them.” He grinned at Matt and Tanya.. “Oh boy it's getting deep in here.” Matt said. That elicited a chuckle from all of them.
“Well since I was about 10 I used to help out around my grandparents farm with all sorts of things, Grandpa was the sort who didn't call someone to do it, he did it himself. My Dad is pretty much so the same way so I'd help him with all sorts of things around the house and in his wood shop. When I was older, in the summers during high school and then in college, I worked for the son of one of my Grandpa's friends who is a general contractor. Working for Brian I learned a ton. We did everything from new construction to remodels, even jacked up old farm houses to replace crumbling stone foundation walls or rotted floor joists. On one we lifted the entire house off the foundation like three feet in the air. Then they used an old track loader to dig out the crawl space to a full depth basement. We then laid up new block foundation walls, and poured the basement floor. When we were done, we put the house back down on a brand new, full depth basement and partly finished out the basement to the owners specifications.”
When he finished speaking Matt blurted out “Dang, you did all that?” Again the others chuckled “Well yes, some of us didn't have a silver spoon to keep us in an ivory tower school and allow summers spent abroad.” “Canada isn't abroad.” “Hush now, your taking away from my story... If I wanted to go back to Penn State every fall I had to pay my way. And PSU was terrible when it came to money, I'm sure like most big schools, they just don't give out scholarships the first few years to underclassmen, They know they have more students knocking on the door if you're not able or willing to pay their ransom. If you're lucky, maybe around your Junior year, once you're in your actual college you might become eligible for some thru the department. That's what happened for me, until I was a Junior and was 'in' the College of Engineering, I didn't get a dime from PSU. Then all a sudden the flood gates opened.”
“Now, had I been a top notch jock with some ball or other sport or if I'd not been an American, well then, then they can find and dump millions out for free, full ride scholarships. Being a normal run of the mill kid, nope, go get in debt 4 feet over your head. Luckily for those first few years I put in for a lot of scholarships and grants thru private groups and organizations and received a good amount that went to paying a big chunk of my tuition bill but I still had to pay for room and board, meal plans, lab fees, books.” Tanya chimed in “Isn't that the truth, and then they make you buy all those crazy expensive books, tell you that you'll be able to sell them back at the end of the semester but then you come to find out at the end that the Prof has changed to the new edition and they aren't buying the back or they only want to give you $11 for the book that was $190 only four months earlier.”
Edna spoke up “My Grandson David went to Penn State for about a year and a half. He was hoping he'd be able to make the football team when they did the walk on tryouts. He was a good player but when he went the try outs he realized he was good, But those other guys were great and he wasn't any where near that caliber of play. So after his third semester he decided to transfer back down here to a small school where he at least got to play and he was able to finish his degree. I don't get to see him very often now as he and his family live out in Washington state.”
They continued on for about an hour chatting about all sort of things and getting to know one another as they munched away on their meals. “Kids I've really enjoyed our meal but I'm going to need to get headed home soon. It's going to be getting dark and I don't like to drive after dark, the headlights make it really hard for me to see. I went and forgot to bring the application with me so if you all want to take it it and fill it out you can mail it back to me.” “Oh I'd printed it off what you emailed and filled it out. Tanya and I filled it out and signed it, all Matt needs to do is sign on and then give you his credit info.” “I tell you what, I'm not worried about any of your credit histories. What I've seen today speaks beyond what piece of paper can say. I can't tell you for sure on this idea of yours Mervin. I need time to better understand it.” “I understand, I tell you what. Let me think over it a few days and I'll write something up and send it to you to read over. Then if you want to have your lawyer or family look it over to make sure it's all on the up and up you can. And if you don't want to do it we're fine with paying you the monthly rent and other terms you outlined.”
Missy came to the table “Can I get you all anything else? We have some really good pies if you have room for desert.” “Thank you dear but I'm beyond full. Maybe these youngsters want something.” They all looked at her and with a shake of their heads said no. Matt said “I think we're all stuffed and set other than for the check.” “Is it separate or all together.” Matt continued “Together and I'll take it.” “You don't need to pay for me.” Edna said. “I know I don't have to, I want to. My treat and way of saying thank you for your time this afternoon.” “Well thank you, that's very kind of you.” Missy pulled the slip from her apron and handed it to Matt. He looked at it, pulled his wallet out and handed it back with cash. “I'll be right back with your change.” “Nope, that's all you.” “Are you sure?” “Totally. Great food and great service, so thank you..” “Well thank you too. Y'all have a good night. Will I see you in the morning after church Edna?” “Most likely, at least for coffee and pie. She isn't kidding when she tells you they have great pie. I'm afraid to say most of it is better than the ones I make.”
As Missy left Merv spoke “We'll I can sign the application Matt has in the Jeep. If you need the security deposit now I can write you a check. I'll have to move some money to get you first months also.” Tanya spoke up “Or I can give you a check to cover that portion right now.” “No, that is very promt of you kids but no, your words are good to me. Plus I want to think on this proposal. Maybe we won't need to exchange any money for right now.” “Well we'd want you to at least take the security deposit.” “We'll see. As far as I'm concerned you all are my new renters. When do you all want to move in?”
Matt looked at the other two “Well we hadn't talked it thru that far to be honest. We weren't sure we'd like what we found so now that we have we got to get out of pipe dream and into real world. I have to give at least a 30 day notice at my current property. And being a week from the end of the month we'd likely have till the end of next month. So I'll give notice Monday. And well Babe, we need to figure out your situation with your house but we have time there as you aren't on the clock to get out. Plus like we talked last night, you'll want to start your job search and things and then you need to decide what you want to do with your place in Lynchburg.”
Merv looked around the table and spoke to everyone “How about this. The three of us can start talking on the way home tonight and we have tomorrow to get some things down and to look at a calendar. And that should give me time to better form my idea into words and a more formal proposal for Edna. But for now, why don't we let her get headed towards home and we'll head back to the city.” “Yeah good point” So they all got out and walked outside. The three of them shook Edna's hands and told them they enjoyed meeting her and looked forward to living in her house. She thanked them and bid them a safe trip home and that she looked forward to seeing them again. Merv got her car door for her and then closed it. They watched as she pulled out and headed down the road while Matt pulled up the GPS to get back to the apartment.
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Post by gipsy on Jul 27, 2022 7:55:54 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by solo on Jul 27, 2022 11:44:15 GMT -6
This one is developing nicely!
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Jul 27, 2022 12:07:50 GMT -6
Thanks
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Post by CountryGuy on Jul 29, 2022 14:38:34 GMT -6
23
They were all buzzing as they pulled out of the lot headed the opposite direction that they'd saw Edna head. Matt looked over his shoulder at Merv “So we're doing this for real.” Merv slid over between the two front seat and leaned forward “I guess we are.” Merv looked at Tanya “You sure your up for this?” “Heck yeah, what you think I'm going to let you two turds have all the fun?” Merv laughed.
“Well the way I see it, we need to get down some goals and dates to come up with a plan. It's just like work Matt. We determine the tasks, the resources and the finish dates and then back into when things have to start to get done by and how much time we have to get it done.” Tanya turned towards Merv and spoke “I know I'm not an engineer but I thought you're to work forward from the start, figure out the important things that have to happen, add up how long each of those take and then you'll know when it can finish.”
