I was talking to a fellow, Ray, tonight at Kenny’s visitation at the funeral home.

We, being Kenny & I, first met Ray well over 30 years ago. Kenny and Ray became very good friends, just about since they first met. I pretty much traveled in different circles afterwards that didn’t afford me the opportunity to be as closely connected, but I would see Ray occasionally.

Ray worked for a very successful apartment builder and developer. Our meeting was on the first project that his company built in Austin. It was a time when I wasn’t very busy and I had developed a software system for bidding work, so I went over and helped Kenny bid jobs.

Kenny was able to win the bid on a very nice project in South Austin, Ray’s first.

After Kenny started to work on the job we discovered that I had left off a considerable length of 36” storm sewer pipe amounting to several tens of thousands of dollars. Kenny downed his head and forged on ahead making the most of the situation. There just wasn’t much else he could do.

As the project went along the digging was much easier than we had predicted. There wasn’t nearly as much rock to excavate so even with installing a lot more pipe than was in the bid, he did really well on the job, overall.

But what we found out later, he was barely lower than the second bidder so if not for my mistake he would not have been the successful bidder.

Ray’s company continued to work with Kenny for the next decade and a half, doing dozens of projects together. Not only in Austin but other locale’s around the state. To my knowledge Kenny was the only underground contractor that Ray’s company used, at least if Kenny could get to it.

So if not for that bidding mistake, it’s likely that Kenny and Ray would never have forged the relationship they did.

And folks that’s just how things can happen in the construction business.