The Road Home

[NathanJefferson]

Radio Broadcast: So far both New York and Chicago are being affected but garbage is really starting to pile up now that the strike is into its second week, and now there are talks of this strike moving to other cities as an act of solidarity. These are just some of the latest responses to the strain caused by the rampant inflation facing our country. As you are aware with the continuing oil shortage prices continue to rise, causing many people to make hard decisions on what bills to pay, if any.

The president has once again released a statement assuring that the shortage will be under control within a few weeks and that they are doing everything they can to stem the rampant inflation. They are working with the fed chairman to tighten standards and should have a decision on whether or not to raise rates.


"Do you really have to go? I don't want you to be gone with all the problems going on right now!" Margaret said as she started clearing the dinner table and loading the dishwasher. She was always vocal about sharing her concerns but with the new problems facing the country she was even more nervous than she was in the past.
"I don't want to have to deal with the grocery stores and gas stations without you, especially since I don't have anyone to help watch this kids now!" With the financial problems and oil shock facing the country traffic jams and lines at gas stations were becoming a common occurrence.

Normally Margaret's mother would come over several days a week to help watch the kids so she could run errands and have a little time for herself, she hadn't been able to make the trip for two weeks and it was starting to take a toll. Three kids with no breaks in sight since John was working at least 10-12 hours a day 7 days a week, not to mention the 4 or 5 days a week he was on the road. In addition to her being unable to catch her breath she had a special resentment for John's new job being a salaried employee and not getting any extra compensation for his time and effort, while the company he worked for, one of the largest oil drillers in the country was raking in more money than they ever did before all thanks to this gas shortage.

Since Margaret was let go from her job several months ago John had tried everything he could to bring more home for the family. He finally took this new job that had him flying across the country weekly, still being extremely busy on the days he was home. There was an increasing need for engineers to oversee and sign off on the work that was being performed all across the country. It was possible to run the heavy machinery and drill holes with skeleton crews or crews brand new to the industry but you could only go so far without the reviews and checks performed by certified professional engineers like John.

"I Promise it will only be for a few days and I'll be right home. It will be a whistle-stop tour of about a dozen different sites but I will have the crews work around my schedule and I'll be in and out faster than last time." John said, trying to make his wife feel better about his latest assignment to fly out to the middle of nowhere near the Montana and Wyoming border to approve the work on some new wells they were trying out.

He had been out to that same region a few times this year already, surveying and preparing the sites and now they should all be ready to go into full swing drilling and setting up the pumping equipment to start bringing up the oil that the geologist promised was there.

After a few moments of silence he continued; "You know its very important I get out there to help with this, every new well that starts producing helps alleviate part of the shortage problem. That and I'll demand a vacation or something for all my extra time, besides heaven only knows how much profit we are going to make this quarter and that is going to lead to a big bonus!"

Not satisfied Margaret replies tersely "Well I still don't want you going" as she slams the door on the dish washer and heads upstairs to start getting the kids ready for bed.

Alone in the kitchen john grabs his laptop, pops it open and shoots off a few emails laying out the agenda for the next week, trying to squeeze as much action into as short a time as he can. He thinks to himself at this rate he will have to find a driver to take him from site to site while he sleeps in the truck because there will be little to no time for him to sleep in a real bed. He then books his flights and sends the itinerary over to Joe his co-worker that he has been working with on these projects so he will know when to pick him up from the airport.

Just as he starts closing the lid to his computer he remembers what he told his wife about getting a bonus or a vacation for the extra effort and starts crafting up an email to his boss asking for a little something for the extra work and travel to help out at home, especially since gas, groceries and other necessities have gone up considerably at least by a double digit percentage since he got his last raise about 6 months ago. He hits writers block when he gets to the point where he wanted to suggest a number adequate but fair for his time, effort and expertise. With the almost daily changes in the price of most basic goods he wanted to be careful with what he was asking for. Not sure where to go he decides to sleep on it and shuts down the laptop and loads it into his bag and begins packing for his flight leaving early tomorrow morning.

