It was no sooner than we started construction of the statue that a building inspector from the City of Burlington just happened to come by wanting to see a building permit and blue prints for the statue we were constructing. Of course we didn't have one so Steve went inside and came back with our copy of the contract and a copy of the check we had received for a deposit on the job. The inspector carried both to his truck where he could check them out on his computer. When he came back from his truck he said, "This is strange."
"What is it?" Steve asked, "Are we doing something wrong?"
"No, you're not doing anything wrong and a permit was issued for this job but according to the NC Secretary of State this company who wrote you the check doesn't exist. If I were you I'd make sure your money is in the bank before I continued building this thing, whatever it is."
Steve, Donny and Wooley locked up all the welding equipment and drove straight to the bank as soon as the building inspector drove away.
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Veggie and I were looking over the Proximity Hotel, and the O.Henry Hotel in Greensboro as possible locations for the next Wackemall Inc. shareholders meeting though truth be told, at .06 cents per share and no dividends I was thinking we should perhaps rent some big tents and arrange to shuttle people from PTI and RDU. If any stockholders flew in via smaller private planes to Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport we could just send the Veggicycle as it's only 3 miles down the very street our shop is on and the Veggiecycle knows the way. The pilots who run air freight out of Burlington-Alamance Regional get a kick out of seeing the Veggiecycle deliver our overnight packages to the airport all by itself but they worry that airplanes might someday do the same.
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The reason Jo was making the buttons at our shop was simply that her place wasn't big enough for her to store the entire order and rather than try and haul them all around in her car we just let her set up temporary shop in our shop. Besides, that gave Donny more time to study the button machine in action so he could plan his improved version. Jo was enjoying her day making buttons and talking with the motorcycle. "So tell me," Jo asked, "do you enjoy diving?"
"Diving?" the motorcycle asked.
"You know," Jo said, "diving in the ocean salt water searching for sponges and stuff like that. I'm going to the beach to go diving in a few days and I thought you might want to go diving too. I do it all the time. It's really my favorite thing to do. Anyone who spends a lot of time with me has to get wet."
"Oh, sure," the motorcycle said, "sounds like fun."
Jo could tell he didn't really mean what he was saying but she didn't press the issue. "Well," I'm done for the day, see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," the Veggiecycle said as Jo walked out the door.
When Veggie and I returned from Greensboro the motorcycle asked to speak with us both. "What is it?" Veggie asked.
"It's about that buddy seat," the motorcycle answered.
"It's already been decided," I said, "there will be no buddy seat."
"I don't want a buddy seat," the Veggiecycle said. "I want you to help me break up with Jo."
"I can't wait to hear this," Donny said as he, Steve and Wooley walked into the door.
"Couldn't be any stranger than what we just found out," Steve said.
"I don't know," Wooley said, "as long as Billy and Veggie are involved seems like it can always get stranger."
"And stranger and stranger and stranger," Donny and Steve said in unison.
Continue to Grey Daze.