“Well that's the theory they teach but the reality is totally different. See before we ever even get kicked off on a project, some sales guy or VP has already promised and committed us to a finish date. They've also wasted weeks waiting to have face to face meetings or discussing things that have no real impact on anything. Typically they have no clue of all the things that need to happen, all the things that can delay them from happening or how long any of it actually takes to do, even on a good day. It's then our job to take the totally unrealistic date coupled with a totally unrealistic budget they've committed us to and scramble to find all the details and costs they left out or didn't consider. Then we figure out the part you were talking about, the critical path. Everything on it has to happen in an exact order, the next thing can't start till the thing finishes. So if that first thing is late, everything down the line from it is. So think of it like a marathon. You can't run a marathon until you put on your shoes but your shoes aren't on until they're tied. Before they can be tied you need to first put them on.”
“You guys tell me what you think but I think we need to handle our move up separate from whatever we're going to do at your house, they're sort of separate unrelated things at this point.” “I'd agree, getting you guys moved is probably priority since once Matt gives notice the clock starts for you guys to be out. My place at this point isn't a rush, though there are a couple things I'd like to get fixed soon to make my day to day better. Like I have a leaking faucet, my one toilet has issues and I think my dishwasher is dead.”
“Well Babe, like Merv mentioned this morning, start writing a list of anything you can think you want fixed, looked at or changed. For now just write them down as you think of them. Once you have them all down we can go thru and assign your priority. If we work on that some tonight and tomorrow before you have to leave to head home we can get a punch list out of it. I'm thinking that then next weekend I'll come down there and we can start thru some of them. Well assuming our backseat carpenter is available next weekend.”
“Sure, that sounds like a good idea. We have some time here, we can get some things straight for ya Tanya to make your day to day better. Thru the week Matt and I can start get things packed and ready to move. I'm hoping Edna will be cool with us getting the keys ASAP. I'd like to be able to run up there a few afternoons and start working on getting it cleaned while it's totally empty. I mean it isn't bad but it's dusty and a bit musty from being shut up so it'll help freshen it up. And we can do some basic maintenance like flush the boiler, making sure the softener is working and has salt. When it comes to moving though I think we're gonna have to con some of the guys from the office into helping. I mean my wrist is getting better but it still isn't 100% to be lifting heavy couches and furniture. How are your ribs and that collarbone? Ready to bench press a dresser?”
When they got back to the apartment they all got notebooks and started writing lists. Merv wanted to give them a little alone time so he excused himself and said he was going to go down to the cafe that was a few blocks away. He sat there sipping a double espresso and eating a pastry as he jotted notes and also a rough plan of the things that would need to happen over the next few weeks. He was zoned out a bit but at one point as he came up for air he stretched and took a sip of his drink. As he glanced around he noticed a cute brunette looking his way. He smiled at her but then went back to his list. 'She's cute but I, well I just don't think I'm ready for any sort of relationship.' The girl had thought when he smiled maybe he'd taken notice and would come over to talk. When she saw he went back to whatever he was working on she felt a bit dejected, thinking to herself 'I guess he thinks he's to good for me or I'm not cute enough'. It was sad that she was allowed outside voices tell her what she was or wasn't or how her value was to be measured. She gathered up her jacket and purse and headed out, Merv was to distracted to notice her leave. He was also oblivious to several other young ladies who had also been shooting furtive glances his way in hope of catching his eye.
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Post by CountryGuy on Jul 30, 2022 20:28:20 GMT -6
24
When Merv got back to the apartment the love birds weren't anywhere to be seen and he saw their door was shut. He grabbed his water bottle from the fridge and then quietly slipped into his room and pulled out his laptop. He decided to relax and get his mind off the logistics of moving. He booted it up and popped his ear buds in to listen to another episode of his favorite podcast. As he did he had two other things on the move that popped into his mind so he jotted it down on the notepad he kept next to him. He usually always had a notebook and pen in arms reach to jot down thoughts when they'd come to him. It might have just a word or two and other times maybe a full sentence.
If most people looked in his notebook they'd probably wonder what was wrong with him and think it was just full of gibberish and that maybe Merv was a bit nuts. For example what does 'Grandma's lasagna', 'CCW permit', 'toothpaste', 'EPA regs' have too do with anything or each other? To Merv they were clear memory joggers; in this case he needed to get things to make a big pan of Gram's lasagna this week; he needed to investigate WV concealed carry laws; he needed to buy toothpaste; and he needed to check on some regulations that might impact his project at work. Merv switched channels in his head from the move to another project he'd started about two weeks into his rehab... survival.
The podcast started playing and he heard the familiar theme music and the guy's admitted longest marketing tag line of all time. He'd found this guy while he was rehabbing and looking into things that had started with self protection and then lead into preparedness and more.. He'd ended up going down several rabbit holes this guy helped to lead him to when he'd clicked a link about self-sufficiency and “Modern Survivalisim”. All a sudden there were all these things that lit a fire in him, or maybe it had just rekindled ones his Grandparents had started years before.
There were episodes on homesteading, self sufficiency, firearms, small scale farming, investing, aquaponics, precious metals, starting businesses, keto life and on and on. That was how he'd stumbled onto this redneck, hippy, duck farmer in Texas. A guy by the name of Jack who had grown up in Pennsylvania and Florida, a veteran. Merv just couldn't get enough of this Spirko guy and his “The Survival Podcast”. He literally had thousands of podcasts as he'd been trying to get the word out for well over 13 years at this point. His show was a treasure trove of knowledge and ideas from business and investing, to cooking to guns to food preservation to preparedness and more. All of it was level headed, no bullshit and was a refreshing dose of critical thinking without the sales hype. He also backed it up with videos of his work in action, both the successes and the failures.
Merv had noticed that many of the preparedness and homesteader types he'd found on YouTube seemed to constantly be selling something... 'click this', 'follow this link', 'click like', 'click subscribe', 'if you want to buy, go here', 'go to this site to support us', 'go here to become a member or to support us thru Patreon'. Most all seemed to be a carbon copy of the same model. He could tell that many were making pretty big bucks and getting lots of things free or deeply discounted from companies. They'd do show and tells on gear and equipment and it seemed like rarely was there ever a down side and if they did give a negative it was really spun to be a positive or not really an issue. Merv thought hey, great for them, they're improving their situation, apparently lots of people see value in it for them to send the money.
He thought it seemed like many of these people sort of seemed a bit fake and maybe not living the life they tried to present. It seemed the more popular the more they would tell about how so many hours of their day were spent filming content, editing and living the facade of a small time celebrity. TSPC wasn't that. Oh Jack sold and suggested things, had a membership thing where you actually got discounts worth more than what the membership cost for things a person could actually use and want. He'd tell you about things he'd researghed and then went out and bought with his own money and then give an honest review on if it was good, great, mediocre or if it sucked and was a piece of junk.
TSPC was the first place Merv heard about permaculture. Jack talked about it often and explained how it wasn't just about gardening, it was about system design and how to structure many things in your life. Jack had many guests on the topic and various sub categories of it. Some people he agreed with, some he didn't, but he allowed open fair discussion and put out the facts for people to consider and then make their own informed decision. Merv remembered one particular guy that Jack interviewed and then he found many other older interviews with the same guy. He was a sort of mentor and friend to Jack, an Auzzie guy by the name of Geoff Lawton. It turned out that Geoff, at least in Merv's mind, was sort of the heir apparent of the permaculture movement, having been handed the torch from his teacher and mentor, the co writer/ developer of permaculture, Bill Mollison. This all turned into another tunnel system of rabbit holes to get lost down.
