Avoid if triggered by misplaced apostrophe's. (essayel) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2008-03-01 21:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | chas, cindy |
290 Gallery, backdated to Friday, Cindy
"Now, lift the sheet just a little bit higher -- no, believe me, it will work!"
Cindy was directing two less than enthusiastic builders that clearly showed they didn't trust her. Not completely. Not enough to tell them how to do their work.
Attracted by the noise, Charlie pushed through the protective hangings of polythene and gave them a grin. "Hello," he said. "What's going on?"
"We're fitting the big pane of glass today!" Cindy said, all cheerful, daring the workmen to contradict her. "How are things going on your side of the curtain, Charlie?"
"Okay," Charlie said. "Sales aren't particularly good at the moment but they'll pick up when the weather improves." He looked up at the soon to be elevator and put his hands in his pocket.
The workmen were lifting the sheet of glass, looking sceptical. "It fits in there, no problem," Cindy told them, nodding. "It was all made straight from the same CAD design. Just lift it a little higher."
She looked at Charlie, and shrugged.
Charlie shrugged too. In his experience huge sheets of glass needed treating with respect, but the scaffolding looked safe enough to him. "It's going to look great," he said. "How soon will it be done?"
"Next week," Cindy said. "Middle of March," one of the workmen said, at the same time.
"Oh?" Charlie looked at the area, the hole in the wall, the men standing watching. "Usual penalty clauses I presume?" he said. "At least that's what I assumed. I do seem to remember seeing signatures on contracts and things."
"This is not a jigsaw piece..." one of the men said, shrugging; the pane of glass shrugged with him.
Charlie looked at Cindy and shrugged too. "I suppose we ought to let these experts get on with their job," he said. "Pity if they dont get done when they said because they'll miss out on the bonus, but I expect they know best how fast they are capable of working. May I offer you some tea?"
"Oh yes, please, tea is always welcome," Cindy said, turning at him with a bright smile. 'I love you!!' she mouthed, soundlessly, hoping he was able to read her lips; Charlie could do so many things! That had been a neat turn that he'd given to things. They should play good cop -- bad cop more often.
Charlie held the polythene aside so she could pass by and then let it fall again. "I love you too," he murmured. "Tea - mmm - or coffee. And I have cookies. I thought I'd better get you out of there before you hit someone with a twenty-eight pound sledge."
"Cookies!" Cindy said. "I love you even more. Yes, I hate it when people doubt my calculations. My calculations work -- I know how to use a CAD program, thank you, even though I'm female an in a wheelchair. Men, really!!"
Beat.
"Not you. Or Leo. Whom I haven't seen in a while."
"No he was saying you'd both missed a few Sundays recently," Charlie said and chuckled. "We fed him one weekend. I was doing a roast and when he said he was having quiche - well!"
"It is a pity," Cindy said. "I have been working, and seeing people and -- well. Leo belongs to himself, and I have no prior claim to his attention, if you know what I mean?"
"Yes, of course," Charlie said. "He said much the same about you." Opening the office door he waited again for her to pass.
"I'll just call him and ask him if he has any plans for next weekend," Cindy said. "Anyway -- cookies?"
"Red tin on the desk," Charlie said, heading for the coffee machine. "Milk no sugar?"
"Yes, thanks -- you remember!" Cindy said, feeling infinitely soothed and relieved already.
"I can remember people's tea and coffee and their phone numbers but damned if I can remember their birthdays," Charlie said. "Unless they are close enough to me to poke me regularly about it like Mum does." He grinned. "She starts in good time too."
"September 28th, me," Cindy said, grinning. "Is that early enough, or too early?"
Charlie grinned and put her coffee on the desk in front of her then hastily poked buttons on his keyboard. "There," he said. "I've added it to my year planner - with a reminder the week before."
"Ahhh - clever computer!" Cindy laughed, sipping her coffee.
"What would we do without them?" Charlie said then answered his own question. "Count on our toes and I'd go back to using my day book. Which I do anyway come to think of it." He shrugged. "Anyhow, to business. What do you know about eco-friendly homes, because I've sort of committed myself to building some and wouldn't trust the architect I've had recommended to me to build a wendy house."
"Where do you want to build them?" Cindy answered. "Eco-friendliness depends on the ecology, after all. You need something else in Arizona than you do in Alaska."
"Either one side or the other of the English/Welsh border, never been quite sure which, though the Gloucestershire Planning Authority are the guys who have to be pleased." Charlie poked a few more buttons on this keyboard and turned the monitor to face her. "See, it's an assymetrical patch of land, just off this lane, there's already mains water and sewerage to the site and electricity because these buildings used to be battery hen houses. The business man who set it up went bust, so I got the land fairly cheaply. I think it could be put to better use housing young people from the village than torturing chickens. What do you think? Could we make low cost housing that would be cheap to heat and power and would still be practical and attractive with hard standing for cars - you NEED them in the country - AND a patch of garden?"
"Of course we can," Cindy said. "I'd mix materials -- wood, straw, timber-frame, loam, and bricks -- and styles. Some terraced, some semi-detached, perhaps a few detached ones for people with lots of kids and dogs? One or two small apartment buildings for singles; those happen in the country as well? Shared facilities -- perhaps a garage here, where there's no pipes in the ground yet? Storing cars aboveground all the time is a bit of a waste of space. Photovoltaics on all roofs facing south that are not shadowed by trees, to be fed into the power grid to keep electricity costs low? I guess there's farms around -- what kind of animals do they keep?"
"Sheep and beef cattle," Charlie said. "Some of the older guys have domestic poultry and a pig or two for the table as well. Thing is, that's a bit ambitious for the space that we have to play with. It's only two and a half acres all told. I very much doubt we'd get permission for underground parking, also that would make the cost astronomical." He looked sheepishly at her. "I'm not after making a profit as such but I don't want to be wildly in debt at the end of the project either."
"Oh," Cindy said. "Well, in that case, can we at least do the photovoltaics thing, and perhaps central heating with bio gas, AKA cow farts?"
Charlie's eyes lit up. "A digester?" he said. "I was thinking of that for the farmhouse if ever we settle there, but we could get a big commercial model and ..." He stopped and sighed. "We'll have to look into the financial commitment that would entail. It might be cheaper to install a wood pellet system. That's sustainable too."
"A big, commercial digester could pay its own way very shortly," Cindy said. "Decentralised but cooperative energy and heating is the way of the future. Wooden pellets, though, if the investment is too much."
"That's the problem, you see," Charlie said wistfully. "I know what needs to be done and given the cash we could probably make the whole village a fossil fuel free zone. But getting enough cash is the problem. The people who would lend it would expect a return on their loan and you and I both know this isn't that sort of deal."
"No, it's the sort of long-time investment that steadily pays its own way," Cindy said, "and that people will be really glad about once the oil runs out. And all signs point to Peak Oil already having happened -- sometime in 2006! But tell that to a bank."
"I suppose I could TRY Dad," Charlie said thoughfully. "But somehow I can't see cow farts appealing to FB&P."
"Which is a pity," Cindy said, sighing into her teacup. "Cow farts are the future!"
"Maybe - maybe I could organise a practical demonstration?" Charlie suggested. "All I'd need would be a cow and a box of matches."
Cindy laughed, imagining a roomful of dark-suited bankers, and a flaming cow fart and Charlie sat back in his chair, happy to have made her laugh.
"So that's settled then," he said. "One Holstein and a pack of Swan Vestas and my loan will be in the bag. I just hope my brother is in a position to lose his eyebrows."
Cindy chuckled again, then asked for more tea.