Leaving Town
The Plant was abuzz today. Tami sprained her ankle and is on crutches. Girl Mark flew in early. The IRS came a calling. And the place was jumping.
Tony Tucker is the director of Chatham County’s Economic Development Office. He dropped by in late afternoon to deliver a letter of support for the “feasibility study” we have commissioned.
Everyone was preparing to leave town. We were on our way to the SEE Expo in Asheville, and it hard not to view the scene through his eyes.
When he pulled in there was an organic farmer dropping off wares at Eastern Carolina Organics, the main occupant of Building One. Across the street, the banana trees are thriving.
I said, “These are banana trees, Tony. I’m not interested in arguing with folks about global warming anymore. I’m just going to offer them a locally grown banana and call it a day.”
Next to the bananas Rachel and David and Matt were hooking up Clean Tech to Rachel’s Grease Goat. They were engaged in conversation and ignored us. We walked passed the newly installed playground equipment that Kathy and Billy donated and headed for the Waukesha room in Building 3.
I explained the combined heat and power project that we are working on, in conjunction with NC State’s Industrial Extension Service, and we walked over to the building that currently houses our biodiesel distribution terminal.
I think he was blown away. Bruce was cutting out welds with an oxy-fuel rig. Leif was meeting with the IRS in the conference room, and Evan was on the phone with some coop member who was wanting to access our Carrboro location.
When I walked Tony back to his SUV, I gave him a quick tour of our off-grid filling station, and he seemed quizzical and impressed. He found the fecundity inside the fence line overwhelming.
Once everyone was in the car, Leif, Girl Mark and I started geeking out on all things biodiesel. By Winston Salem my interest was starting to fade, but they came alive with a spirited discussion of vacuum pumps. We stopped for dinner at a bizarre Italian place in the middle of nowhere, and the conversation was re-ignited when Girl Mark remarked that it was easy to file out the bumps on the reducing end of the average heat exchanger.
Her comment snapped Leif to attention, and as they waded into the concept, Evan and I proceeded to reflect on how our dinner guests were in fact beyond hope.
Back in the car, I was ready to fall asleep as I drove into Asheville, but the conversation cam around to the history of biodiesel distribution in Northern California, and this time it was me who hung on every word. Girl Mark talked about card lock systems gone by, and gas stations that carried B100, and brokers who flipped loads of fuel, and the community in general.
It was a remarkable and epic story, sort of like one that Homer might have recited in a theatre in the park, and Leif and I found ourselves riveted.
Leif would say, “Go back to the part where you were talking about territories,”
And I would say, “Back up a second. Did you say Achilles son of Peleus brought sorrow to the Acheans?”
And Girl Mark would enlighten us all.
It was an amazing drive. Tomorrow we shall see what the expo will hold.
Posted by Lyle at August 26, 2005 01:16 AM
