6/14/2011

Well, thing are afoot. I took off a little early yesterday to talk to the credit onion about that building John and I looked at last weekend. Remember? The one on Chapin road near my house? The old inconvenience store we’d have to brick up and enclose and stuff? Yeah, that one. Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is, it ain’t looking good. It isn't that my credit won't allow it, but that the credit onion doesn't do personal loans for business property... sort of thing. I began to backpedal then and told her about the land in Boyd and my plan to build out there. Yeah, that didn't look very likely either it turns out. She shot an e-mail off to the “Land Purchase Department” and said they would call me back to discuss my options. Well, they called me back just now and guess what... yep, it doesn't look good on that front either. Fortunately something else came up which might make all this moo anyway. But I'll get to that in a bit. While talking to the land lady, I mentioned buying the existing building on Chapin and she transferred me to the commercial loan department. This lady and I talked for a bit and it turns out they MIGHT be able to make me a loan on the commercial type property after all. They would need one of their people to go out and look it over but he’s on vacation. I said, “I’m in no hurry. When he gets back, and if he’s going to the west side of town, have him swing by. But don't have anyone make a special trip at this time.” OK, so there’s all of that wet blanket news. Now remember, the “Land Purchase” and “Commercial phone calls were both this morning, now I'm going back to yesterday to tell why this might all be moo. After I left the credit onion, mom called to ask if I was willing to take her to Kohl’s to buy an ice maker. I said I would. I went home and dropped off my computer then we headed to Bryant Irvin Road to Kohl’s and thence to Mimi’s for dinner. Well, Kohl’s didn't have the ice maker. In fact, there was only one in the area... in North Richland Hills! The other friggin’ side of town! The guy called and had them put it aside for us and we headed that way. I called John for directions to the NRH Kohl’s. While driving there, mom and I discussed what I'd learned at the credit onion. Remember, this was before the calls from “Land” and “Commercial” loans. She asked a question which I've thought about once or twice but haven’t really considered all that thoroughly. “How long are you going to keep doing the ‘heavy’ work on these cars?” she asked. I knew what she meant but she went on, “I know you will want to keep one or two, and maintain them and all, but how long are you going to need the shop for... building them?” Again, I knew what she meant, but she kept trying to ‘splain herself, “If it takes a couple years to get a place built and you moved, how long will you, at your age and... condition, be able to keep working on them?” Then she dropped the real biggie, “You can't sell the place, not on my land especially. So what would then become of it?” It got me to thinking. She’s right. I don't have any heirs to give the shop and homestead in Boyd to. I damned sure don't want my nephew to have it. So, I started thinking about the “shop on the south side of the house” idea again. It would mean culling my herd even more than I had planned for the Boyd shop, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The cars I had envisioned moving to Boyd were, in no particular order, the Chickenhawk, George, the Honduh N600, Nadine, the Spitfire, Lil' Wiggly, The Seven, Fifi, the trailer (I know it isn't a car, just go with it), and Ms. Clio. Of course that list supposes that I'm moving out there... but what I'm talking about now is essentially the same since I'd be moving the shop to my house rather than me and the shop to Boyd so... um, never mind. OK, so what I need to do is decide how many cars I'm willing to have at the house. Hmm, I need to cipher and figger on this some more. And since I'm nearing the end of the page, I guess I'll go do that. I'm sure I'll have more on this story tomorrow.