His searches and the hours and hours of Jack's podcasts had woke him up and removed a curtain he'd allowed to be placed in front of him a long while ago. He realized that Grandpa and Grandma Cole didn't have that curtain up and they'd been trying to teach him the right way but like many, he'd got complacent and comfortable. He'd closed his eyes for a moment and when he'd reopened them he'd not realized the curtain had been put in place. His recent research had helped find the corner of that curtain and lift it for a glimpse of the other side. Now he was preparing to rip it down and burn it so it'd never be pulled over his eyes again.
He went to his inventory list to look at what he'd pulled together so far for his BOB. He had about 90% of the things he wanted, with moving and being able to get a pistol they would take a big piece of the last 10%. He was trying to build a kit that he could survive out of for four to five days. He knew most of the sites and talking heads used a mythical 72 hours but the way he saw it, if you could make two or three days a couple more didn't take much more than some more food and planning. He was glad to be getting further from DC as it was a constant powder keg for things like protests and riots and was probably ground zero for more than one terrorist groups plans. Wheatland wasn't ideal as in an event there would likely be thousands streaming out from DC in all directions but he knew that at an hour and a helf drive it would take most of the window lickers days until they'd make it that far out.
Merv had slowly been dropping hints about these things to Matt. He didn't want to go all out initially for fear he might be turned off to all of it but he also believed, based on things he'd said since the attack, that he might be receptive to being prepared. He'd also started putting together some totes with things that would help cover all three of them. The first he'd started was a blackout kit. In the few years he'd been living in the district he saw how quickly people lost their mind if the power went out of if something like a big snow storm hit. The concept of being prepared for anything beyond the next meal seemed to miss almost everyone in the city.
He clicked on a couple sites and went and placed an order for a few things. He was trying to be sensible in growing his preps and not run out and just dump money into 'stuff'. When he finished his order he decided to start doing some research on the area that would soon be home. He looked initially for emergency service places to see how close the fire department, ambulance and hospitals were to the house. He then started looking to see what was around for sporting goods and gun shops, gun clubs or ranges, and any state parks or hunting areas as well as any places that looked to be interesting that he might want to explore.
As he was thing about his bug out totes and other items it reminded him of a few things he'd need to remember for the move. First he'd make sure he moved his totes up to the house before he had any of the guys over to help move. He figured that would be easier than have others seeing and asking questions. He then suddenly got hit with lightening. “shit!” he at that point remembered his two storage units he'd had for years. 'Man I got to get by those and see what might need moved sooner than later or that might be in there that I'd rather not ask questions about.
He'd rented the units years back, the one even before he was married that had things he didn't want others knowing about and in fact in some of them he himself wasn't totally sure that was in some of them. He had one locker over the line in Virginia and the other was just inside the district. He'd need to go thru them as he knew there were things he could toss and then other things he'd likely want to sell or give away. He went digging thru his computer files looking into folders he'd not opened in years. He found the folders he was looking for, 'Locker 1' & 'Locker 2'. He opened them and spent the next hour looking down thru them refreshing is memory. When he was done he decided he'd drive by both units in the morning to open them and make sure there weren't any surprises or forgotten things.
With some 'work' done he decided it was time for some 'prepper porn'. He opened his favorites folder and clicked the link. A millisecond later a sleek sexy looking beast was slayed across his 24” monitor. The P220 Legion popped up front and center. 'oh is that sexy' Merv thought. This had been the forbidden fruit he'd wanted for the last few months since the attack and since he'd got in touch with the young Merv his Grandparents had known. Once he had his address moved and a new West Virginia drivers license, he would have her. Now he thought, he wouldn't want her to be lonely and she was a bit much to tuck away in the summer, even with his big frame. He spent about an hour looking over the many other models realizing he would need to investigate other options for his daily concealed carry.
Before Merv shut off the computer he went in to a couple sites logging in to check various account balances and he also checked an excel sheet he'd not looked at. It held an inventory of his precious metals. A quick check on spot prices and he input that into the cell for current market price. He was surprised at how much the spot price had increased from the last time he'd opened this file a few years back. He had it refresh the value of the total current value. With that he finally broke away and shut down the computer.
He slipped out of his room and over to the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth, took a leak and shut off the light. He knew he'd have a busy day tomorrow and that in the weeks to come they'd all have more than enough work to go around. Before he turned in he went and double checked the apartment door was locked. On his way back thru the living room he looked out the sliding door that lead out to the small patio they had. It was a pretty view and at night with it all lit up it was pretty amazing. Between the trees and the two buildings across the street he could see a sliver of the Washington Monument way beyond, standing in all it's glory. It mad him sad to know all the corruption and evil doing that happened every day in this big city, he'd be glad to have it behind them soon.
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Post by gipsy on Jul 30, 2022 20:35:22 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 1, 2022 6:19:24 GMT -6
I'm traveling for work this week and not sure how much time I'll get to post so here is a piece to hopefully tide any of you, that are interested, over till I'm back. I'm hoping I might get a quiet evening or two to crank out more story for future updates. 25
He was up just as the sky was starting to lighten outside. He slipped on shorts and a tank top and then his sneakers. He headed down to the small gym the apartment complex had. It wasn't huge and reminded him of most hotel gyms, a couple treadmills, exercise bikes and one of those weight machines but the stand out was they also had a bench, some free weights and some dumbbells. This morning was chest and back so after a few minutes of stretching he started lifting. Today would be lighter weights with higher repetitions. He changed up every few days between this routine and then one where it was high weight low reps. He blasted thru his workout feeling his muscles burning.
As he was nearing the end of his last set a woman, he thought she looked to be in her early fifties, came thru the door. She was wearing skin tight yoga shorts and a low cut sports bra that held in boobs that looked way to large and perky to be original equipment. By how tight her forhead and neck were along with her over plumped lips he figured there was quit a bit aftermarket with her. He also noticed her very large diamond ring. “Ohh Hi, usually there isn't anyone down here this early in the mornings when I work out, especially Sunday mornings.”
“Oh sorry. Yeah, I'm usually here earlier and gone by now and don't see anyone.” Merv said. As he continued ripping thru the the shoulder presses he could see in the mirror she was watching him as she feigned stretching. He wanted to laugh as he watched her overtly bending and stretching, shoving her ass so far out she almost fell over. Next thing he knew she was standing next to the bench. Here we go, he thought. “Your really well built...” he didn't respond. “really ripped.” “Un hunh...” “Ummm think you might want to show me some pointers? Maybe work out with me?” Merv was shocked, but not shocked. He figured in the 5 minutes she'd been in here this is where things were headed.
“What do you think your husband would think about that?” as his head nodded towards her left hand. He kept his count going in his head. “We'll he doesn't need to know. I mean we could work out right here or go to your apartment.” Merv finished his last set and set the bar back on the holds. “Yeah, that's not gonna work for me. I'm not looking to be someone's side action or weekend frolic. That's not who I am or what I'm about. I had an ex wife that thought like you. But hey good luck with that and enjoy your work out.” She stood there with her mouth half hanging open as he got up off the bench, wiped it down, tossed the towel in the dirty towel can by the door. By her reaction he took it that she wasn't used to getting turned down for workout partners. As he opened the door to head out he heard her comment “Well you didn't need to be a dick about it.” The door shut behind him and he didn't look back. He just shook his head as he continued on out to the courtyard, thru the gated arch that let out onto the side street, made a right and started his jog.