At 3:30 am the alarm on John's phone started going off forcing him out of his half sleep. He reaches over hits snooze and begins muttering under his breath about not wanting to get up. Five minutes later the alarm goes off again this time he begrudgingly turns off the alarm as he slowly slides himself out of bed and heads to the bathroom for a quick shower. After getting ready he grabs his roller board suitcase, that was hastily packed last night, throws it in the back seat of the car along with his backpack and jumps in the front seat to begin his trip to the airport. About 45 minutes later he pulls into the parking garage and has to take a spot close to the end several hundred yards from the entrance to the airport, he thinks to himself how lucky he is that he woke up early and that there wasn't any traffic because he was already cutting his timing as close as he could.

Walking into the terminal stepping quickly he glances down at his ticket and heads towards the security line heading to his gate. The lines are extra short today, probably partly due to the extra fuel surcharge and higher ticket prices that have been imposed over the past few weeks, fewer and fewer people are flying. This is a good thing, at least for a business traveler like himself, short lines, better seats and not as much hassle getting in or out of airports. As he steps up to the TSA agent to have his boarding pass and ID checked he finally realizes that there is a soldier standing behind each agent at the front of the line. When he first came in he didn't pay any attention to them, there are always members of every branch of the military traveling in uniform, so they didn't stick out. But now he realized that there were about a dozen extra men and women wearing BDUs standing around in strategic positions in the security area.

"Good morning, how are you today" John said cordially as he handed the agent his papers.
"I'm pretty good, except for the fact this is going to be a long week, not looking forward to it really" the agent said as he starts ticking off details on John's boarding pass.
Not one for subtleness John goes on " What's with the army men all around here this morning, is everything ok"
The agent started to respond but the young man in camo interrupted him "Sir, we are from the National Guard, not the army and we are just here for a training and readiness exercise. The Governor has issued an order to call up all guardsmen and women for an additional training exercise. "
Slightly annoyed the agent rolled his eyes as he nodded his head " Yeah, just a training exercise. We've done this a few times in the past but this week it's going to be happening all day long for the whole week. Before they would be half a day at most."
"Oh... Ok. You guys have fun with that. Have a good week!" John quickly interjected as he takes back his papers as the agent hands them over.
"You too and safe travels."

After getting through security he had just enough time to grab a coffee before having to board his plane. The flight over to O'Hare was short and uneventful. When getting off the plane he wasn't terribly surprised to see more uniformed national guardsmen stationed at various places in the airport, as well as a few groups of Chicago police that looked like they were ready to handle a riot with black bullet proof vests worn over their uniforms. Some even had helmets and face shields and one or two even had large plastic riot shields that up until now he had only seen in movies or news clips.

Quickly running to his next gate he was just in time for his connection, this time the flight was about two and a half hours so as soon as he sat down he plugged some headphones in and went to sleep. Luckily he wasn't disturbed to turn them off, even though FAA regulations required it.

 

[NathanJefferson]

I'm going to throw together a little story for everyone, here is the first installment.

Please feel free to offer any and all feedback! I'm doing this exercise for several reasons:

1. I'm a poor writer and I want to get better for both personal and professional communications
2. See number 1
3. See number 1
4. I love reading survival fiction and want to give some back
5. I would REALLY love to eventually publish a book, but I know that is a long far off goal

If things are unclear, out of order, mispeled or anything, please let me know! I want to get better and I want it to be a readable and enjoyable story.




For anyone interested I currently have the outline for 21 installments and I am making a goal for myself to complete 2 a week until finished.


Even though I already have my outline, if you really hate an installment(especially where I make a stupid assumption/explanation) or have a great idea to share let me know. It is fiction after all!

 

[aka-kesler]

So Far You've got me!!

 

[spencer rifle]

4th (or 5th, depending on how it divides up) paragraph - "inability" should be "unable."

OK, we'll see how this goes.

 

[Icarry2]

Thumbs up, great start..

