Home » Tuck Talk » TuckerSpawn » After graduation
| Re: After graduation [message #8344] |
Wed, 02 October 2013 18:22   |
 Ellen Hayes
Messages: 684
Registered: September 2002 |
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"Because it's a multi-fuel engine, runs on everything. So that one," Mike pointed, "goes into storage, and that one runs the backup generator."
Debbie said, "Oh." Then she asked, "Can you run it on natural gas?"
"I don't know. I kinda don't think so," he admitted, "not without permanent modifications. But it'll eat gasoline, if you add something for lubrication, like motor oil?"
"Used?"
Mike knew what she was thinking; planes seemed to need ridiculous numbers of oil changes. "You're not really supposed to, but I think so, yeah. Filtered first, of course."
"Well, yeah."
"So?" Mike pressed.
Debbie sighed. "Mike, three new 6BT long blocks, plus mounts, plus accessories, is a lot of money. Even used is a lot." Plus used engines didn't have warranties, and Debbie liked warranties.
"Maybe you could call the fire department and see if they want to pay for an upgrade. We got the best overall truck to give back to them, but I don't think they'd mind the new engine and transmission, and Julia's about to set fire to it 'cause of the damned brake system leaks."
"Yeah. Too bad it's not an air brake instead of hydraulic," she mused. "But then we'd need driving training." She sighed and turned to her computer. "Lemme work on the numbers, and call, see what they're willing to pay for."
***
"Summer classes?" Debbie laughed. "Who has time?"
[Updated on: Wed, 02 October 2013 18:27]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8345] |
Thu, 03 October 2013 08:57 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Mike and I were meeting with Debbie about putting modern engines and brakes in some of those ancient deuce-and-a-halfs (deuce-and-a-halves?) when she got a call on her main business line. "D and E, this is Debbie."
"Oh, hi, Steve. I was just about to call you about them."
"You mean, like the P-51 fighters? There's one at the airfield near us."
"No, we haven't done too much except get some of them running."
"A2 models, three LD-465-1 and three -1c. All normally aspirated, no turbos."
"Nope, original drums."
"Even if they leak?"
"What about the Fire Department's water truck and the one we were going to use as a fuel tanker?"
"Yeah, the guys have one - they're going to take it apart and measure it for making reproductions."
"Original plans?"
"Okay, we can do that. There's a railroad spur out near the site."
"Thanks, Steve. I'll wait for your e-mail."
Only listening to one half of the conversation was frustrating. Her voice never changed but I could tell she was getting more and more excited as the conversation went on. When she finally hung up I asked, "What was all that about?"
"Steve has a bunch of people with more money than sense who want to buy all six trucks with original equipment - no upgrades. He'll give us a more modern water truck and a fuel tanker as part of the deal; they'll just need a little work. Triple what you paid for the winch."
Mike and I deflated a little at that but we perked up when she mentioned, "He promised a set of plans so you can build more."
--------------------------
George had been absent for the announcement that we were shutting down the truck refurb project but he showed up for lunch bouncing up and down with excitement. "Hey everybody, guess what I just found out?"
*Oh, God, now what?* I bit. "What, George?"
"That National Guard Regiment's getting complaints from the EPA about their boneyard, about leaking fuel and oil and other stuff, and they kinda want to get all the junk cleared off."
"What kind of junk?"
"They're an Armored Infantry Regiment and there's all kinds of stuff out there - more trucks, some old-time jeeps, bunches of parts and, get this, two real tanks!"
My hair must have stood up on end. "Real tanks?"
"Yeah, guy said they're M-24 Chaffee light tanks! That'd be so much fun - having a real tank!"
Debbie's eyes started to glow. "Any idea what shape they're in?"
"Not bad, they've been under tarps."
I could see the dollar signs in Debbie's eyes now. The least a Chaffee would bring would be around $100,000.
Debbie said, "Thanks, George," and zipped out the door.
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| Re: After graduation [message #8346] |
Thu, 03 October 2013 18:50 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Since the State of Confusion mostly funded Debbie's redevelopment of the "blighted industrial area" she couldn't make it a D&E-only operation. The first two buildings inside the entrance were two stories and finished as offices. She allocated half the ground floor of one as a management and leasing office, complete with a scale model of the entire site. Half of the upper floor of the building was reserved for a server farm. The rest of the offices in both buildings she leased out to people who wouldn't have a problem with the shoot houses and ranges.
Aside from the two office buildings most of the rest had electrical, gas, water, sewer and telecom available but weren't even roughed in. Debbie leased them out as "tenant finish" at what I gathered were attractive rates. We moved my lab to one of the few finished buildings.
The front 50 meters of the site had knee-high walls and a wrought iron fence. Debbie had a chain-link fence put up around the rest.
Boy, did we wind up with an eclectic (SAT word) bunch: a couple of retail gun shops, a paintball shop, three sword- and armor-makers from RenFares who wanted to move their forges out of their garages, a half-dozen mom-and-pop restaurants that mostly did lunches and early evening takeout, one bunch of glassblowers and another bunch that did brass and bronze castings.
We also wound up with a couple of specialty gun shops that had the Federal licenses for automatic weapons, and one with a license to deal with "destructive devices," anything larger than .50 cal.
Things had been perking along quite well, and people weren't freaked out by hearing fully-automatic weapons fire, when we got involved with the Fire Department and the National Guard and those damned deuce-and-a-halfs.
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| Re: After graduation [message #8348] |
Thu, 03 October 2013 23:15 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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I was having a great conversation with the brass cannon guys when Mike and Debbie came by and hustled me off to the Guard's boneyard. Debbie wanted to talk to the Colonel but Mike and I talked her into calling the Supply Sergeant instead. We met him in his office in the armory basement. Debbie started off with, "Sergeant, thank you for your time."