It was early so he knew his roomies would still be fast asleep. He stopped at a bakery on his way back, the smells were just too good to pass up. He grabbed some bagels, a couple pastries and a loaf of day old bread. When he got back the place was dead quiet. He put on a pot of coffee before heading to the shower. When he surfaced Tanya was sitting with her feet on the chair seat and her knees pulled up to her chest wrapped in her robe. She was sipping a cup of coffee and munching one of the pastries. With a full mouth she mumbled “ 'fank ru”. “ru relcum... didn't your parents teach you not to speak with your mouth full.” Merv laughed. As she finished chewing, swallowed a sip of coffee to wash things down she paused, stuck her tongue out at him “yes, but they're not here.” they both laughed. “Did you already get you work out in?” “Sure did, it was an adventure too.” “Oh really, hows that. Oh had a cougar down in the gym want to 'work out'” he said making air quotes around the word. She laughed “well what do you expect, you are a good looking guy and hey women, especially older ones have needs and itches too.” “Well I get that, but I told her she might want to talk to her husband about scratching those needs.” “Ohh, yeah that's not good.” “Well apparently I was a dick for bringing it up.” She chuckled “Well now that's not very neighborly on a Sunday morning. I hope she's headed to confession.” Merv chuckled “I doubt it, something tells me the church might burst into flames if she walked in.”
“Speaking of boy toys and cougars, where is yours?” “Dick” she said with a smile. “Not like I haven't heard that in the last hour.” He chuckled as he sipped his cup of coffee. “He's in the shower and then I'm headed in.” I'm surprised you didn't join him.” “He lost out to your coffee.” Merv laughed “priorities hunh? Well at least he knows where he rates. So what are your guys plans for today?” Well like we'd talked about on the way back yesterday we're going to work on a list of things I know need looked at at my place. We're going to maybe look around online for some ideas for redoing my bathroom.” “Tell you what, as you find pics, open up a Word file and copy the pic into it and paste the link, that way I can look at it later and give you an idea on what is easy and what could be expensive.” “That's a great idea. I see things I like all the time and then I can never get back to where I saw it or find it again. That'll make things a lot simpler. What about you, what are you up too?”
“Well I was up pretty late creating lists and starting to try to get things organized to move. I mean luckily for me I don't have much. I mean after the divorce I only had a few totes at Jimbo's and then when I had to move out of there I had less after getting my bag stolen. I need to go check on a storage unit I have, to see what's there worth keeping, selling or trashing. I mean a lot of that stuff has been there since college. I just keep paying for it every month.” “Do you need us to help?” “No, I appreciate it but a lot of it is just going to be me looking thru personal documents and such. Seeing what things might need shredded. What time are you planning to take off to head home?” “I'd like to be out of here by three, if not a little earlier. I want to get home as I need to do some laundry and then there were some things Matt mentioned I need to get him some info and pics of.”
“Well in case I'm not back till you leave, if you would, talk over with Matt next weekend. Mention to him I'm thinking he and I can skate out around lunch time Friday to get ahead of the Friday rush. That would put us at your place when? Like three or three thirty?” “Yeah about that, Friday traffic is always heavier so sometimes you never can tell.” “OK. We'll all figure out this week what some of your high issue things are and we'll focus on getting those done or started next weekend. I mean as far as moving, not counting the storage unit, I could have everything out of here in 45 minutes. I know Matt has more stuff and we'll have to see about renting a Uhaul or something since we don't have his truck.”
“Yeah I still can't believe that his insurance company hasn't settled with him about his truck by now. He says every time he calls they just sort of play him off saying we're working on it and then nothing happens.” “Yeah I want to talk to him about that, I think it's to the point he needs to get a lawyer and sue them.” “Can you do that? I mean sue your own insurance company.” “I'm not a lawyer but as I understand it, yes. I mean they aren't holding up their end of the policy and it's causing him all sorts of inconvenience and costs. They've had the police reports for months at this point. Well anyway, might be time for him to turn up the heat on them, even if he doesn't have to full out sue them, maybe showing he has a lawyer will help them speed up their processing.”
“Yaa, might be worth a try. Working in a hospital, nothing surprises me when it comes to insurance companies.” “I can only imagine. Well I'm going to grab a tote and some things to take with me and them I'm going to get going.” Tanya stood “OK well Im' going to grab more coffee and go see if I can speed him up in there. I guess I'll see you next week then. Give me a hug then.” Merv gave her a hug she refilled her coffee and padded down the hall to their room.
Merv filled his liter Nalge bottle with some ice and filled it with water from their water dispenser. He also went ahead and filled his travel mug with coffee leaving enough for Matt. He went back and grabbed the small day pack, an empty tote and the key for the storage unit along with the inventory print out he'd made last night. He headed down and tossed everything in the trunk of shit box and hit the road. He pulled up to the gate of the storage facility. This was one of those large multi story, climate controlled units. He held out the little key fob to trigger the gate to slide open and then drove down thru between the buildings to building F. He only saw a Uhual by building B and looked like someone might be loading the truck. He parked in one of the available spots by his building, grabbed the stuff from the trunk and headed to the second floor. Once he found unit 234 he unlocked and once the door was up flicked on the light switch.
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Post by gipsy on Aug 1, 2022 7:17:24 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Aug 2, 2022 11:20:34 GMT -6
Thank you
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Post by iamnobody on Aug 5, 2022 16:31:00 GMT -6
M O A R !!
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 15, 2022 20:57:50 GMT -6
Sorry I've been MIA, been traveling for work last two weeks and the Mrs had all sorts of honey do's stacked up waiting when I got home. I have a few more chapters 90% roughed out but I need to reread and groom a little before posting. Hoping a night this week but this week and next got a kid moving back to college and others starting school and trying to get Cub Scouts up and off the ground for the year and trying to salvage our Pack, Covid destroyed it. We went from 34 active kids down to 6. Younger parents don't seem to see or feel value in the things Scouts tries to teach, but then Scouts has watered themselves down and sold out for money in about every way.
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 16, 2022 20:58:24 GMT -6
Thanks for bearing with me...
26
It had been about 4 years since he had been in here as he recalled. There were heavy duty shelving units that he'd assembled lining both side and the back walls of the 12' x 16' room. Down the center of the ‘U’, on the floor were two heavy duty blue plastic pallets. On the pallets were a mix of heavy items. One had a large tool chest strapped down on one with the rest of the pallet covered with more of the heavy duty totes stacked up and strapped down fast with 1” ratchet straps. The shelves were full of heavy duty black totes with bright yellow lids that he'd found at one of the big box lumber stores at the time. They reminded him of his beloved Steelers and Penguins but more importantly they were thick and heavy duty and could take a beating.
Each tote had a big label on its end with a number on it. On the corner of each rack hung a clipboard that held pages, each page numbered to match a number on a bin. The page held the item inventory of each bin and what was inside of it. Some lists were more generic like 'engineering books – sophomore year' others were more detailed with specific items.
He grabbed a folding, outdoor canvas chair that sat in the corner and opened it up. He then grabbed the clipboard from all of the shelves before he sat down. He laid them on the floor next to his chair, picking up the one for Shelf 1. He sipped his coffee as he began to flip thru the lists. Some of the pages showed a slight fading of the pages, time having faded the printer ink, even in the darkness of the storage locker. “Hmm... I got more crap here than I thought.” he said to no one. 'Why the heck have I paid to store so much of this junk for all these years.” He knew good and well that much of the items were far from junk.