TJ

 

[tom1025]

Seems like your off to a good start. Margaret sure is ungrateful, John's breaking his back to pick up her slack and all she wants to do is ............ Hopefully you off her and the kids soon so this poor giy can get a break. Can't wait to read more.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Radio Broadcast: The teachers union in Chicago just walked out this morning due to what they say are completely deplorable conditions that wouldn't even pass for acceptable in the poorest countries of the world. For the past few weeks the Chicago school systems have been out of money, even though the school year just started. They have been unable to pay vendors and because of this several of them have stopped supplying the schools with needed materials, including supplies, food and in some instances electricity.

Now to be clear the schools that had power turned off weren't completely shut down, the power company just utilized the regulators installed on the air conditioners and what they termed other non-essential hardware, while still leaving the lights, computers and other necessities in the class room. The spokesman for Comed only had a short statement reiterating the details I just laid out and that they will continue to work with the schools to ensure the safety and education of the students. He also wanted to make sure it was clear that it has been over a year since the school shave paid a single penny for electricity and that they have been trying to bring them to the table to solve these issues for months, and that they regret having to rely on such drastic measures.


"Sir, you have to turn your headphones off we are about to land" The flight attendant said, gently touching John's shoulder to wake him up.
He grudgingly obliged her moving his seat to the upright position and powered down his mp3 player, tucking it into his pocket.
A few minutes later they touched down and spent a few minutes taxiing over to the gate of the small regional airport. As soon as the plane came to a stop he hopped up and grabbed his roller board from the overhead compartment and stood in the abnormally short line to deplane.
Taking his phone out he shoots a quick texts to his ride, Joe, letting him know he was there and ready to be picked up and then quickly called home to let them know he was safely there.
"Hi sweetheart! Just wanted to let you know I'm here safely!"
"That's good. I'm glad you are there safely… Sorry… I just wish you were here right now, it is getting kind of hard. They just canceled school for the week and are working on a new plan to cut down on the busing."
"Well, I'm sure they will have it all solved before Jane starts kindergarten next year"
"John, don't get smart, just get everything finished and come home. Ok?"
"Got it. I'll be back as soon as I can. I love you."
"Love you too, I'll talk to you later."

John made his way down to the baggage claim area and waited for him backpack. He hated having to check his bag but the tools he carried in there always got extra attention and once they even threatened to throw away a rotary laser level that cost about $2000 dollars. Ever since that he just started checking the bag and took that as an opportunity to pack a few other items, that were blatantly against the rules, that he wanted to have on hand also. By the time he made it down to the carrousel his bag was already out and making its rounds, service is really quick when there are only a dozen people on the plane he thought to himself.

He grabbed his bag and started outside. He quickly found his ride, the large company truck with tool and equipment boxes built into the bed, among the four other cars waiting to pick up passengers. Travel sure is a lot easier when there is no one else to contend with!

He opened the passenger door and greeted Joe "Good morning!"
"Good morning boss, how was the trip?"
"Not bad, weird, but not bad. Mostly I just hate waking up so early and it's going to be a long few days for you and me. Did you get the agenda I sent out?"
"Yeah, got it. We'll make it work. But what was so weird about the trip? "
"Well other than the armed national guard and police decked out in riot gear back at the airports in Columbus and then in Chicago, not much." John said which drew an odd looking scowl from Joe.
"Yeah, weird stuff going on all over, but it's good for business… at least for us. With all the overtime I'm pulling I'll have the old homestead paid off in under a year."
"Well, if you can keep up with these hours for that long, you will sure deserve it! Now lets get moving so we don't lose any time." He said as he threw his luggage into the back of the extended cab and hopped in the passenger seat.

The itinerary John laid out had them making a run from the airport he flew into on the west side of South Dakota up to Helena for him to fly out on the last flight out 3 days later. With 5 stops along the way, each requiring an 8-10 hour inspection, the duo was going to be very busy. The job was to go to each site and validate the installation and setup of all the drilling and pumping equipment. This wasn't necessarily a hard job but it was tedious and due to different regulations and laws only a certified professional engineer was able to sign the completed inspection. Even though Joe wasn't a certified engineer, not having enough experience yet, he could still help validating measurements and setups cutting the time down at each site and allowing the compact schedule to be accomplished.