"That kid who was so excited at finding the tanks a friend of yours?"
"Yes, sir."
"Don't call me 'sir;' I work for a living. Call me Sarge, everybody does and I don't find it disrespectful." Evidently Debbie hadn't believed Mike or me when we told her not to call a Sergeant 'sir.'
"Okay, Sarge. George told us about the tanks and the EPA."
"Standard M-24s. I think we have a dozer kit, too. It's not the Federal EPA, it's the state version. They're making noise about site contamination, but that's not the real reason."
"What is?"
"I think the Colonel's brother-in-law's company wants to develop the site and put up some high-end condos and they're leaning on the EPA. The EPA says the site's contaminated, we get rid of all the stuff out there, the developers do a little work, the EPA says the site's rehabilitated and everybody gets rich."
"Oh."
"I don't have anything I can take to the Inspector General's office. I've only got seventeen months until my thirty and poking around making waves or going to the press wouldn't be prudent." He paused for a moment. "But you could request copies of the EPA's reports and look into the Colonel's business connections."
I asked, "Aside from the tanks, what other stuff is out there?"
He sighed. "We don't really know. The inventory is a real mess. The Regiment's been here since the First Great Overseas Unpleasantness and has been deployed for just about every major annoyance since then. Stuff got left behind each time we moved out and stuff that wasn't on the TO&E got brought back each time we returned. I've been here eighteen months and I've been trying to inventory it." He snorted. "For all I know some of it might not even be US issue - souvenirs some guy stuck into a crate and never retrieved."
"Oh, boy."
"You were interested in those tanks, weren't you? Thinking about making some kind of a deal?"
Debbie looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. "Well, yes."
He got a gleam in his eye as he looked at Debbie. "If I were a civilian-type person I'd think about making a deal with the EPA - getting all that stuff out of the way. If what I suspect is going on is what's really going on you could pay scrap prices and haul it all off. Tanks included."
"Oh, my."
"Yes. Then you poke around and go to the Guard's Inspector General and the State Attorney General. They probably won't make a fuss about all that scrap metal."
I'd never seen Debbie at such a loss for words.
--------------------------------------------------
All the stuff in the boneyard was in surprisingly good shape - evidently between adventures the Guardsmen had been preserving things instead of whitewashing rocks. Nothing was just dumped on the ground, it was Cosmolined and put in crates or strapped to pallets and stacked up in sheds of various types. Vehicles had the fuel drained and the engines filled with preservation oil.
We found a couple of M3 half-tracks and one M3 half-track 'tank destroyer' with a 75mm gun on top of it. One 105mm towed howitzer and three ancient 75mm pack howitzers. Crates of .30 cal M1919 air-cooled machine guns and M1917 water cooled versions. M2 .50 cal BMGs. BARs.
Debbie had to do a little dance with the BATF over all the automatic weapons and heavy stuff - we retained ownership but it had to be under the control of the guys with the Federal Firearms licenses. One thing that griped the BATF was all the weapons were pre-ban.
I put in emergency orders for hardware and spent a while in Deep Hack Mode setting up an auction site. It wasn't as graphical and kewel as eBay but it did serve up pictures. I had to create our own site because eBay wouldn't list weapons and we had to verify Federal licenses for stuff like artillery and machine guns.
We found five L-19 Bird Dog airplanes still in their shipping boxes, with lots of spare parts. Sabrina and the rest of us banded together and forbade Debbie to sell them.
George claimed one of the tanks. The guys at Armor Alley pulled the machine guns and the firing pin on the main gun and he drove it around the site for a while. He finally admitted that it wasn't as much fun as he'd thought, especially because it was hot, noisy, hard to drive, used lots of gas and wasn't street legal. We sold it for $290,000.
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| Re: After graduation [message #8350] |
Mon, 07 October 2013 01:58 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Running the website became a real pain in the ass. The staff at the gunshops plus George, Mike and Book unpacked stuff and field stripped it to make sure they know how complete it was - not missing a spring or firing pin or something - then Dan made pictures to put up. The annoying part was all the damned paperwork: fully automatic weapons or "destructive devices" could only be sold to the holder of the appropriate Federal Firearms License which we had to verify, other weapons could only be shipped to a holder of an FFL which we had to verify. Debbie drafted some of the Littles to do all of that.
Sabrina, Jill, Pam and I each claimed one of the crated L-19s and set up an assembly shop in some hangar space we rented. The owner was a mostly-retired Instructor Pilot and Airframe & Powerplant mechanic who "supervised" us putting the airplanes together. Sabrina's was the first one we worked on and when it was finished all of us had to get a logbook endorsement for flying taildraggers.
Some of Julia's friends videoed most of the process as a senior project. They weren't too happy with me not wanting to be part of it. They did get footage of all four of our little squadron flying around. We used hand-held radio transceivers and GPSes because the original equipment was so big and heavy and used 1950s tubes. We did install radar transponders because the rules made it impossible to go most places without one. Debbie made us install ELTs (emergency locator transmitters).
It was fun flying into new airports. "Boondock tower, Cessna 35117, flight of four, ten miles east, approach and landing please."
"117, Boondock tower; flight of four? Say type of aircraft, please."
"Boondock tower, 117; Lima one niner Bird Dog."
[Updated on: Sun, 21 September 2014 02:59]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8352] |
Mon, 07 October 2013 16:45 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Not eveything we found was a firearm. I recruited a couple of students, Mark and Anita, to help me add a section to the site for that. Payments were made by credit card over the phone. We also had a section where we posted pictures of things we couldn't identify and solicited comments.