As he scrolled thru the lists he'd make tick marks next to things he was interested in looking at and possibly keeping, things he planned to get rid of got a little '0'. After about 15 minutes it was about a 50/50 split of ticks and 0's. He looked thru the sheets and picked the 2 sheets that had the most 0's. He went and pulled those off the shelves and sat them by his chair with the empty he'd brought next to him. He took the lid off and started going thru them. One was a lot of old concert tees and other clothes, there was only a couple of shirts he wanted from it. So he pulled them out and put them in the empty tote.
He did the same with the next one which had some old work jeans and khakis. A look at the tags and he was like nope, I've not worn that size for probably 8 years, these were back before I really bulked up and shot up, no way my legs will fit in those. As he went he put a ‘+’ on the things he took out to save and made a '/' on the 0's for the stuff he was getting rid of.
He knew of a store that sold vintage and retro clothing so he figured he'd see what they might offer him for the stash. He'd been there in the past with Karen as she thought it was cool and hip. Anything they didn't want he was torn. He wasn't sure if he should just take it to one of those drop offs where organizations collect clothes for the needy or if he should try some of those clothing websites where you can sell used clothes. He pulled his phone out and messaged Tanya for her thoughts since he knew, thru Matt, that she dabbled on those and bought and sold stuff.
He sat his phone down and continued thru the next two totes. One had more clothes and was sort of the same, though some of the clothes were old socks and underwear and some old wife beater tees he wore in the summers when he'd worked for Brian. He pulled a big trash bag out of the tote he bought and tossed a bunch of that stuff into it. He wasn't going to trash it, he'd put it in one of the clothing donation boxes. What they didn't want to use he knew they often would turn into rags or rag rugs.
The fourth tote was more old desk stuff, like a pencil sharpener, stapler, pen holders and pens. It was mostly the stuff off his desk from his senior year when he'd moved out of his apartment in State College. It might have value to someone, just not him. He knew the Goodwill boxes took all sorts of things like this. He'd drop it there along with the stuff in the clothes bag. He picked out a few things he wanted, pulled out a couple things that had his name or other identifying things. As he was looking thru a small box he found a bunch of USB's and a $20 “Jackpot!” He stuck the bill in his shirt pocket, closed the lid on the little box and set it in the keep tote. He'd go thru the drives when he had time to see what was on them.
His phone chirped and he saw it was Tanya saying send her a pic of the stuff. So he took a pic of the two totes so she could see some of the stuff in it and sent it back. She asked for the sizes and he told her most of the pants were 32x32 and the tees and shirts were larges or XL's. In typical smart ass fashion he had to laugh at her reply 'apparently someone got fluffy after college cause no way will you fit in those'. 'Har Har... bet I'm not the only one?' He got back a smiley face with it's tongue sticking out. 'Yeah 4 sure, some of that will fly out. You B back 4 I lv?' 'No, I'll bring next weekend.' 'cool'.
He combined things from the first two totes and the third one down into the two. The next two he looked at had various kitchen things that were dirt cheap when he bought them and he wouldn't use again. It was things like a toaster, a knock off George Forman grill and a blender, maybe they’d see life again for another college student. In another one was a small microwave, and some old plastic cups and utensils. He decided all of that would go to the Goodwill stack. He'd gotten thru about a ¼ of the shelves and looked at the time. He'd give it another hour but for now he'd make a trip down to the car. He had a little fold out handtruck sitting in the corner that he pulled out and opened up. He stacked the two totes with the clothes on it and headed down stairs. He wasn't worried about leaving the unit open as he hadn't seen or heard anyone in the hours he'd been here.
He popped the trunk and set those totes in and then had an idea. Rather than drive he walked up to the property office that was still open. In it they had various packaging things from boxes and tape to bubble wrap and moving blankets. You could also rent hand trucks and pallet jacks by the hour, half day, or day. Nothing about the place was cheap but the convenience was worth it right now. Merv selected three boxes he thought would work and a roll of tape and then headed back to his building. As he walked along he saw a few other vans, trucks and cars at the other buildings but he was still the lone body at his.He stopped at the car and grabbed the hand truck and headed back upstairs. As he got off the elevator the motion lights in the hallway kicked on at his presence.
He put one of the boxes together and packed the things from the small appliance tote into it. He pulled the microwave out and opened the door and took advantage of the empty space inside by packing it with some of the small items. Goodwill could have this stuff but they weren't getting his bins. As he emptied them he stacked them inside the other and set the lids in them. He loaded the hand truck with two of the boxes and the microwave on top and headed to the car. He placed all of that in the backseat, re-locked the car and headed back up.
He pulled three more totes down, these ones were smaller, about half the size but they were crazy heavy from the contents. As he popped the top off the first one he could see the cover of a few car mags. He pulled a three inch stack out and could see the spines of the books under them. He spent the next hour and a half going thru the three crates and separating the books into various groups. One group were ones he had no interest in and he'd donate to goodwill or maybe see if a used book store would give him a little for them. The other stacks were engineering related that he'd keep though he set a few off to the side to think if he had any use for them. He also had a pile for things more hobby related. There were ones on various outdoor survival, hunting, fishing and reloading. He'd forgotten just how into it he'd actually been. He put the mags into a few stacks too, though he wasn't sure any were worth keeping. Maybe he'd hang on to them for now until he had time to flip thru them. With those three complete he had one box to almost full that were the 'dump' pile, one slightly over full with engineering books, and one that was empty. He'd taken the magazines and placed them in piles on the shelf that was now empty from the combined totes. He new there were several more book totes to go thru and he was sure they had more mags too.
He looked around and was happy with the dent he made. He wasn't even going to mess with the things on the pallets as they were all of his hand tools and power tools he'd not needed with living in the apartment and then the townhouse. Those would go straight to the new house and get unloaded in the garage. He took a minute and flipped thru a few of the other sheets. He went to the rack on the other wall and pulled down three bins. He pulled the lid off one and got the faint scent of Karen's perfume. These were filled with her things. He felt pangs of emotion from nostalgia and longing to loss and anger. He stacked those on top of each other and pushed the stack to the end of the shelves. He'd have to think what to do with those. His first instinct was to toss or burn them but as he got his anger under control he thought of just giving them away but the things weren't his. He'd think on it.
The sight of those items and the trip down a not so happy memory lane deflated Merv's enthusiasm for the sorting. He set the tote of books he was keeping back up on the shelf and closed up the ones he would get rid of And set it on the little hand truck. He made a couple notes on one of the sheets and then grabbed the trash bag with the donations and set it on top of the book tot. He tested it, the tote was heavy for the little cart but it would hold. He wheeled it outside the door then reached in, flicking off the light and reaching up and pulling down the door. He locked it, double checked the padlock and then grabbed the truck and wheeled for the freight elevator. [/b][/font][/font]
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Post by gipsy on Aug 16, 2022 21:50:42 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Aug 17, 2022 9:57:16 GMT -6
Thanks
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Post by iamnobody on Aug 17, 2022 10:33:24 GMT -6
Thanks for bearing with me...
You fed the MOAR hounds just in time. The Moar hounds here I had to keep in a cement kennel with 1 ½ inch steel bars in the front. They had the cement walls almost scratched through in a lot of places and and the bars were bent that they would of soon been able to get out. It is not a good thing when the MOAR hounds are on the loose.
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Post by bluefox2 on Aug 17, 2022 17:41:11 GMT -6
Thanks for bearing with me...