A few hours later they pulled into the first site and spent the first half an hour just trying to find a living person to talk to. They eventually found the loan worker sleeping in the cab of a truck parked behind several trailers. The story only took a few seconds to explain. The sleeping man was the only person left at the site since they were at a standstill until approval was giving to move ahead. A few days ago the crew finished all the setup and moved on to another drill site leaving this lucky guy behind to wait for John. Three days sitting with nothing to do, stuck in the middle of nowhere wasn't a vacation like he thought it was going to be.
"It's about **** time you got here." The guy started in, handing over several binders full of documents.
"Yeah, sorry, hopefully we can knock this out and we can all get on our way." Joe said trying to diffuse the situation.
"Well, everything you need should be in the binders. Here are the keys to the office, the trucks, blah blah blah. Here is my cell number, but if you have any questions I won't be able to answer them anyway. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go home for a few hours then catch back up with my crew." The man said. He waited a couple of seconds to see if they had questions, when none cam he curtly tipped the bill of his ball cap and jumped back into the truck. He quickly started it up and drove off without looking back.

The next few hours went quickly with both engineers checking dozens of different specs and setups dutifully recording all the results on their itemized checklists. After the lists were all completed the team climbed back into the truck and started heading to the next site. John sat in the passenger seat again going through each line of the papers double checking the data and the initials of whoever validated the spec. He always made sure to double check everything because any missed point could cost thousands in noncompliance fines and tens of thousands in stopped or delayed productions, neither of which he wanted to be his fault.

Pulling into the second site they quickly found the crew who were still working on several platforms that held generators and other equipment to run the heavy machinery. Getting the binders they quickly set to work repeating the same process they completed earlier in the day. Half way through the foreman came over and got their dinner orders, giving them a choice between a burger, two different cold cut sandwiches or pizza from the local store which was about a 20 minute drive away.

Sitting down with the crew to have a quick dinner the discussions spun around many different topics. With everything happening in the news there were plenty of things to talk about, none of them good. The main topic was about the Presidents latest announcement that he was releasing more of the nations strategic oil reserves. This would be the third sale from the reserve in the past two months and the total held in reserve was already down by over 75% from where it was a year earlier. This would leave the country with as little as a weeks worth of oil in reserve, but the mainstream media ignored this fact and only focused on how great it was the administration was taking such drastic steps to relive the suffering of the country.

The next topic that got a lot of steam was about the strikes that had spread to almost every major city. Gas prices were up over 50% in the past 2 months alone everything else had started creeping up in price. Things people actually needed, especially food, had risen about 20%-30% in the past few weeks and this was causing a lot of people to get upset quickly. Whether it was a teacher, a construction worker or someone who did nothing but collect government assistance they quickly banded together to demand a solution to their problems. These groups quickly grew in number and started to breaking off into splinter groups many trying to blame each other for their economic woes. These factions clashed causing riots, mostly small scale at this point, in a dozen of these cities.

As soon as their sandwiches were finished the pair of engineers got back to work and finished up just shortly after the setup crew left. Both men jumped into the truck and came to a unanimous decision to stop at the nearest motel for the night, since it was already after 10:00 PM and still had to finish today's paper work and talk to their better halves.