We found technical manuals for various things, not all of them for stuff like the machine guns or tanks, plus field manuals covering things like how to dig trenches and foxholes. Book started to collect one each of all the manuals. He'd keep the best one and we'd sell the rest. Anita and Janet looked at the prices that the manuals brought and had a thought worthy of Debbie. They scanned several of Book's manuals with a high-rez scanner at the school and offered downloads of the manuals for $1.99 each or reprints for $5.99. Book and Sarge Anderson poked through the corners of the armory and turned up quite a collection of old stuff that Debbie paid the Guard paper-recycling prices for. There were other things he needed to keep but allowed us to scan.
Sarge Anderson must have put the word out to his fellow supply sergeants. We wound up with lots of old manuals and other miscellaneous equipment from various places around the region. Another thing we wound up receiving were older weapons and accessories, stuff like a couple of '03 Springfields and a box of 5-round stripper clips, a 50-round drum for a Thompson, a dozen mixed magazines for the Luger P08 and Walther P38, and three Schmeisser MP40s. Sarge said, "Sometimes a Guard or Reserve unit winds up with stuff that they don't want to get into the inventory because they might not know where it came from and they'd have a hard time explaining. Giving it to you will make sure it gets disposed of properly."
[Updated on: Tue, 08 October 2013 14:36]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8354] |
Fri, 11 October 2013 11:36 |
Ellen Hayes
Messages: 684
Registered: September 2002 |
Senior Member |
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"Come on, George," Valerie cajoled, but Julia didn't think it was going to work.
"No. MINE." He wrapped both arms around the M2HB, which was standing on the floor, muzzle up. "Mine mine mine mine mine!"
"How're you going to sleep with that thing in your bed?" Julia pointed out. "Plus, y'know, chicks'll think you're crazy..." That often worked on George...
He looked stricken, but repeated, "MINE!" like a three year old.
Valerie sighed, and looked at Julia, before looking back and asking, "Could you at least leave it in your room before you come down for supper? We've got guests." Julia didn't know about any guests, but that wasn't uncommon. People tended to show up and freeload.
"No." A spark of near-rational thought must've bubbled up to the top of his brain, because he said, "I think I'll clean it. Could you bring me a tray?"
"NO!" they both agreed.
George heaved a sigh, but clutched the machine gun tighter to his body.
Julia asked, "Can you even LIFT it?"
"Yeah!" He did so to prove he could, but Julia could tell he was straining.
"Again?"
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| Re: After graduation [message #8358] |
Sat, 12 October 2013 11:13 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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"I'm not saying you have to move out, you just can't keep that thing here at the Starlite. The guys at Armor Alley can keep it for you and they'll let you visit it anytime you want."
[Updated on: Sat, 12 October 2013 13:29]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8360] |
Sun, 13 October 2013 11:42 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Days were getting shorter, nights were getting cooler, and sadness settled over the land. Summer had drawn to a close. Young people were starting back to school, adults were starting back to work, and the interminable retail horror of Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years-Valentine's Day was just waiting in the wings.
We'd had a fun summer looking through the Guard's boneyard - hoplophiles had an intriguing array of guns to investigate and test fire - aviation enthusiasts had fun flying the L-19s, the Starlite SWAT team was useful for training, doing the Reserve Officer thing was interesting in a perverted sort of way. I'd gotten the flamethrower working, Debbie had a machine shop making truck bumper winches, and the Machine Gun Gang were building a Gatling gun from my plans.
The relationship between Chance and me had kinda-sorta stabilized.
I was mulling over Bewildered's offerings for the coming semester when my phone rang. "Hello, this is Valerie Tucker."
"Miss Tucker, this is Tim Baxter."
"Yes, sir. What can I do for you?"
"First, I'd like to thank you again for looking after my computers-"
"My pleasure."
"-and ask for a couple of favors."
"If I can."
"I'm going to give almost all of the computer center hardware to Bewildered. Ishihara thinks that it would be good to have a relatively modern setup for system administration classes and he'd like you to be his lead on that project."
Baxter's home computer system was a miniature corporate data center - automated backups, fail-over servers, duplicate RAID storage boxen. The only thing I'd had to do was swap the autoloader tapes.
"I think he's enamored of the idea of porting Linux to IBM mainframes like Marist is doing in Poughkeepsie, and probably the VM operating system like the University of Waterloo in Canada. IBM's going to give him two or three more 9370s."
"Okay." I knew that the Linux port to IBM mainframes was mainly the 2.2 kernel with Red Hat packages. IBM mainly considered VM as a testing mechanism because it allowed a user to run multiple operating systems under it, like having the test and production systems running on the same hardware platform. From what I'd gathered it was a pretty cool OS in its own right - the only interactive OS IBM had for mainframes. Fooling with this stuff would be interesting but Debbie might get annoyed at the time it took. Maybe I could use the university's lab for the ASICs I'd like to get fabbed.
"The other favor is for you to talk to the girls at Electroshock Therapy High, tell them that girls can too do computer stuff."
The feeling of my head banging into the lockers flashed through my mind. "Only if I can attend in my SWAT uniform complete with sidearm, vest and helmet."
"You had the same high school experience I did, then?"
"Assholes put me in a coma for a week."
"Oh. Maybe we can change it into 'there are few things a woman can't do?' I'll talk to the principal and have him call you."
[Updated on: Sun, 13 October 2013 17:13]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8376] |
Thu, 07 November 2013 18:46 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Chance and his partner Pete were patrolling down the main street of the One Seven when they spotted a car with a couple of girls in it weaving enough to attract their attention. Pete said, "Light 'em up."