You fed the MOAR hounds just in time. The Moar hounds here I had to keep in a cement kennel with 1 ½ inch steel bars in the front. They had the cement walls almost scratched through in a lot of places and and the bars were bent that they would of soon been able to get out. It is not a good thing when the MOAR hounds are on the loose. MOOOOAAARRR
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 17, 2022 18:55:34 GMT -6
I better get some Moooar Hound Spray Away...
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Post by texican on Aug 17, 2022 19:42:23 GMT -6
I better get some Moooar Hound Spray Away... CG, Make sure it is JD Black in the spray and the moar hounds will follow you anywhere as long as you keep spraying. Texican....
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Post by motherhen on Aug 18, 2022 8:23:32 GMT -6
CountryGuy, I have enjoyed this story so much, thank you 🙂
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 19, 2022 13:08:03 GMT -6
Thought I posted this the other night but guess I messed something up as I don't see it.
27
As Merv got the last things into the car he did a quick Google map search on his phone and found a Goodwill donation drop only about three blocks away. He drove over and was able to drop the trash bag of clothes in the donation bin but no way would the boxes fit. He’d wait till a day this week and drive by the drop off center he knew of. He also planned to go by a used book shop he sometimes went to and see if they’d be interested in buying the box of books.
With that done he ran by the little market he liked to go to. It was a smaller family run place that often had regional produce and meat, things that were farm raised and without all the GMO feeds and antibiotics. It was definitely more expensive and likely anyone seeing him buying it figured he was some sort of tree hugger but you could smell and taste the difference in the items. He felt the quality and health benefits were worth the price. As he drove by and was going to pull into their small lot he saw the shop was totally dark. “ahhh crap” he admonished himself, “It’s Sunday dummy, they're closed. Well guess that won’t work, guess I’ll head over to Trader Joe’s.” He really didn’t like going there as it seemed like it was filled with yuppies, Karen’s and the woke crowd but he did have to say the quality of the food was better than most other grocery places but nowhere near what the costs would tend to indicate. Since he was just getting things for one dish he’d bite the bullet today. He was in and out in about 10 minutes and tried to avoid as many people and any eye contact that he could.
When he got back to the parking lot he left the boxes in the trunk and the small but heavy book laden tote on the back seat. He grabbed the two small bags of groceries off the front seat and headed up to the apartment. As he walked in the door Matt was sitting on the couch working on his laptop with a football game on the TV in the background. “Hey, you want a beer?” “Yeah, that sounds good. Let me set this stuff down.” “Great, then grab me one too.” Matt smiled with a cheesy grin. “Dick” “Thank you.” Merv sat the bags on the counter and grabbed two beers and popped the top on his and took the other one over to Matt. “Here you go…” As Matt reached out for it Merv sat it down on the far corner of the coffee table out of Matt’s reach to where he’d have to move to get it. “Dick” “Like I haven’t already heard that a few times today.” Matt leaned forward and grabbed the bottle. “Man, didn’t even twist off the top for me.” “Sorry Princess, guess you’ll have to get rough up those delicate fingers.” “Yeah Tanya was telling me about your morning run in with one of the local wild cougars. Haven’t I warned you to beware the local wildlife.” “Yeah she pounced out of nowhere, that was for sure.”
“Hey, I got stuff to make my Grams lasagna recipe.” “Hell yeah, I love that stuff.” “Well if you like mine you should have tried hers. I can never get mine to taste exactly the same. Only thing that I know is different is that she used her homemade spaghetti sauce most times and the meat came from what we raised on the farm. I do remember a few times when she made it with store bought sauce too and mine still can’t compete.” “I can’t imagine it being even better than yours. She’d probably have ruined me to eat any other lasagna. Including my Mom’s.” “Yep, now you know why I make this and even though it’s not exact, nothing else can come close to touching Grams’.
About 2 ½ hours later their apartment smelled amazing as the big dish of lasagna sat cooling on the stove and the garlic bread had a few minutes left in the oven. “So I told her most likely she’d be best off to just replace the toilet than fix the one she has.” “Yeah I’d agree and if, like you say, the one in the master bath is leaking by and it and the one in the other are both outdated and the bowls have rust stains, it’ll be easier, faster and improve the look 10 fold and reduce the water usage. Tell her that if she gets time before or after work this week, go by one or both of the big box lumber stores and see if she sees two that she likes. I would suggest she look at the elongated ones as most people prefer those now days. She might want to check that they have two in stock and see if they’ll put a hold on them till Saturday.” “Ok, I will.”
“Oh, have her pick out faucet sets too. But if they’re in good shape but just dripping we can get a couple dollar kit and replace the seals and springs rather than her spending a couple hundred bucks on new ones. Tell her if she has any questions to call and I’ll walk her thru what she can and can’t use based on what is there already.” “Thanks man. I, and I know she, really appreciates you doing this.” “Don’t thank me yet. Besides I’m going to make you two do the hard, dirty work. Now come on, that lasagna should be cooled enough to cut and the garlic bread should be about ready. Grab the salads and dressing out of the fridge and we’ll eat.
When they finished eating and had cleaned up and put things away Matt asked “Hey you ready to gie him a call?” Yeah sure, let me go take a leak if you want to start getting it logged on.” Since Jimbo’s parents had taken him home to oversee his care he’d been improving a lot. About three weeks after he’d got up to Michigan he’d regained full consciousness. His Mom had gave the guys a call to let them know and since then, every Sunday evening they do a video call with Jimbo to ceck in and so they could all see each other. Jimbo’s TBI was quite severe and he’d have a long road to get back and his Mom had confided the Docs didn’t think he’d make 100%.
The guys told her to tell the Doc to go to hell along with his opinion and that she knew what a hard head she raised and he wasn’t going to let anyone tell him what he could or couldn’t do. It seemed to help her, they felt many weeks like their calls were as a big of a boost for her and his Dad as it was Jimbo. He’d had to start over on most things, learning to walk, learning to feed himself, speech therapy, all of it. It pained the guys to see where their friend was but they hoped that even with the distance they might be able to help keep him motivated and that he’d recover fully. Only with time and the Grace of God would they know.
They did notice that in the last six weeks since he’d gotten a new therapy nurse he’d really seemed to make huge gains. The second week after the switch his Mom let them in on a little secret that the new Nurse, Andrea, and Jimbo had dated for quite a while in high school but that due to him being a typical teenage shithead, she’d broken up with him. His Mom said she thought she might see a bit of a rekindling there. They had a great call, Jimbo seemed to be a mile from where he was last week. They talked and joked for about 20 minutes, telling him some about the move and that Matt was going to also be picking up another roommate besides Merv. They told him that the following Sunday they might not be on as they would likely be driving back late from Tanya’s. They said that if they had a signal they’d at least try to call his cell. They all said goodbye and everyone was in great spirits.
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 19, 2022 13:09:36 GMT -6
28
Wednesday afternoon over his lunch break Merv had time to take a little longer lunch and decided to run by the Goodwill center and drop off the boxes of donations he still had in the trunk. He was glad to see the things go somewhere he hoped others would be able to get use from the items. His next stop was the used book store he'd had in mind. Before lugging the heavy tote up the street and into the store he decided to go in and talk to them first. He walked up to the register area where a lady was standing and asked if he might speak with the manager. A middle aged lady who'd been standing off to the side stepped over and introduced herself as the owner, Cindy, and asked what she could help him with.