After checking in to the small motel John threw in his blue tooth headset and dialed his wife.
"It's about time you call. Better yet, why did you even bother? It's past midnight here and I was already in bed!"
"Sorry honey. We just really wanted to finish up the first two sites today. If we didn't do that it would be pretty much impossible for me to come home Wednesday night and I'd be stuck here until Thursday."
"I know, I'm sorry. It is just getting worse here at home. Did you know they had to shut down the interstates going downtown? People were protesting, blocking traffic all over downtown and it turned the interstates into a parking lot with people waiting for hours to get on or off exits. The news said that some people just got out of there cars and walked away it was so bad, and then people started setting those cars on fire!"
"… Well it's a good thing you never go downtown anymore!" John joked quickly, and instantly knew he shouldn't have.
"You know damn well I'd still be going down there every day if I was still working! It's not my fault I lost my job, everyone in my office lost their job! If you didn't notice the unemployment rate is still over 13%! And for another thing"
Quickly interrupting her John apologized repeatedly. He knew it was still a sore spot, and would be for some time to come. Margaret was a rising star in her company and was the main bread winner of the family when the entire company was purchased by a foreign competitor and shut down with no warning.

He apologized again and promised her to call earlier tomorrow. He followed up with the standard "I love you's" before hanging up and heading to bed.

 

[tom1025]

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

So far so good.

 

[flagtag]

Loving it! Please keep it up.

 

[aka-kesler]

Great!!!

 

[NathanJefferson]

Radio Broadcast: There has been a nation wide activation of national guard units to help prevent rioting from spreading across the country. There was already multi-state coordinated security exercise being performed, with the majority of these guardsmen and women being in the Midwest who are being sent to east and west coast cities today to help with security concerns among the rioting that took place yesterday.

In the Presidents address last night he called for patience and solidarity as Americans to come together and weather and solve this crisis. He discussed at a high level his plan to ensure law and order by sending the national guard, at state governor's requests, to California and several states along the east coast to help keep law and order.


Waking up at 5:30 John took a quick shower and threw on his clothes meeting Joe out at the truck just 15 minutes later. With a two hour drive to the next site they wanted to get there with earlier but they knew it was going to be another long day so they opted to sleep in. John got behind the wheel this time giving Joe a break since there was no paper work and started off the morning civilities.
"So how was your night?" John asked.
"It was ok. Actually it was good, I got some great news last night" Joe replied.
"Oh yeah, what's that?"
"My wife picked me up a couple of presents yesterday, and for next to nothing."
"She already ruined the surprise didn't she?"
"I think she was just proud of the deal she got" Joe said with a hint of pride in his voice too, and then he continued "She just happened to be at the pawn shop looking for coins when a guy came in trying to sell a pair of custom 1911's, a full size and the matching compact. They only offered him $500 for the pair and all accessories trying to blow smoke about the law limiting it to that much but they wouldn't separate the items. He stormed out, she followed and picked them both up… for $500, even though she said she would pay more. He was just so pissed that he wanted to sell them for that just to spite the store."
"Wow. That is one heck of a deal, I always wanted a nice .45 like that but I never did want to spend that much money on a show piece" John said, clearly jealous of the new toys Joe had waiting for him.
"Yeah, you and your cheap little plastic guns. You can keep them. With these new .45's I can finally get rid of the little toy I keep in my truck and replace it with my current .45."
John said in a sarcastic tone "Hey, careful there. I'd call your shiny hunks of steel toys! They are like spoiled little models, look great and you love showing them off to your friends. Maybe they are a lot of fun if you don't have to put up with all their whining and demands. But my plastic toy is tried and true"
"Yep. Got it." Joe interrupted him laughing out loud. He continued "I get it. I can ride my Harley while you put around on your Honda, hooray for gas mileage!"
They both laughed at the jokes and turned the conversation back to work.

A couple hours later they pulled into the work-site and quickly got to work. This site was also abandoned except for the one lucky guy who assigned to show up just to meet the engineers, at least this time he was only waiting for about an hour. It was explained to John that a year or so ago this job was coveted, guys would set up shop with the radio or portable television and treat the day almost like a day off, but now the crews were getting a bonus for every milestone they completed on a site and everyone wanted to work as fast as they could. The guys who would 'take a day off' got ribbed pretty hard and goaded into working more to make up for the lost time. As soon as the paperwork was handed off he jumped back into his company truck and drove off.