"Drunk at seven in the morning?"
"Still drunk, maybe. Looks like a couple of party girls." The girls had their hair up in topknots and what was visible of their clothing looked like costumes.
Chance turned on the lights and gave the siren a whoop. Both of the girls did the usual 'Oh, shit' reaction then the driver pulled over.
Chance walked up to the driver's open window. "License, registration and insurance card, ma'am," he said to the driver, alert to the smell of alcohol or marijuana. Both girls were wearing 'I Dream of Jeannie' harem girl costumes. The driver was fair skinned blonde-and-blue, the passenger was black-and-brown with a slightly darker complexion. On closer inspection the girls weren't wearing anything under the bolero jackets.
The driver made a motion toward the dashboard. "Registration and insurance are in a little compartment on the top of the dash; my license is in my purse in the trunk." She leaned forward and flipped the compartment open. Chance could see that there wasn't anything but some papers inside. "I guess it was for some add-on electonics stuff. Typical over-engineering." She rummaged around and handed the registration and insurance card to Chance.
"I'll still need your license, ma'am."
She looked around and spotted Pete standing near the rear of the car. "I'm gonna pop the trunk, tell your partner not to get startled."
The trunk contained a pair of guitar cases along with a locked ammo can chained to the side. The driver opened the can and dumped the contents out on top of a guitar case. She remarked to Chance, "I didn't want to go sticking my hand in there 'cause you might get nervous about what I might come out with."
"We appreciate your courtesy, ma'am." He prompted, "Your license?"
The driver sorted out driver's licenses from both wallets and presented them to Chance. "Wendy Watson and Susan Terwilliger. I'm Wendy."
The passenger had drifted back to join the group. She followed with, "And I'm Susan, but when we're dressed like this I'm Jennie the Genie."
"And Jenna the Genie."
"We're Genies," they said together.
Wendy said, "We're traveling musicians, doing renfaires and stuff. Sometimes we do the genie act, sometimes we do renaissance costumes."
Chance shook his head. "Too much information. We pulled you over because you were weaving a bit and we wanted to make sure you weren't drunk or otherwise impaired."
Susan said, "We were just laughing a lot. It's probably my fault."
Wendy said, "We were performing at a really private party last night."
The two girls looked at one another and broke out into laughter.
Chance said, "Okay, ladies. You're not drunk so I'm not going to give you a ticket. Just drive a bit more carefully."
They chorused, "Yes, sir."
The girls drove off. Back in their patrol car Chance and Pete looked at one another. Chance voiced what they were both thinking - "Only in the One Seven."
Pete asked, "Do you think they were charging for that really private party?"
"Maybe. Did you see that Redlite Ranch bumper sticker?"
"Yeah."
"That's supposed to be the best cathouse in Nevada."
Pete just shook his head and repeated, "Only in the One Seven."
----------------------------
The costume:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2331073/Barbara-Eden-78-I-D ream-Jeannie-crop-harem-pantaloons.html
Story snippet inspired by Les Boyd's "Hat Trick" chapter 11 http://www.spearfishlaketales.com
[Updated on: Thu, 07 November 2013 19:17]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8380] |
Fri, 15 November 2013 00:02 |
Ellen Hayes
Messages: 684
Registered: September 2002 |
Senior Member |
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Tucker staggered at the last step off the bus, and almost planted his face in the pavement.
"See?" Mike sneered from behind him, where he'd been holding the safety straps. "I told you you were tired."
"'M tired," Tucker agreed. "Leggo. Chance?" Chance was there, and Tucker put his arms around Chance's neck, leaned against him, and inhaled deeply. "Les'go bed."
"You got 'er?"
"Yep," Chance nodded. The strap snaked around Tucker and eventually fell off to the side, so he could let Chance take him away. "Bed."
"Mmmm," Tucker agreed as his eyes closed again.
***
Chance floated up from the deep murk of sleep, called by the scent of bacon.
"Morning," Valerie said, smiling at him.
"Mm." He wasn't sure about that; he was sure he had to get up, at least for a minute.
When he got back, Valerie had crawled back into bed, and was smiling at him. "I brought breakfast." It was on a tray, next to his side of the bed. In addition to bacon, the tray also held coffee in a travel mug, an omelette, and a bagel.
However, the bed held Valerie.
"If you're gonna do that," she warned, "put the cover over the dish."
***
"Food's getting cold," she mentioned much later, which reminded him that there was bacon.
Chance rolled over and kissed what he could reach, which was her shoulder.
"Didn't we just do this?" she asked, smiling.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do it again that soon. "Don't you have class?"
"Not 'til eleven. And you have to give me a ride; everyone left already."
"What time is it?"
"Eight-thirty."
Chance tried to think.
She assured him, "We can make it."
"Mmmm." He didn't want to. "Want to skip class?"
"Ha. No."
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| Re: After graduation [message #8381] |
Fri, 15 November 2013 23:54 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Here's something that the Starlite gang might be interested in:
http://www.and-mag.com/home.html
"Hail and well met! In each free, theme-based issue of this old-school Advanced Dungeons & Dragons TM magazine, we aim to provide ideas, perspectives, entertainment, thought-provoking articles and game aids for both the player and the dungeon master. From fantasy fiction to original adventures to new spells and magic items to game theory—& is aimed at delivering useful content primarily for the first edition of AD&D (though other early editions of the game are represented on occasion)."
or this:
http://osrgaming.org/main/
"The games of the past never die. The companies just go out of business, or games go unsupported and out of print, leaving the game in the hands of the fans. We here at the Old School Roleplaying website are a bunch of gamers who like the old style of playing, where the person running the game made the call, not the book sitting on the table. This website will serve as a meeting place for all OSR Gamers, new and old to share ideas, and even work on projects together."
