Out of Gas

by Randy Dyess

“Fantastic! We can do that. We can get to know one another’s family better.” Owen got up and started to walk towards the door. “Oh, the real reason I came in was to tell you your project plan needs to be done by the first of the month. All the brass are going to a retreat at some place in the hill country and discuss things. We are supposed to tell everyone we are going to conferences. They want us to hide the fact we are having an unscheduled executive retreat that might tip off the media and stockholders.”

  “Ok. I’ll get with Kelly and figure out the time and let you know.”

  “You leave early, come in late, or work from home, whatever as long as you don’t look like you are slowing down the project. No one will notice,” Owen smiled. “Most of the higher-ups are trying to figure out a way to come out of this with their fortunes intact and they are not paying attention to anything else. Besides, no one is going to bother the only person in this company who has a real clue about how everything works.“

  Mark smiled. Owen pointed to Mark’s computer, “If you were to be in the email system and find emails between the brass about their lies, I doubt if anyone would find out. I don’t think there are many people in this company who could figure out anything about the systems without you involved.”

  “Later,” Mark laughed.

  “Later,” Owen said as he walked out the door.

  The rest of the day went by in a blur as Mark worked and rehashed everything Owen had told him during their conversation. He couldn’t wait to get home and tell Kelly everything.

  Chapter 10

  Keeping with their now usual nightly schedule, Kelly picked up the kids from school and played with them until Mark came home. He spent a few minutes with the kids before heading out to the grill to practice his techniques before the big Memorial Day party. Dinner was finished and both Mark and Kelly played a round of cards with the kids before headed upstairs to watch a movie before bed. The kids settled in with their movie and finally Mark and Kelly were alone so Mark could tell her about his day.

  “I wonder what he meant we he said he was in deeper than us,” Kelly said out loud.

  “I don’t know, but I guess we will find out on Saturday. I hope you don’t care that I invited him and his family over.”

  “Why should I? I feel the same way you do sometimes. I want to shout out to the world to wake up and get ready for the meltdown heading our way. Stop buying crap and save your money. Prepare the best you can for a life of minimum wage jobs and ten thousand other people who want the same job. I get so frustrated thinking about how everyone in charge knows about the upcoming shortage but hid it from us all those years. Where would everyone be today if only we had been told the truth?”

  After finishing their discussion, Mark and Kelly went to their separate offices to continue doing their own research on what was going to happen in the next few years. Kelly had developed a habit of trying to keep on top of the economic indicators Mark had taught her. Like Mark, she had developed her own set of alternative web sites she depended on to give her the news she now understood would never be discussed on mainstream sites. Kelly also took some time to go through their mail to see if any bills needed to be handed over to Mark to pay off. She also finished up her research by looking through any bills coming in that day to see if any of the services might be eliminated. She found they were paying for some additional insurance she had forgotten about. She made a note for Mark to give them a call in the morning and cancel the insurance. She didn’t enjoy pushing everything off on Mark, but his office was more secluded than hers. He often had to do all the “day” work as they were calling it. Plus they both knew Mark could get away with more than Kelly because of his already secluded nature.

  While Kelly was doing her research, Mark spent time looking at his own set of web sites to keep on top of indicators which had been released during the day. He spent time looking back through their finances for bills needing to be paid off based on any mail or notes Kelly had made for him. He also scanned the bank accounts and credit card accounts for any payments he did not have on his list to follow up on them the next day. He did find another payment for a club they had joined so he made a note to call and cancel the club the next day. After spending tens of thousands of dollars paying off a large chunk of their debts, Mark made notes to set up new bank accounts tomorrow. Before going down for his nightly drink with Kelly, he also made reminders to check in a few days the accounts he had just paid off. He needed to see if there was a zero balance and he could officially close them down. He was already feeling good about their new plan.

  Over the rest of the week, Mark took Owen up on his word and worked from home a few days to get his plans moving along faster. During his time at home, Mark made great strides on finishing the project at work and getting it ready for Owen to present to the other executives. He also found time to finish setting up his new bank accounts and transferring money into them. By Thursday, he was able to close out some of the accounts he had paid off earlier in the week. Mark and Kelly celebrated by having their first “shred the credit card” celebration. Overall, the week was well spent with Mark and Kelly making big strides forward on their new financial goals. They were able to tick off numerous items on what they started calling “The Turner Plan for The Future”.

  Saturday came around faster than normal and about 4:00 that afternoon the doorbell rang at the Turner’s. Mark and Kelly both walked to the door and opened it to greet their guests for the evenings. “Hi, Owen. Hi, Donna,” said Mark. “This is my wife Kelly and our girls, Cheyenne and Dakota, are running around here somewhere.”

  “Hi, Kelly, I’m Owen and this is my wife, Donna. These two are Sera and Lelian.”