Merv introduced himself and told her about his tote of books. He told her that he no longer needed them and he wanted to see if she might be interested in buying them. He told her some were college texts and the others were various books he’d read for a course or were ones he’d bought in his travels to read on flights. He mentioned there were quite a few varied genres. Everything from self help/ DIY, business, fiction, biographies, westerns, sci-fi and more. He told her that many of them he’d bought new and that most were in like new to very good condition. He said others he bought used from shops like hers and that the fact of the matter was that better than a good chance one or two had likely come from her shop.
She said she didn’t recognize him and he did say he’d not been by in a few years due to the business of life but that he used to enjoy coming in. He mentioned he used to often get into delightful conversations with a short older lady who was always so friendly. As she looked at him her eyes began to slightly glisten. She explained that the woman was her mother but that sadly she’d passed away suddenly about two and a half years back and then Cindy had taken over running the shop. Choosing to leave a C-suite position to take over the love and life's work of her mother rather than to see it go empty. Merv told her that he was sorry to hear of her loss and that he thought her Mom had been a special and wonderful person. She thanked him for his kind words and agreed with him that she was.
Cindy said she did buy books to add to her inventory as well as to sell online and agreed to take a look at what Merv had. He told her he'd run to his car and be back in a few minutes which is what he did. He was quickly back with the heavy box. As he came through the door she pointed him to a table as she hurried ahead of him to clear a spot to set down the burden. He opened the lid and told her to have a look.
Cindy began going through the books, unpacking them two at a time. She’d look at the title, condition of the dust jacket and quickly flip thru the pages looking for damage or pen or highlighter marks. On occasion she looked at the blurb on the dust jacket about the book or author. “I would be interested in most of these but there are several here...” she tapped a pile with mainly text books “They might sell but they’ll be very slow to non movers. “I get that; I’m sure Physics, Thermodynamics and Fluid Dynamics aren’t most people's cup of tea for easy or relaxation reading.”
“Well these ones I would be interested in, I count 27 here. Without pricing out each one which will take some time, what I would do is offer you $5 each, cash money.” Merv thought about that and did the math quickly in his head and quickly countered. “Would you do $8 each but half in cash and half in store credit? And I’ll toss in the 5 you didn’t want as at least they might find a home here some day rather than the home they'll find tonight in the bottom of my apartment complex’s dumpster.”
He waited as he saw her considering and thinking thru his offer. He'd wait until she broke the silence, when negotiating he knew it was critical to know when to shut up and let the other person be the one to break the silence. “Yes, I think I can do that… Yes, that seems very fair, so $108 cash and $108 store credit.” “Sounds like we have a deal” as he held out his hand to shake hers “but I keep my tote” he said with a grin. She smiled, put her small hand into his big paw and they shook on it. “Deal and you keep your tote“ “Well then, I still have some lunch time left so I think I’m going to look around and see if I can put some of my new credit to work.” “Sounds good, I’ll be here somewhere when you get ready to check out or leave” “OK, sounds good.”
Merv wandered around the store and noticed some things had moved and changed since his last visit. He realized that where he’d once been a ravenous reader, when he'd gotten married he’d veered away from that as he was afforded little solace to read as Karen had constantly had to have the TV or music playing.
Cindy had a huge section that was full of the typical “romance” novels, aka “Housewife Porn” as he’d heard them called. There were a few older women sifting thru the books or was their interest more in the hunk pictured on the cover. He finally found a section on gardening but most of it was more on flowers and formal gardens but he did find a couple titles and ended up picking two. One was on Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew and the other on something called the Mittleider Gardening Method by Dr. Jacob Mittleider. A quick flip thru both looked like there was content worth a closer read. He found a “sporting” section which was mostly books on baseball, tennis, walking and running, football and some obscure sports. Nope, moving on. He came to the ‘Outdoors’ section that he thought might have some promise. As he scanned thru the titles he grabbed a couple that popped right out to him. There were a couple Peterson field guides, one on plants another on edible plants of the northeast. They both went into his growing stack. He was surprised to see two titles on hunting, though archery hunting. A place like this inside the District normally stayed away from more manly pursuits and interests like hunting and anything doing with guns. He did see a book on knots that he grabbed, it was something he needed to refresh himself with. At one point as a kid working on his Eagle he could tie dozens of different knots, hitches and lashings but they are definitely skills with an expiration date. If you don’t keep at them you quickly forget the intricacies and nuances of tying more than your shoes or a square knot. Another he saw was on dutch oven cooking which he also snatched up.
As he continued on he found sections on all sorts of things, even a rather large one on mental well being and anxiety and the such and just rolled his eyes that there was such a large section which meant it was also a high in demand section. With all the narcissistic people in DC he figured he shouldn’t be that surprised. There was a full row, both sides, of various cook books though most on a quick scan did nothing for him, titles with things like vegetarian and vegan in them that meant nothing to him.
He was scanning those as Cindy came by and asked if he was finding things of interest. He said he had found a couple things, holding the books out towards her. She asked if he had specific things of interest. He told her anything on cars or engines and then any sort of outdoor things or DIY stuff. She pointed to the Outdoor area and he said he’d found that already and had also looked thru the gardening section. She pointed him to a small room off to a corner he missed behind a column. She said he might find that stuff in there. She joked and said it was more of the man’s cave. He thanked her and went to check it out.
He didn’t recall ever seeing this area or being in it before. Maybe back in the day it wasn’t part of the sales floor he thought? As he entered it he immediately had higher hopes for this area than he’d found in the rest of the store. He looked thru the titles and many initially seemed to be coffee table books with pictures of either exotic eurotrash cars or classic eurotrash cars which he did admit had nice design to them. He found some DIY auto books on beyond basic car maintenance so he passed . He found a couple books on rebuilding various engines and one on diesels that he picked up. More were vehicle specific Chilton or Hayes manuals but none of the ones were on any vehicles he had interest in, most seeming to be for 80’s and early 90’s vehicles. As he moved on and looked thru the DIY books he started finding some that were of more interest. He got a book on home brewing that covered wines, beers and ciders and then he found a thick book that looked to be loaded with things on ‘homesteading’. It was called Country Living and was by a lady by the name Carla Emery. As he flipped thru it it was packed with all sorts of info. He noticed it looked like the spine didn’t even have a crease in it like anyone had even opened it beyond a glance.
He glanced at his watch and saw that he needed to go settle up and get back to work. There seemed to be a decent amount of books in this section to explore thru but it would need to be another day. As he headed to the checkout he had eight books in hand. Well at least he was going back with a lot less books than he brought and they were ones he’d not read. Cindy was standing there as he stepped up and she took them and looked at each one and rang it up. It came to $49 and some change. Cindy counted out $135 and then asked him for his name, address and cell number. She then wrote down $135 - 49 = $86 and told him what he had remaining in credit and told him if he came back and she wasn’t in to tell the clerk to look under the cash drawer as that’s where she’d keep his credit slip. She told him that if she saw any outdoor type books come in she would set them to the side and give him a shout for first dibs. He told her that would be great and told her books on outdoors, camping hunting, vegetable gardening, wild foraging and guns are all interests he had. He joked with her “so probably about all the topics of what most of your city clients don’t buy. If you get in any that look good and possibly remember me, give me a shout and I’ll be happy to come take a look.