[Updated on: Fri, 15 November 2013 23:57]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8383] |
Mon, 18 November 2013 11:48 |
aprilrains
Messages: 1
Registered: November 2013
Location: ~ |
Junior Member |
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| Ellen Hayes wrote on Mon, 18 November 2013 01:10 |
Uh, no; the 'new' style of 'role-playing gaming' seems to be trading hacks with other players via the /chat function on the server(s).
We hates them! We hates them forever!
Ellen
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Amen! It's too bad the term got polluted, like when they stopped differentiating between crab and "krab". Unfortunately, the pretenders won't change their terminology, and no way is the Old Guard going to retreat from the term we created and gave meaning.
"One in the morning was a territory as much as a time, and Victor Orlov and Arkady were long-term residents."
Tatiana, Martin Cruz Smith
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| Re: After graduation [message #8391] |
Sun, 01 December 2013 23:36 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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[Author's note: this occurs during the first year after graduation, before the year that Tuck had a broken leg and an unfortunate Christmas hike]
Jill, Lisa and I had all pled that schoolwork prohibited us from leaving before Thanksgiving. We'd promised to leave Electroshock Therapy early enough in the morning to get to Home Base by noon and swap drivers often enough to avoid accidents. We'd stay overnight and be on our way back early the next morning.
That was the story, anyway. The three of us were using school as an excuse to avoid our families. Lisa didn't get along with her parents and Jill and I did not have a good time with our last Thanksgiving before graduation - I had a hard time disguising how my body was changing, especially around cousins "you look like a fag" Derek and Marion. Grandmom and most of the aunts kept making "I don't know why she's here" comments about Jill.
Everyone but Debbie was going back to Home Base in our bus on Tuesday; Debbie wasn't going at all because Helen was working overtime the entire holiday season. The two of them would have their own private Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years celebration after everything calmed down.
That was what we had planned, anyway. Mother Nature had other plans. In the night between Tuesday and Wedneday it started raining, which turned into sleet that coated everything and then into snow.
The sleet turned the roads into skating rinks and the snow stuck to the sleet and brought down trees and telephone and power lines.
The Starlite was pretty much unaffected - the gas and water were working and we had backup power running off the gas and a big propane tank if that failed.
We wound up as a refugee center. There weren't that many people still in Crossroads for the holiday but most of them wound up on our doorstep. We didn't have enough blankets and pillows for everyone so once we thawed them out we started sending them back to their houses in groups to get bedding and the stuff they'd need to stay overnight.
Wednesday night every empty room was packed full and the main hall had people sleeping in blankets all over the floor. We'd built a stick-and-clear-plastic tunnel out to the pool house for showers.
Breakfast would have been emergency rations except that the manager of a nearby convenience store was one of our refugees and we raided the place for most of the edibles plus all of the diapers and coffee.
Thanksgiving dinner was provided by our refugees. We sent out foraging parties and people brought back all the dinner fixings they had been planning. One thing we prohibited people to bring back was alcohol. Even with a banquet-sized commercial kitchen it was a marathon to get everything ready but we were able to have a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone, including various on duty cops, EMTs, firefighters and linesmen. We sent lots of leftovers home with the people who needed them.
I really didn't want the publicity but a student news crew showed up on snowmobiles and Debbie showed them all around. They got shots of Debbie and me changing diapers in the baby room, and of Lisa and me in the kitchen. They were most appreciative of Thanksgiving dinner.
Debbie and I made it abundantly clear to the newsies that the Starlite was not a community center and not open to the public but instead was the private residence of a group of students who would definitely not appreciate having the world invading their privacy.
The newsies went back and put together a 12-minute news segment and various length programs. We were only identified by our first names and Crossroads, Electroshock Therapy and Bewildered weren't mentioned by name. The 30 minute version wound up on the local PBS station and various clips wound up being broadcast all over the country but we mostly dodged the bullet.
[Updated on: Fri, 02 May 2014 11:14]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8392] |
Wed, 11 December 2013 12:31 |
Ellen Hayes
Messages: 684
Registered: September 2002 |
Senior Member |
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"Next year," I informed Debbie, "or the next time we have an ice storm, we are dragging old tires out to the front and setting them on fire. And anyone who comes past the black smoke gets shot because they're burglars or rapists."
Debbie just sighed and glared at me through her exhaustion, and through mine. Which meant there was very little glare remaining when it filtered through to my brain, or what was left of it. "Is there any rum left?"
"No," I lied; I was planning to drink it all myself.
Her eyes got squinty and she asserted, "You're lying, you little shit." I was about to take the opportunity to blow off several days worth of stress by beating her bloody when she added, "I think I've got half a bottle of Stoli in my room freezer."
"I might could find some rum," I offered, and she smiled a little.
***
"MRE's?" Lisa questioned, as Jill and Debbie dug in.
Valerie snarled, "Because we have no more fucking food. The goddamned ice-locusts ate it all."
Debbie swallowed and mentioned, "I told Pam that if they didn't bring enough food and supplies back with 'em to restock, you'd shoot them. And she has the Starlite credit card, and the Sam's Club membership card."
"Oh, good," Valerie sighed as she slumped back into her seat.
"Eat," Lisa reminded her eventually. She had to work up to eating one of the damned MRE's, but she was getting there. Val, on the other hand, looked like she didn't have the energy to eat. "C'mon, Val, don't make me get the high chair and feed you."
***
Jill laughed nastily, and said, "Y'know, I bet those two perverts are naked in the shower together, fondling each other."