The team worked together very well performing their third inspection in just over 24 hours, knocking it out about an hour ahead of schedule. It didn't hurt that whoever was in charge of documenting all the details made a great effort to make sure everything was legible and even provided extra detail where he thought the inspection crew would want it. John made a note to provide this feedback up the chain, whoever did this deserved at least a pat on the back.

On their way to the next site which was a few hours away John decided to check in back home.
"Hi sweetheart, how is everything going today?" John asked in his sweetest voice.
"It's ok I guess. I can't help it though, I can't turn off the TV."
"Well, don't get too wrapped up in everything, there isn't really anything you can do at this point."
"I know… things around here are at least a little better it sounds. The protests have quieted down and the rioting is under control, but from what I'm seeing in the news almost all of southern California is going crazy."
"Well I'm glad things are getting better, I told you everything would work out!" John said compassionately.
"I know, I know. But this is only one day, tomorrow is another and who knows how that is going to be. I mean could you have ever dreamed that there would be over a dozen riots yesterday?"
"No, no, I can't say I could. But anyway, how are the kids?" John asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"Today.. They are both acting like their daddy, stubborn and strong headed!" Margaret said with a playing tone.
"I'm sorry sweetheart. But I don't think I'm the only one to blame."
"Well, until you get back everything is your fault. Everything. Even the grocery prices! Mom just called and said she is coming over to take me and the kids grocery shopping. She just did her weekly shopping, the prices she was paying were appalling. Now she is making us go and buy a few weeks worth of food. She says its to stay ahead of the prices."
John replied "Well, I'll have to agree with her this time. A blind squirrel and all…"
"Ha...ha… Mr. Funnypants over here."
"Hey, I've got to take my openings when they come! But seriously, I think you should take both cars and stock up on as much as you can fit. Actually definitely fill it up, worst case we will donate it to the church's food drive at Thanksgiving. That will save us a trip then."
"Ok, I guess I better start making a list. I think I'll need a legal pad instead of a notecard for this one." Margaret said.
Knowing that she thought she was being funny John feigned a few laughs to appease her before telling her how much he loved her and the kids and that he would be home soon.

When they were most of the way to the next site they stopped at a small gas station on the highway to grab lunch. They usually passed these places by since they always filled up from the tanks at the work-sites per company policy, but they had no idea where else they could get food around this area.

Going down the aisles of junk food it was hard to find anything appealing for lunch so John settled on some of the not so fresh looking fruit a bag of beef jerky and a bag of pretzels. Then looking at his watch he figured they would be making it to the work-site just as the crew there would be about ready for lunch and decided to buy a bunch of snacks for the guys. He and Joe ended up spending over $200 on chips, jerky, drinks and lots of other snack food but it only ended up filling 5 plastic shopping bags.

When they arrived a few minutes later, they put out the spread of goodies and watched how quickly the food disappeared. Everyone said thanks and was grateful but you would have figured they hadn't eaten in days. After finishing their own lunch the team set to work inspecting. Making great time they were able to pack up and head out before sunset.

They stopped for a quick dinner at a greasy spoon and checked into another roadside motel that night. The call with Margaret that night mostly revolved around the shopping trip and how much everything cost and how much she spent on everything. After making the first trip with her mother and being shocked at spending over $1000 she dug up the food pantry wish list and sent her mother back for a second trip spending over $500 again on the usually cheap staples on the list. Even though they now had more food stacked up than she knew what to do with it still caused her to get even more stressed out than the news of protests and riots did the day before. She thought that if they, an upper middle class income family, were having to pay this much for food how would people who made less or who had more mouths to feed. The reality of what caused those riots started to hit home.

 

[flagtag]

Another great installment!! Thanks.

 

[tom1025]

Pretty good so far!