With their transaction done he thanked her and started to leave when he stopped at the same time she said “oh wait’... He turned and smiled “my bin?” she smiled and shook her head yes. “Thank you and have a great day.” He stuck the books in the bin and headed for the door, giving her a wave before he pushed thru it and headed for his car. He tossed the bin in the back seat but then decided he’d grab something quick for lunch. He locked the car and walked about a half block down from the book store to a small NY style deli. Ten minutes later with a Rueban in his brown bag he headed for the apartment to get on his laptop for his next conference call of the day. He’d enjoy his sandwich while sitting thru the boring thing while on mute. As the smell of the sandwich filled the car he did have to admit that on some days, living in the city did have advantages, but only very rarely.
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Post by gipsy on Aug 19, 2022 13:46:23 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 20, 2022 13:07:54 GMT -6
29
The week flew by and by mid morning Friday Merv and Matt both finished up with their conference calls and had their various reports and updates complete. Everything was done that needed done for the week. As Merv hung up from a call with a supplier he walked out to the living room where Matt was on his personal computer doing something. “OK, so that was the last call I had to make and since I see you're on your laptop and not the company one, we can go ahead and get out of here and beat some of the traffic.” “Great, let’s roll then.” “Let me take a quick leak and grab my bag. If you want to head down I’ll meet you at the car, the keys are laying on the end of the bar.” “Sounds good, see you down there.”
Merv got to the car about the same time as Matt. Merv looked at him “What took you so long?” “I ran by and checked the mail. There was nothing.” Merv popped the trunk and tossed in his bag and Matt tossed in his. “What’s up with the toolbox and the plastic bin and small pack?” He closed the trunk and they went around and got in. “Well toolbox is cause I have no idea if your girlfriend has any tools, so be prepared. The other stuff… well I guess you could call the bin a car kit and the pack a GHB or Get Home Bag.” “Get Home Bag?” “I’ll explain as we drive. Lets get rolling.”
A few minutes later they were rolling along heading west to get out of the District. “OK, so a home bag?” “Yeah, well a Get Home Bag. So say the car broke down or something like 9/11 happened again where all the roads were shut down and you had to walk. It has stuff in it to make that possible, even if it took a day or so.” “OK so I guess that makes sense, but like what sort of stuff?” “Well like a pair of old sneakers and a change of clothes.” “Sneakers…LOL How the heck is that gonna help?” “OK wise guy, let’s say you were over at a customer meeting somewhere close like Annapolis and you had to walk back, do you want to do that in your suit and dress shoes?” “Well no, it’s miserable enough having to wear them around for the day, much less having to try walking 30+ miles.” “Exactly and with some of the neighborhoods and areas you’d have to walk through, what do you think the locals are going to think when they see some young guy all dressed up in a nice suit?? I’ll tell ya, payday.”
As they rolled through Tysons, VA and got onto I-66 their talk continued. Matt asked “So then what else?” “Well, think of things that you’d need to live or be semi comfortable. I mean there is the rule of 3’s. Like you can live about three minutes without blood or air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food.” “Come on, 3 hours without shelter? Uou expect me to believe that?” “Well, you could argue shelter, sure. I mean if it’s 72 degrees and sunny it’s not a big deal, if it’s 29F and you're wet from falling in a lake or from being out in freezing rain, 3 hours might be a big stretch. Water might also vary but then again is it 105F and you're in a desert, you might not make it 24 hours depending on how dehydrated you were to start with.”
“So I have water, some foodstuffs like jerky, trail mix and a power bars, you know, foods that also won’t melt in the trunk. There’s a poncho in case it might rain or snow; let’s call that my shelter. There’s a ball cap, a small flashlight, a knife, a first aid kit; after all, if you get a cut and bleed out that wouldn't do. Let me see, what else…. oh… a pair of leather work gloves, safety glasses and even a beloved N95 facemask in case there is a lot of smoke or dust. There’s a few other things but it’s pretty bare bones to keep it light while still providing some very basic essentials.”
“OK, well I guess that all makes some sense.” Matt sat there as he seemed to chew on this idea and the items. “So what about the car kit.” Well it has some of the same stuff as the GHB but more of it or it might have bigger, heavier versions of some of the same things but more items too. Also I change it up a bit depending on the season. With fall approaching I'll be changing it out to my fall/ winter kit.”
“You change it for the fall? You sound like a woman with how they change out their purses for the season.” “Maybe so, but would you want or need a wool blanket or ski cap in the summer?” “Well no, of course not.” “Right, so you wouldn’t carry one in the summer but what about in the winter? If your car broke down in the cold or you got stuck in a traffic jam like that huge one this past winter when we had that blizzard, wouldn’t that blanket be nice? How about a small stove or sterno can that could provide some heat or to boil some water or snow for tea or coffee to help keep warm.” “Sure but where are you going to get coff… oh the kit?” “Ding ding… Boy catches on quick… tell him what he’s won Johnny.”
“Ha ha.. But yeah that makes sense. I know Tanya has something like that in the back of her Jeep. With things like tow rope and jumper cables.” Merv thought about that a second, with that tidbit and a few other things she’s mentioned in conversation, Merv was beginning to think Tanya might have a bit of a prepper streak in her.
“I mean think about after that attack. I mean those guys robbed us blind but if we’d had that kit and they hadn’t found it, think how much better we’d have been.” “MUMPH” was the only response Merv got. This point seemed to send Matt into deep contemplation and for the next several minutes he sat quietly staring out the window seemingly lost in his thoughts. They steered away from the topic when Matt started talking again, clearly trying to change topics. Merv knew remembering that day, not so long ago, was still very hard on his friend.
Matt told him the best way to go was to stay on I-66 till they were getting close to Haymarket, VA and then they’d take 15 to Culpepper and pickup 29 the rest of the way down to Lynchburg. When they got on 29 they pulled off and filled up and went into the gas station to grab coffee. As they were getting back in the car getting ready to leave Matt got a call. Merv didn’t start the car so it’d be a little quieter for Matt. “Yes, this is he. Oh OK. Oh you have, and what was the decision. I see. OK and so what did they decide? Oh my choice. Well, if I go with the payout what would that be? Really, that much. OK well yes, then I’d prefer to go that route and just take the cash. Yes, give me a call Monday morning and I can set up to meet you to sign and get the check. Yes, thank you and have a nice weekend also. Bye.”
Merv looked at Matt. “Finally… that was my insurance company calling about the truck. How many months has it been, Christ! Well they said it was up to me on if they rebuilt the truck or if I’d prefer they’ll total it and I can just take the check. You heard what I told her, a check will be fine. So with all these supply chain issues and used vehicles being up they told me I’ll get a check for a little over $27k, hell I only paid like $24 for it 2-1/2 years ago. And I’d paid most of that as cash and the little I burrowed, I paid off at the end of last year.”
“Oh and apparently as the shop was looking over everything they found those ass hats had dumped dirt, sand and rocks into the engine and looked to have ran it before they ripped up all the wires and shit. They must have done all that while I was knocked out as I don’t remember any of it. So the adjuster said till they replace all the stuff torn up on the inside, smashed on the outside and till they tear the motor down to see what might be damaged there, they wouldn’t know what the final cost to rebuild is going to be. He said though with the known things and then needing to paint it, repair the melted bedliner and all of that puts the cost already at the point where they’d most likely total it. So he asked before they put more time and cost into it, would I want to try rebuilding it or would I be OK totalling it and taking the cash. For now, since I have you as my personal Uber driver I’m going to take the cash and sit on it,” “Well wait till you get the bill for this little Uber ride this weekend.”
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