As that was pretty much what Jill and I were doing, I couldn't imagine how she thought she had the moral right to complain. "So?"
"So it's gross!" she insisted. "Do my back," she ordered as she turned around.
"Yes dear," I sighed. Plugging the drain as we had meant that, as long as the water in the tub stayed above 90, our feet might defrost. And we could spray hot water on the rest of our bodies to fill the tub; and then with only two tubs in use we might have enough hot water. Which is why we'd paired up.
"I mean, jeez," she continued. "Buncha perverts."
"Jill," I sighed, "I know what you mean, but I'm too tired for it to be funny."
"Dude," she replied with real concern in her voice as she turned back around. "Here, get your head wet 'n warm. Trade places... Hold on," she reminded me, not like I really needed reminding, because my balance was shit too.
***
"We are just so sexy like this," Lisa drawled as she posed. All four of them were wearing sweatshirts with hoods up, sweat pants, at least two pairs of hiking socks, and Val had donned a balaclava before she got out of her bathroom.
"See, I told you they were perverts," Jill said to Val as she punched her arm.
"You know it," Debbie purred at Jill, and a yelp suggested to Lisa that Debbie had caressed Jill someplace.
"You're in the middle," Jill said hurriedly to Val, and threw her into Debbie's Very Large Bed. Since they were low on both heating oil and diesel for the generator, they were having to shut most of the services down, like room heating above what they needed to keep the pipes un-frozen.
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| Re: After graduation [message #8399] |
Fri, 27 December 2013 02:25 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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[back to the main timeline]
"Hello, D & E Data Solutions, this is Valerie."
"Yes, hello; do you do information backups?"
"Yes, sir, we do. Now, don't get mad, but I have to ask if this is for a computer system?"
"Why would have to ask me that? Do I sound stupid? Of course it is!"
"No, sir, you don't sound stupid. Just making sure we're talking about the same thing. There are stories..."
"Like what?"
"Like a customer complaining that they installed the tape drive and software in the top drawer of their filing cabinet and it didn't do anything."
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| Re: After graduation [message #8402] |
Wed, 01 January 2014 12:34 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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My phone rang. Caller ID said it was Brian so I answered. "Hello, Brian. What can I do for you?"
"Hey, uh, Valerie. How come you think I want something?"
"Why else would you call me?" I affected a Jewish accent. "You never write, you never call..."
"Oy. Don't quit your day job, Lenny; that's probably the worst Jewish accent ever."
"Okay, what's up?"
"Teacher had us do 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation' and she doesn't believe I did fast roping or Camp Perry with my sister Valerie."
"You didn't go to Camp Perry last summer."
"I went the year before and that should be good enough."
"Has Valerie been a problem for you at school?"
"No. My crew know that you're going by Valerie now, everybody else I just tell 'You must be mistaken, I have two older sisters. I wish I had a brother instead of being the only boy.' Anybody gets too annoying I just tell 'em to talk to Mom."
"Okay. So what do you need?"
"Anybody got any pictures you can send? I'd really hate to complain to Mom or Dad. How about a picture of you in the cheerleader's costume at Camp Perry?"
I'm going to kill Debbie for that. Last year there were four other competitors in cheerleader costumes. "I'll ask Kathy. Other than that, how is eighth grade going?"
"Teacher's an old prune named Miss Smith. Yeah, Miss. Lives at home with her widowed mother. Real unhappy old bag. Must be at least sixty. Gave us a lot of flak about me going to Red Bluff for Algebra and English."
I had a flash of what it must be like for her, and shuddered. "Probably the youngest girl in the family. Ever think what it must be like, stuck with taking care of her mother, stuck in a dead-end job that doesn't pay much, looking at retirement that pays even less, watching all the kids come through that have opportunities to go places and do things that she never got?"
He paused for a moment before he answered, "Yeah, that'd really suck. She has travel posters about Paris and London and Vienna on the walls. Betcha she really wanted to travel once upon a time."
"Back when she was young and pretty. Look, try not to rub it in and make it worse." My processing caught up with my input buffer. "'Red Bluff?'"
"Yeah, works out real well. Math and English are after lunch so I take a city bus from school to there then another from there home. Timing's right to get food-type stuff at the Red Bluff cafeteria. Not any better but there's at least some variety. McAllen's closer but Principal Dobson thought that Red Bluff would be a better choice. He said to say hello from him. Okay. So, you'll talk to Kathy?"
"Yeah. Anything else?"
"Nope, thanks. Bye."
----------------------
Miss Smith existed in my eighth grade in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm an Army Brat and I think she was irritated that I started first grade in an Army school in Germany. It didn't help when I told her that it was entirely possible that we'd be stationed there again.
Oh, yeah - Happy New Year, everyone.
[Updated on: Wed, 01 January 2014 20:49]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8408] |
Sat, 04 January 2014 10:00 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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| LuLou wrote on Sat, 04 January 2014 00:16 |
Um, isn't Brian in 8th grade now, regular storytime wise? I know Tuck dumps on him a lot, but he's pretty smart, and there is NO way Bill and Sarah would allow him to be held back twice or more. They'd kill him first.
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Oops! I'd forgotten exactly what grade Brian was in during the regular storyline. [slaps self upside the head]
If Brian's in 8th grade when Tuck's a Junior, then he's a Freshman when Tuck's a Senior, a Sophomore during Year 1 , the year of the Great Migration and the ice storm, and a Junior during Year 2, when Val broke her leg and had a not-very-enjoyable Winter Hike. It's now Year 3 with Val being involved with Chance and Brian's a Senior.