 

[s&wluvr]

Nice work. Rgoziner, you are a good story teller. You've got my attention. Keep those chapters coming.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Radio broadcast: Over 30,000 members of the national guard will make it to California from across the country tonight with almost that many more making it by tomorrow night. With the riots outside of California in control in all cities except for Philadelphia and Detroit. It looks like things are already starting to quiet down due to the exceptional steps taken by the countries leadership. Along with the mobilization of forces the President has put together a comprehensive package to aid the state and local governments in weathering this storm. The plan calls for a one time cash bonus, tax free, to be paid to all federal, state and local government employees equal to 10% of their annual salary. He noted that due to the economy these public servant have been hit hard, many of which haven't received raises in the past year or two. It also provides a temporary increase to SNAP, TANF and several other programs that help those most in need. It is expected that this legislation will be passed in an emergency session this evening and that disbursements will begin as early as tomorrow morning.

Waking up at 5:30 again John performed his ritual of showering and getting ready in a hurry. As he packed everything back up nice and neat in anticipation of his flight later that day he laughed at himself noting the exercise clothes and shoes he always had packed. "Carrying around a lot of dead weight." he thought to himself and wondered what else was stashed in the suit case that he would never use on his trips.

The pair grabbed a quick breakfast at the greasy spoon they ordered to go meals for lunch to cut their down time. They arrived at the sight early and went to work. They immediately realized it was a good idea to get there early, paperwork was incomplete and illegible and the crew was working at a frantic pace to try and complete the last steps needed to pass the inspection. John and Joe spent almost the entire morning rewriting and filling in the blanks on the documentation.

By the time lunch rolled around it was evident that this site wasn't going to pass inspection today. The engineers met with the foreman and lined out a plan to get everything inspection ready by the same time tomorrow. A quick call to the companies travel agent and his flight was re-booked for the same time the next day. Those were the easy problems to solve. Next he had to resolve the most important and pressing issue at hand.
"Hi my love! How are you today!"
"I'm just counting the minutes until you get home tonight, that's how I am." Margaret said and after a short pause she continued, "And you are calling to tell me that you aren't coming home today, aren't you?"
"Well, no, I'm sorry. We won't be able to finish up today. But we will have more than enough time to get everything ready tomorrow."
She replied in a very angry tone, "You promised… I can't stand this. I really wish you were here!"
"I know, I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you. Somehow."

Working through the afternoon and evening the site was just short of being completed by the time they headed out for the night.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Sorry, the next few are going to be short, I managed to mess up the timeline for some of the details I wanted to share.

 

[flagtag]

Oh, I think we will survive. (maybe - just barely )
Short is better than none.
Thanks.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Radio Broadcast: There has been mass confusion all day as the bonus benefit payments error left peoples accounts with ten times the amount they should have received. Many are blaming this accounting error on the renewed protests and mayhem that has broken out across the country. To top off the day there have been rolling brown outs throughout the northeast and Canada, attributed to the record setting temperatures.

Along with the confusion with the much needed benefits the rioting in LA has taken on a life of it's own. There have been renewed actions of violence and looting spreading throughout the city. With the increased presence of the National Guard in many areas previously hit subduing aggression there are now coordinated flash mobs descending into affluent shopping districts destroying some of the most upscale shopping centers in the world.

Waking early as normal John got ready and they headed to the site to help with the work. Working alongside the crew they were installing piping and wiring for the pumping equipment. By the time lunch rolled around they were able to get back to the original task and began working through the sign off process. Making good time they spent three hours and finished all the validations, ensuring the site was ready for the next steps of breaking ground.

After packing up everything Joe drove John to the airport and dropped him off at the gate. Going to the counter John checked his backpack full of tools and headed off to the security line. Lines were even shorter here at the tiny airport in Helena and he zoomed right through. He even thought to himself how the TSA agents just seemed different here than they did back in Ohio, more friendly, less authoritarian or maybe just more accommodating instead of combative.
After going through the metal detector her walked over to his gate and waited for his flight that was due to take off in two hours.

Watching the news channel running on the screens through the airport he could barely believe what he was seeing and began to really regret not being at home. Stores across the country were madhouses as people went and blew a years worth of government subsidies in a single day. Even though it was quickly announced that these were going to be clawed back people were trying to spend them before that happened.

