addendum to story below about Mike

A friend brought to my attention that my little joke backfired the way  I explained how much I paid Mike.  I edited the story today so if you read the story prior to editing, I paid Mike a lot more than we had agreed to.  And he was happy at that moment.

Mike the Landscaper

Just a short story about a landscaper who made me sad.  A number of months ago a guy, Mike, plastered a poster on our community mailbox advertising himself as the tree man.  His last name is I'll say Jones.   I thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone who clearly speaks and understands English.  I've had wonderful people work for me who didn't speak well and I loved them, but sometimes the work didn't get done as I asked due to a language barrier.  So I called Mike.  He and his wife drove up in a beat up car.  They toured the property and he gave me a great price.  They both spoke intelligently, fankly they looked a little like, well I don't know how to say it so I won't .  Being the good guy that I am (hmmmm?), I hired them on the spot only to find out that they had to come back later, after I gave him a deposit for half of the job.  I figured they had to go out and resupply themselves with some minor tools, etc.  They gave me scare for a couple of hours but did return to both work hard as dogs.  As the months passed I realized they did a very professional job, followed my requests for which the results were as time went by exactly what I asked for and I thought about them many times because of their good work. Time passed and I needed them again.  They couldn't trim my apple tree during the earlier season.  I called, complimented them and invited them to give me an estimate for the new work and hired them again.  This time they arrived, looking  a step above street people, in an old car only this time with a 2 yr old little girl that they were eager to tell me that they nabbed from their daughter because the boyfriend had beat up the little one.  I guess they are raising her.  Once again Mike asked for an advance, I gave it to him and asked to please come back in time so as not to work in the dark otherwise we'd have to start early AM next day.   Needless to say the next day arrived and no Mike at the agreed 8AM.  After many calls and excuses, can't find the car keys, etc.  will have to take a bus, and I said, "Mike how can you take a ladder and stuff on the bus?"  and he said," Well, do you want to come and pick me up?"   Do I have to tell you how nervous I got with that question?  Around 12:30 I went to get the mail and there is Mike, no truck, the beat up car and he's trimming my front yard tree.  No advance notice.  What a surprise.  Mike worked his tail off.  In addition to my asking for a little extra work, he had to clean up a billion pieces of splintered glass from my garden table that he helped me move to an upright position only for it to explode.  It was shocking.  The point is he worked, alone this time, like a dog once again, never stopping till  the job was complete.  I paid him more than he asked for the work he did, after asking him how much I owed him.  He said to give him whatever I wanted.  Kiddingly, I asked if $10 was enough for the day.  He didn't blink an eye to my joke.  He left and I felt good.  Kind of like a win-win situation.  About an hour later the doorbell rings.  I looked out and it was Mike.  His tee shirt above his belly, a frantic sad look in his eyes and still dirty from the job.  I came to the gate. Sheepishly he asked me to loan him $100, told me he left my the check (behind) at the Inn Zone, a local bar and they all have gambling.  So don't know what part of the check was used for what.  He told me he was supposed to take his little grandbaby somewhere the next day, that he had a big job tomorrow and would pay me $150 the next day.  I said no and he walked away slowly and very sad.  Mike got to me in a way I didn't expect.  I was agitated over the circumstances.  The funny part is that I feel in my heart that Mike would repay me somehow, but I couldn't bring myself to be a party to what I imagined would happen to the new money.  Better he should go home and face the music whatever tune that is.   I remained sad for the rest of the day.  

Politics is in the air in Nevada

 I attended a Mockus (mock caucus) today.  It was preceded by a visit from Governor Bill Richardson who was introduced by his wife.  They appear to be a nice couple that is down to earth.  He is for the working man in a big way and is concerned about the water situation for the entire West as well as other more common issues.  There was no time for Q & A’s,  I had hoped to ask a question that my friend Sally would have asked.  She is a fan of Richardson.  I didn’t know where I was headed nor did I know about the treat that was in store for me.  The school in which it was held is in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood.  I didn’t know that Bill Richardson is Hispanic, at least on his mother’s side.   While folks here do like him, there was equal enthusiasm for the other leading candidates.  The surprise for most of us was the entertainment.  The school put on a program that was wonderful.  Although they were all students, the entertainers were so professional.  They had Spanish dancing girls, and girls with guys who used swords in the dance and then a complete Mariachi band entertained who were superb The finale was a group of tiny children who wore masks with faces of old men.  They all had canes and acted like a bunch of old men, it was so adorable.  And all the kids had the most beautiful costumes from head to foot.  I was really taken with all of them.  I caught a couple of photos.  My purpose for going was to have a live experience with the caucus since I am a facilitator (Temporary Chair) and will be running the caucus in my precinct.  I wish I could see all the candidates up close like I did today.  I am still rather undecided regarding my vote.   I think they’ll all be coming here as soon as Iowa it out of the way for them.  My understanding is that Nevada is becoming a key component to the western vote.  So much for my Saturday today.  The event lasted much longer than I expected.  It was a long day that started with my Tenya class, another joy for me.  

 

 

Complaining

 I live under the constellations that cause disruption, difficulties and frustration for the simplest things in life.  Needless to say automation has trebled my troubles. 

 

Today is an excellent example of uselessness of the time and the space I occupy.  I attended a business meeting where everyone but me received an invitation and news bulletin via email.  At the meeting I made a few appointments with an associate.  I wrote down the info only to get a message that the dates and times were incorrect.  At the same meeting I discovered that the call center that solicits appointments for us has outsourced some of its business to India and potential clients are complaining that they didn’t understand more than a few words from the call that transpired.  Of course I was devastated because hot leads was one of the salient features of this company, leads. Hello, is anyone there?

 

On my way home I got two calls.  One call was from the heating company that just made (another) repair at the condo.  What else is new?  Besides refusing to bill me and wanting a credit card, I took exception because of two reasons, the first is obvious and the second being that the repair was to an item that was replaced by them a little over a year ago.  The last piece of equipment lasted 12 years.  So, of course, there were calls back and forth.  Now I have to come up with the bill that provided that service because they have no record of it.  As long as I’m on the subject, my home heating was inspected for winter about a month ago and when I turned on the heat for the first time a couple of weeks ago, one of the heaters didn’t work.  They are both just about one year old.

 

The second call was from a banker insisting that they needed a document that was not requested of me at a sit down meeting  in order to open a special account.   I finally replied to the urgency of her tone by telling the banker to close the paperwork and we’ll start over when I produce the document.  She said, “oh no, I couldn’t do that to you, there is a charge for closing an account before three months passes.”  I don’t know whose going to suffer more on this one.

 

I went to the post office to mail a book in a box that I reused, made out their label, etc. and the official at the desk insisted I use one of their boxes so I had to redo the package after standing in line for twenty minutes.  Not so terrible, frustrating though. 

 

I came home to a garage door that won’t close properly.  This is the 3d time for the same issue.  The repair is so minor that I never get charged for the service call.  You would think they could explain it to me so that I could take care of it.  Have to call again.  Tonight I was interrupted during a phone call by a call from the cleaning people that they can’t come tomorrow.  The phone call I was on was to a rebate center that sent me half of what was due me.  I finally got a live person who put me on hold, the phone went dead and it took a minimum of one half hour of redialing to get back to a live person.  I have to return to the store and have the salesperson call and verify the purchase.  Simple solution but what about the above the wasted time and effort (twice by the way).  My submission wasn’t  good enough the first time. 

 

I’m going to retire  to bed soon, not because I have to but rather because I think I should say good-bye to this day.  And so I bid you ado.