Okay, disregard the previous post, although the societal memory of Tuck-the-fag would have faded somewhat and gotten mixed up with 'that kid that got beat up real bad' and the strike and the destruction of the band hall.
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| Re: After graduation [message #8410] |
Sun, 05 January 2014 13:52 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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Okay. replace the previous post with this:
-------------------------------------------
My phone rang. Caller ID said it was Brian so I answered. "Hello, Brian. What can I do for you?"
"Hey, uh, Valerie. How come you think I want something?"
"Why else would you call me?" I affected a Jewish accent. "You never write, you never call..."
"Oy. Don't quit your day job, Lenny; that's probably the worst Jewish accent ever."
"Okay, what's up?"
"English teacher had us do 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation' and she doesn't believe I did fast roping or Camp Perry with my sister Valerie."
"You didn't go to Camp Perry last summer."
"I went the year before and that should be good enough."
"Has Valerie been a problem for you at school?"
"No. My crew know that you're going by Valerie now, everybody else I just tell 'You must be mistaken, I have TWO older sisters. I wish I had a brother instead of being the only boy.' Anybody gets too annoying I just tell 'em to talk to Mom. Good thing is that very few kids here at Millard Fillmore High have sibs at McAllen."
Why in hell would anybody name a school after the worst President of the US? McAllen was better. "Okay. So what do you need?"
"Anybody got any pictures you can send? I'd really hate to complain to Mom or Dad. How about a picture of you in the cheerleader's costume at Camp Perry?"
I'm going to kill Debbie for that. Last year there were four other competitors in cheerleader costumes. "I'll ask Kathy. Other than that, how is Senior Year going?"
"Only real problem is the English teacher, She's an old prune named Miss Smith. Yeah, Miss. Lives at home with her widowed mother. Real unhappy old bag. Must be at least sixty."
I had a flash of what it must be like for her, and shuddered. "Probably the youngest girl in the family. Ever think what it must be like, stuck with taking care of her mother, stuck in a dead-end job that doesn't pay much, looking at retirement that pays even less, watching all the kids come through that have opportunities to go places and do things that she never got?"
He paused for a moment before he answered, "Yeah, that'd really suck. She has travel posters about Paris and London and Vienna on the walls. Betcha she really wanted to travel once upon a time."
"Back when she was young and pretty. Look, try not to rub it in and make it worse. Anything else? Going to Prom?"
"Yeah, have a couple of girls I'd like to ask." His voice took on a teasing tone. "Unless you'd go with me, Valerie, in that full dress uniform you guys came up with."
"I don't think so! Take one of your girls. Heck, invite them both - I assume that they know about each other?"
"Yeah, they do; I'm not that dumb."
"Anything else?"
"Nope, thanks. Bye."
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| Re: After graduation [message #8411] |
Tue, 14 January 2014 18:11 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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There's gotta be a corollary to Murphy's Law, about how if things don't go wrong they definitely tend to go sideways. Or maybe the last four weeks have been an instance of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
The precipitating incident was finding the crated L-19s. Of course, with Sabrina around, we had to put them together and learn to fly them. Of course, with Julia around, her classmates at Bewildered made a little vid of it. Once we all learned to fly of course we had to show off. The guy with the twin Beech saw us and he knew somebody who knew somebody in Hollywierd.
There were talks about a movie, real or made-for-teevee, depending on the amount of money available. The basic storyline was a current-day girl finding and learning to fly an old trainer interspersed with a story about her grandmother who had been a WASP.
For a couple of weeks we had a bunch of Show Biz people around getting in the way. At the end of it all Sabrina was going to be a 'technical advisor' and Julia and Cory were going to be 'production assistants' and general hangers-on, but Cory backed out at the last moment. I think Cory came to Bewildered to get her MRS degree with Book in her crosshairs.
After all that we had to get Sabrina and Julia packed with the first increment of their stuff and the rest all ready to be shipped once they were settled.
We'll see what happens.
[Updated on: Sat, 26 April 2014 16:52]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8421] |
Sat, 22 March 2014 19:05 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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| Desiree99 wrote on Sat, 01 March 2014 14:54 |
 A new bit on the day we get home from the hospital. The we is me and the O'Hara Quads, the Twin Girls Bailey and Iris weighed 4 lbs 7 oz, the boys weighed 5 lbs 6 oz Reilly and 4 lbs 4 oz Ian
I can almost move around. Thanks for sharing different Tuck
Goddess Bless you All
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Gracious, that's uh, eighteen and a half poinds of babies. Hope you recover quickly and they're all happy, healthy babies.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I had done another Reserve Officer shift and I was meeting Chance and his buds for a beer afterward. Fred and Martha from the One Seven, Steve from the Two Five and Mark and Sue, the EMTs, were all there. Detective Carmody was there too, for some reason. I got there just as Mark was finishing a story.
"...The guys at the next table must have been listening to Zelda because they were all looking a bit pale. One of 'em musta had a weak stomach 'cause he got up, glanced at the bathrooms and then ran outside to throw up in the flower bed. Good choice 'cause he wouldn't have made it."
Sue followed up with, "Then, last night in the ER-"
I managed to not go prompt-critical. I just slid into a seat next to Chance, kissed him on the cheek, said, "Hi, Honey," then told both Mark and Sue, "Look, no EMT or hospital jokes, please. I was sick a lot as a kid and they dredge up unpleasant memories."
Chance changed the subject with, "Well, Val, how did your shift go."
"Only one real incident, Drunken jerk tried hitting his girlfriend in the women's bathroom, broke his hand on the paper towel dispenser instead, then the ex-girlfriend kicked him squarely in the crotch. He was on the floor groaning when we got there. His buddies weren't too drunk but we couldn't let them drive so we put them all in a cab to the ER. Stan said it was better they throw up in a cab than one of our cars."
