Winter Layoff Chapter 9
| Winter Layoff | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 9 of 21 | |
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| Read this chapter | |
| Time frame | January 3 and 4, 2006 |
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Locations
- On the road to Pass Christian, Mississippi
Characters
Summary
Within five miles after leaving Clark Construction Jim was wishing they had picked a different dump truck. The old Ford was a handful to drive, noisy, and the old weather stripping around the doors leaked the cold outside air into the cab. Lastly it wasn’t very fast - at anything over fifty miles per hour the vibrations and the shaking made it almost undriveable.
Despite the driving conditions Jim mused that Ken’s offer to draw up some house plans, plus the conversation in the Clark Construction office had changed the whole project. There were problems but some had solutions, including the possibility of recruiting enough volunteer help among the Clark workers on winter layoff to make building a house happen.
Materials could be purchased in Spearfish Lake, and some might even be cheap. For example, most of the exterior sheathing they used on jobs in the summer came from Clark Plywood, the manufacturer. Other stuff might be available at off-season prices. Clark Construction had an old but decent semi-tractor he might use... maybe another tax write-off? If the old houses slab was still usable... If enough free help could be recruited... If he could buy or promote the materials locally in Spearfish Lake.... If he could wangle cheap transportation... If every bit of the puzzle fit just right then he might be able to get a house built by spring.
But maybe, just maybe, it could be done. But first the house slab had to be cleared as quickly as possible. Until then it wasn’t worth worrying about the other "ifs".
Jim and Bob had agreed to swap vehicles every couple hours – they’d both remembered how bad driving the dump truck was. A couple of hours down the road Jim found a good place and pulled in, Bob stopped the pickup alongside. A short discussion and Bob learned that anything faster than fifty would shake your fillings loose. Jim followed Bob back out onto the highway and 15 minutes later it was obvious that Bob wasn’t having any better luck with the dump truck than he was.
Jim started doing some mental figuring... call it 1200 miles... fifty miles per hour was right at twenty-four hours of driving, plus meals and fuel stops added more time. That meant every bit of three days just to get there. Add a real optimistic three days to do the site cleanup, then three days back. If any problems came up at all, it could mean being gone every minute of two weeks.
And even that might not be enough - they would need extra time to arrange permits and other paperwork, plus arrange the utility services – electricity, water, gas, sewer, phone. That might make the whole exercise pointless as a lack of utilities would delay Rita and John moving in even more.
A while later Jim saw Bob pull off the highway at a truck stop and followed him as he pulled the truck up to a diesel pump. Jim pulled into a nearby gasoline pump and topped off his truck. Jim paid for both with the Donna Clark Foundation credit card, and they parked the trucks near the restaurant and went in for lunch.
Bob firmly announced that something was wrong - one of the front tires was out of round, or something, and that's not good for the suspension or the rest of the front end. Further discussion resulted in a joint decision that they’d better call Randy.
After being apprised of the suituation Randy decided to have Jim and Bob get it fixed locally, and he locates a repair shop about fifty miles ahead. He calls the shop and sets things up so that they could roll the truck in as soon as they can get there.
They eventually arrive, with the last few miles of the highway at thirty to thirty-five miles per hour with traffic was blowing past them as they kept to the right lane, with the emergency flashers going on both vehicles.
As soon as they got a good look at the front tires they saw that the right side tire had a big knot that made it way out of round, and the tire would need to be replaced. The shaking had damaged the tie rod end (part of the steering), and it needed replacement. And you always replace both tie rod ends (on both sides). Unfortunately both that size of tire and the rod end were out of stock and it would be the next morning before they were available.
Jim and Bob ended up spending the night in motel a couple miles away.
The chapter closes the next morning with the service shop manager saying that the new tire was in, mounted, balanced and ready, but the tie rod ends were not available locally and had to be shipped from Chicago, and they won't be here before the next morning.
Also Mentioned
- Aunt Rita and Uncle John Fleming