  After everyone introduced themselves, Mark showed his guest to the living room and invited them to make themselves at home. They deposited the kids with Cheyenne and Dakota, who took them upstairs to show them their rooms. Mark and Kelly did what most Americans would do after introducing someone new to their house; they gave them the grand tour. At one point in the tour, Mark and Owen let the girls go on ahead and Owen looked at Mark with a knowing look in his eye. “Not quite excited about showing me your castle as you would have been a few months ago?”

  “That obvious, is it? I used to think this place was my dream home. Now all I think about is the money we sunk into it and how we will end up with nothing to show for it. We could have had a smaller place with a larger yard paid off by now instead of wasting the money on this place and its six thousand square feet. Not saying we would have done something productive with all that extra money, but at least we would have had the house paid off if something went wrong.”

  “Yeah. We went through the same thing a few years ago. We saw the writing on the wall and started downsizing ourselves before something downsized us by force. Honestly, after the initial adjustment period we haven’t missed all the extra space either. Don’t get me wrong, if we can’t raise our kids to act better than most teenagers do today we might miss all the space,” joked Owen. “I saw the For Sale sign out front. How long has it been up for sale?”

  “Three days. We decided we would sell last week hoping we could sell for what we owe on it. It would be nice to get some extra. At this stage in the game, I would like to just be able to sell and pay any fees without owing any extra. I think the days of turning a profit on your home are gone so I’m just hoping we can sell it and get into something else before things go south.”

  “Know what you mean. We were lucky to sell before the housing bubble broke and actually did pretty good on the sale.”

  “So with all the extra dough, want to buy this one?” Mark laughed.

  Owen smiled as both he and Mark finished the tour with Kelly and Donna before heading out to the pool area to enjoy the afternoon. Both the adults and children enjoyed the cool of the pool after suffering through a hot week and splashed around for a few hours before everyone started to get hungry.

  “Are you ready to start cooking the steaks and hot dogs?” Kelly ask
ed Mark.

  “Yes, you stay here with Donna and the kids and I’ll get them started.”

  “I’ll help,” said Owen as both he and Mark left the pool to the girls to start cooking the steaks, hot dogs, and corn on the cob.

  “Looks good,” Owen said as he surveyed the food.

  “We have been trying to start eating simple foods which are local and not shipped from around the world. Another one of those things I think will change as fuel becomes more expensive,” Mark said. “In the past we would have ordered something and picked it up or would have tried to grill lobster or sword fish. But we now agree food security will be a big part of the future, so we told ourselves we need to start cooking at home more and eating out less. That sounds bad coming from someone whose wife is an executive at a restaurant company. We feel like it was something we needed to do to get used to having less money after the meltdown we think is coming and Plains folds up.” Owen didn’t even blinked when Mark said “when Plains folds” and not “if Plains folds”. All four adults were convinced Plains Airlines was on its last legs and in a few years, it along with many other airlines, would start shutting down their operations.

  Over the next few minutes, Mark and Owen cooked steaks, corn, and hot dogs. Kelly and Donna went into the kitchen to finish up the potato salad and green leaf salad. Mark and Kelly were quick to point out they had prepared everything they could from scratch. This was the only meal they could remember in which something was not bought prepackaged from the store and warmed up or opened and put into another dish for serving. Owen and Donna looked at each other with knowing little smiles each time Mark and Kelly became excited about their home-made meal.

  While they were finishing up the cooking, Mark and Kelly talked the whole time about what they knew was going to happen to the American economy. They discussed how they were planning on overcoming the probable loss of income and how they felt about having to do what they knew was necessary. Both Mark and Kelly had a lot to get off their chests and Owen and Donna were excellent listeners. They knew it was difficult to do something major like what Mark and Kelly were doing without being able to relieve the stress by talking to others. Eventually, the food was ready. Kelly and Donna corralled the kids out of the pool and told them to dry off and wash their hands. The guys set up the table and got the salads and other items out of the kitchen. As they sat down to eat, Mark looked at Owen. “We are not really religious here, but I feel like you are. If you would like to say prayers, don’t let us stop you.”

  Owen and Donna both smiled at him and the Miller family held hands and said a quick prayer while the Turners sat there and watched. Both Mark and Kelly wondered if they were missing anything in their life by not doing the same thing. They often felt like they lost something when they stopped going to church in their early teens, but had never said anything to anyone about their feelings. After the prayer was finished, Donna commented on how everything looked great and she couldn’t wait to tear into it.

  “We did something this morning we have not done before,” Kelly replied. “We went to a local farmers’ market and bought everything for the meal today, including the meat. The steaks and the hot dogs came from a local rancher and the various veggies and fruit for the cobbler came from small farmers. We had to buy some stuff from the store, but overall we were surprised at what we found at the farmers’ market and the quantity and quality we found there. I had always thought farmers’ markets were a few people selling out of the back of their pickups for prices higher than the supermarket. I’ve even seen so-called ‘local farmers’ selling avocados and bananas out of their stalls like they were able to grow them locally.”

