[b][center][h2]Joel Nicolosi[/h2][/center][/b]

By Thursday at 2:37am, the week had not been a bad one, relatively speaking, for Joel Nicolosi. Behind him, the chassis of Sio’s Corvette was mostly completed, thought the untouched body still occupied his lift. The suspension, new engine and transmission were assembled, but not quite complete which was considerably more progress than he thought he’d make in such a short time though it was usually much easier to strip and replace than to repair. In his living room a certain gift from Marlin’s grandfather occupied a nice place next to his painting of Senna at Monaco. He’d had the signed note framed as well to accompany it. The small lighter and the scale model both occupied a handsome space on the desk area of  his massive toolbox. He grinned thinking about holding the wheel in his hands the same way as his idol. The small package was the most thoughtful gift he received in years and it took a lot to impress him. He had some ideas in his head on a classy thank-you note that he could write to the old man. 

The kerosene powered space-heater blasted along happily behind him keeping the shop at a tolerable temperature with a loud roar and Joel sat in a lawn chair watching the first snow begin to fall and coat the road. He never cared much for the winter months, but the scene was nice. Every once in a while a car would pass and the light coming out of the shop would cast a shadow behind the car as he saw his reflection in the glare of the passing window. It was too cold for the guys at the fabric mill to walk to work so he had mostly sat alone reading emails and listening to his regular late night programming while the news broke in at the top and bottom of the hour with the continuing forecast of impending doom for all in the City. He yawned. The shop was getting crowded behind him and he was curious about either buying another shipping container and paying a company to fab them together or building an addition to the shop. With his newest acquisition from Japan, he only had just enough room to work on Sio’s car and had to be careful about where he put things to save space. He replied to a few estimates and scrolled on. 

Sitting next to his chair were two cans of [i]Rebellion[/i] energy drinks which had fueled the majority of his evening. He’d only drank them occasionally before, preferring Red Bull, but the new orange ones they were pushing were rather tasty [i]and addictive[/i]. His meeting with the Operations Director for the rally-team had gone well and they had a date set for him to meet the rest of the team and drive a few rounds on the practice stage they had set up at Mount Atlas. Starting at the Observatory, the course wound down and around the mountain switching from the paved roadway to the zig-zagging hydra of old, dirt logging trails that ended in a close dash by the Lake and the old Hunter Lumber Mill. The Director sent over a video of the stage for him to study as well several cases of drinks and a big box of t-shirts, sweatshirts and other merchandise. He saved the girls’ stuff for Sio and sent two of the British themed, energy shots to Marlin as a gag. The flavor title [i]Within Treason[/i] featured the logo, “[i]R[/i]” over a Revolution-era American flag. He grinned, sometimes he just couldn’t help himself.  

Thinking about the ladies was always nice. Being on less awkward terms with Marlin was good and meeting Dustynn had been a decent surprise as well, though he could tell she wasn’t exactly the type to bring back home to mom and dad. Marlin fit that bill a little [i]too[/i] closely and he was glad his mother hadn’t really had a chance to meet her or he never would have heard the end of it. She’d only seen the pictures and he was swiftly able to talk around her probing questions. No, Sio was becoming the most involved he’d been in a while. She was young, but she at least liked to challenge him some; though he could tell when she was full of shit and didn’t know it. It was still fun. He took another long swig from the remainder of the can seeing the newspaper carrier’s car come around the corner up the street and decided to mess with her some. He took a picture of her chassis sitting on its new wheels and tires so that it was painfully obvious he’d done some major work [i]without[/i] her being there. 

[b][i]I got back tonight and it looked like this, not sure what happened[/i][/b]

He was sure she was most likely asleep and laughed his ass off as he hit send. 

[b]Joel's Shop Radio[/b]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6-8pE2UmQs[/youtube]

Mentioned tags:
[@PrinceAlexus][@Almalthia][@MissCapnCrunch]