There was a round of laughter and a few more stories then Steve said, "The saddest thnig I ever came across was just after the Safe Haven law got passed - you know, how teen moms could drop off their newborns instead of putting them in Dumpsters."
There were murmurs about how everyone knew about it.
"Well, I was at Station Twelve when a woman came in with her mother and wanted to drop her off because she's moving and mom has Alzheimers and she's tired of taking care of her."
Sue interjected, "Bingo! 'Who'll look after you when you're old.'"
Several people asked "What?"
"Breeder bingo: things people say when you tell them you don't want kids. My mom has it bad - wants me to give her grandbabies and calls me selfish when I tell her no."
I thought, Maybe that's the reason that Lisa and her family don't get along - they want grandkids and they're hightly unlikely to get them from her.
Chance said, "Been there, done that. Babysat my sister's two almost every weekday night my senior year in high school. Best inducement for taking precautions ever."
I added, "Me, too, only I did it for money. Every weekday after school and all day during summer vacations. Cooked dinner. It wasn't that bad but there's nothing like leaving and showering and putting on clean clothes without baby spoor. Being able to go to the bathroom alone. Home to a non-babyproof house."
Chance mentioned, "Didn't you cook dinners for your family too?"
"Yeah, Sunday dinners for my family and friends - most of the gang at the Starlite. Grew to the point that people would kick in a few bucks or bring ingredients to help out 'cause really good dinner for twenty was really expensive."
------------------------------------
George's special pie crust: http://theberry.com/2014/02/06/hows-about-no-17-photos/lol-nope-6-6/
And there's this: http://theberry.com/2014/03/21/talk-nerdy-to-me-26-photos/
[Updated on: Sun, 23 March 2014 16:41]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8423] |
Sun, 06 April 2014 02:10 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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I received an unexpected snail-mail letter from Brian. It had a note and an envelope inside. The note said:
| Quote: |
Val:
Miss Smith asked me to send this along to you.
-Brian
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The envelope just had my name on it, obviously hand-written in a very nice cursive style.
The letter read:
| Quote: |
Miss Tucker:
I take pen in hand to apologize for any offense which you may have felt over my sceptcism of your brother's claims of sharing activities with you. My scepticism was not that you could not or would not pursue such activites, but rather that you would share them with a younger brother.
It has been my observation over many years that in most cases young women consider their younger brothers as whiny, annoying brats. I apologize further for assuming that this was the case for you and Brian.
I should have known better than to make that assumption. In my case I spent most of my fourteenth summer at an uncle's ranch in Wyoming. I left as a neophyte equestrienne with vague notions of competing in dressage in the Olympics and I returned as a cowgirl with a talent for barrel racing. I cried when I found out that I couldn't take Rocky home with me but I did bring back
both my work and competition saddles.
The other girls at Upper Crust Academy for Young Ladies were scandalized when I showed up for Equitation Class with my own totally unsuitable saddle, hat and boots.
When I got back to Home Base I found my two younger brothers going through a cowboy period. They became rather enamored of learning what a real cowboy does and, to give them credit, persevered through lessons in how to care for their horses.
Another reason that I should have known better is your brother Brian. He is one of the most balanced young men I have encountered in my years of teaching (not centuries nor eons, as my students would probably assert). His circle of friends and acquanintances ranges from Freshmen to other Seniors, contains many young women as well as young men, and examples of most of the subgroups - brains, jocks, gamer geeks, science and math nerds, band members, thespians. The only groups not represented are the stoners, socialites and politicians. His grades would be better if he did not share his opinions so freely with his teachers, not all of whom are receptive of contrarian points of view no matter how eloquently presented, closely reasoned and well-researched. It did not help when his final exam for Home Economics was 'Squirrel Stew a la Bill Tucker' featuring 'forest-gathered spices' and prepared with camping utensils, even though he used an electric hot plate instead of a campfire.
His taking two lovely young women to Prom raised some eyebrows. They all maintained that they were just good friends and replied to innuendoes that their relationship was more than that with metaphoric two-by-fours to the forehead.
If you wish to respond, write to me at:
Adele Smith
1 Mockingbird Lane
Snooty Subdivision,
Home Base
or send an e-mail to:
Englishteacher41@freehold.net
Sincerely,
Adele Smith
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[Updated on: Fri, 18 April 2014 00:45]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8428] |
Tue, 13 May 2014 18:03 |
Anne
Messages: 355
Registered: April 2012 |
Senior Member |
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George, you asshole!
Where would I wear a camo formal?
[Updated on: Tue, 13 May 2014 18:04]
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| Re: After graduation [message #8431] |
Thu, 22 May 2014 13:23 |
mkemp
Messages: 421
Registered: April 2006 |
Senior Member |
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One day I was going through the lobby of the Earth Sciences building when a group of 30 kids were on a tour. The guide had just finished pointing out the crust, mantle and core on the cutaway Earth globe. He pointed out their seismometer. "We are very proud of this machine. It is very sensitive and is also part of the local reporting network for the USGS."
I could see the light bulbs coming on over the kids' heads and the "I wonder..." thoughts forming.
I couldn't help myself. "On three. One... Two..."
Thirty kids up. 30 kids down.
The kid closest to the seismometer said, "About a 1.5."
-----------------------------------------
Inspired by "Not Always Learning" "They're all Grounded"
Sorry for the plagiarism but it's something I could see Valerie doing. She couldn't tell George about it or he'd show up with a pogo stick and try to find the resonant frequency of the seismometer.
[Updated on: Thu, 22 May 2014 20:41]
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