  “Things have changed over the years,” Owen replied. “Farmers’ markets used to be a few people selling a few items or they were scams in which vendors claimed they grew the stuff, but bought it like everyone else. Now you can see small farmers who are trying to make a living from their farms. The food is often required to be grown locally and is usually grown under better conditions than the products at the store. Since the government and big agriculture has taken over the organic label, most of the items at the farmers’ market may not be labeled organic. But it may actually be healthier for you than the organic sold by chain stores, because most small farmers usually practice better organic methods when they grow their products.”

  “How’s that?” asked Mark between bites of steak.

  “Well, the government has gotten together with big business and they have started to water down the organic label. More and more chemicals are allowed to be used and still keep the organic labeling. Over the past few years being organic has morphed. It used to mean something before the government and big business got involved. Today something labeled with an organic label may still contain large amounts of chemicals. The government has let big business weaken the label by saying certain chemicals are ok, even in organic food. They took a label that meant something and turned it into another ‘truth-stretching’ marketing label. Buying produce from the small farmers at the farmers’ market is usually better since those farmers are always proud of what they grow. Most of them will spend the time to discuss what chemicals they use, how they use them, and other methods they use while growing the most natural food they can. Many of them will allow you to visit their farms and look at what they are doing if you asked them and see them often enough. You can sometimes arrange to pick-your-own at many of the farms and save money by buying items you need a lot of in bulk. I volunteered at a local farm a few years ago and learned how to garden and we ate for free that summer. I came home each night with enough spare veggies, fruits, eggs, and even milk. We didn’t buy anything all summer long. Because we were able to get large amounts of produce at one time, we have learned how to save the produce for winter by canning and storing it.”

  “Really,” said Mark. “I never took you for a ‘dirt under your fingernails’ type person.”

  “You would be surprised,” Donna replied. “He stays dirty most of the time and I can never get his clothes clean. I wonder sometimes if he will forget to change clothes one morning and show up at work in dirty jeans and a stained shirt with manure on his boots.”

  “Wait until you take a bite out of the things you bought,” said Owen. “It will be hard going back to the food from Tex-Mart, because you will taste the difference between local fresh grown food and the plastic food they sell.”

  “Are you a foodie?” Kelly asked.

  “Not really, but I am turning into one,” said Owen. “We decided a few years ago to either grow it ourselves or buy it from local sources when we can. We can’t grow everything or buy everything local, but we do manage to get about 80% of what we eat either through our own hands or someone we know. We are trying hard to improve that figure every year and now have started to raise our own meat animals as well.”

  “You live on a farm?” Mark asked. “I thought you lived in Celina, but I never knew you had a farm.”

  “Well,” Donna answered, “we do live in Celina on a few acres, but we have a small farm out of the city. We do grow a small garden in Celina and keep a few chickens and rabbits there, but the main garden is on our other farm.”

  Donna and Owen were relieved when Mark and Kelly thought their land was outside of Celina and didn’t bother to tell them where their main farm was located. They were not ready yet to discuss their retreat. Owen thought they would eventually bring it up with the Turners, but did not want to do it today. Mark interrupted his thoughts and said, “Wow. I never knew that. I knew you bought your lunch most of the time to work and you would only eat something else when it was provided during a meeting. I never knew you grew everything you brought to work. And you’re right, this tastes like the food I had when I was growing up.”

  “Were you were raised on a farm?” Donna turned the question back around to Mark.

  “No, but each summer I would be packed up and shipped off to my grandparents who lived on a small farm in Oklahoma. They didn’t believe in b
uying their food when they had land available so they grew about everything they ate. If they couldn’t grow it, they didn’t eat it. I don’t think they went to the store more than once or twice a year. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all the junk food they had when I stayed with them was only because I came over. I never saw them eat any of it and seriously doubt that they ate any of it when I wasn’t there.”

  “We go through the same problem,” Donna said. “No offense, Kelly, but we have a hard time eating out anymore because we are used to home-grown meals.”

  “No offense taken. I wish we could source this food for our restaurants. The truth be told, I sometimes miss the summers of my youth as well. I don’t know if Mark has ever told you but we both spent our summers not more than thirty miles from each other. I grew up north of here in Gainesville and Mark grew up down the road from me in Pilot Point. Both of our grandparents had small farms near Madill, Oklahoma. We have been next door to each other our entire lives but didn’t know it until we met at North Texas. While we don’t remember it, we did run across each other at Madill’s city pool each summer. My grandparents used to take me there during the hottest part of the day when they didn’t feel like working in the garden or fields. Mark spent a lot of time at the pool with his cousins when he visited his grandparents during the summer.”

  “How did you get into raising your own food?” Mark asked.

  “When we went through the same thing you are going through now,” replied Owen. “We decided we wanted a more secure source of food and we wanted food that was not full of chemicals. We looked into CSAs and other things, but decided we had enough space so we would start our own garden and learn to eat the food we grew. From there we decided that the city would not be safe enough during an extended crisis. We bought a small farm and started growing larger amounts of food on it until we are where we are today.”

  “That must have taken a lot of work,” Kelly said. “I remember working in the garden with my grandmother and the work never seemed to stop.”