The video was showing people stuffing their carts full of junk food, steaks and anything else that hit their newly extravagant fancy. They also showed people offering to trade their bounty for cash, cigarettes, booze or other items that they couldn't buy with the standard allotment. Even knowing that their were TV cameras on them they boldly hawked their benefits, possibly even more boldly as they wanted to get their fifteen minutes of fame by showing how cavalier they can be while 'getting theirs'.

Looking back to the flight status board he noticed that his flight was now delayed by 45 minutes. Good thing he thought as he seemed to be the only person around this gate area waiting for a flight. Even with it still over an hour away there usually would be several other people waiting nearby.

Going back to the TV he saw the continuing of coverage now showing the shelves, almost completely bare, inside the store. They cut through different feeds in many different areas across the county showing the same outcome whether it was downtown Chicago or backwoods Kentucky. Getting antsy he decided to call home and see how things are going.
"Hello my love, how are you?"
"We are ok, I guess."
"Just ok? I'll be home soon! I can't wait!"
"Neither can we. We've been hanging out here all day playing games, reading books and telling stories about what we are going to do with daddy when he is home."
"Well I'll be home in just a few hours, I'm sorry it's been…" John paused for a second as he noticed the newly updated flight board, his flight was now delayed 2 hours.
"John? You there?"
"Sorry, the board just updated, I'm delayed 2 hours now…"
"You're joking, right? I can't believe this…"
A long pause took over the conversation as the reality of the situation set in. In their experience almost every time you have 2 or more delays like this your flight ended up being cancelled, usually due to 'mechanical' problems.
Margaret picked back up, "Are there any other flights out? Any other options?"
"No, there are only 2 other flights out for the rest of the night, one to California and the other to Texas and that one isn't until 10:30pm, I'm sure I can't make it home after that flight…"
Silence took over the conversation again before John continued, "I'll give you a call back as soon as know more, I love you, tell the kids I miss them and kiss them for me."
"I love you to. I hope we have some good luck today. Goodbye."

John then made a quick call to Joe telling him the situation and letting him know he might be hanging around town. Joe was still in the city doing some shopping and was actually planning on staying the night before heading back to pick up his own truck in the morning.

Twenty minutes later the flight was cancelled.

Joe drove up and John jumped into the cab, tossing his backpack and roller board in the back seat. Seeing that the senior engineer was distressed at the turn of events Joe expertly turned the conversation straight towards dinner, and how he knew of one of the best steak houses in the country, only a few minutes from where he was planning on staying. On the way to dinner they stopped at the motel and got a room for John where he dropped off his luggage.

Dinner was great. They eat ordered the house special a 44oz porterhouse steak with corn hash, au gratin potatoes and creamed carrots. They finished early and headed back to the hotel. After another call with the Mrs. with an extended chat with the kids he turned in since his new flight was supposed to take off at 6:00am.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Radio Broadcast: With the turmoil in the US happening daily dollar has plummeted against all other world currencies and has lead to crashes in every major market. Now the markets are starting to enforce vigilante justice on the previously unchecked American hegemony in world finance. US savings bonds and municipal bonds of every city and state are being dumped wholesale adding to the turmoil, now there are starting to be questions about how the bailouts, et alone the day to day operation of the country will be paid for.

"What the **** was that?" John, nearly shouting, said to himself as he bolted upright from sleep.

He quickly looked around the room and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He stood up, turned the light on and looked around. Nothing.

He walked over to the door and he could hear a car alarm going off outside. He put on a pair of pants over his boxers and stepped outside to look around. Opening the door and stepping out he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Just as he was about to turn around and head back inside another patron a few doors down stepped outside, asking "What the heck are you doing out here? You scared the crap out of me!" John replied, telling the man he didn't know what was going on but some loud crash, or something, woke him up. A few other patrons stepped outside trying to find the cause of the disturbance and they all stood around chatting for a few minutes and looking around but never did find the cause.

The consensus was that it had to be a car crash, probably a drunk, who backed up and drove off. It was just after 2:00am, and at that time of the day that explanation was good enough and John went back to bed.