He leads me into a family room where he has already put up new sheetrock and primed the walls. �All I need you to do is put crown mould up in this room, and trim out that window over there. Can you do it? How much?�

It�s 6 pieces of crown mould. Maybe another 6 pieces of window casing. Oh yeah. I can do it. Take me longer to drag the tools out of the truck than to actually do it.

�Sure. And since you�re a buddy (and he is, one of the legion of casuals I have who clank elbows and longnecks at the Watering Hole) it�ll be a hunski.�

�A hundred? That all? Shucks I�d have to pay ye more than that, Outfoxed.�

�Trust me, you won�t want to when I�m up outta here in two hours. I ain�t gonna rob ye. Hardest part of this gig for me is staying awake long enough to do it.�

His eyes got big. �Two hours? Hell I was on the internet for two hours last night tryin� to figger out how to do it myself! That crown mould, cut it upside down? Backwards? Shoot, I had to turn off the computer afore I hurt myself thinking about it.�

You really do cut it upside down, and backwards. The internet had it right on that part.

But I�ve been cutting crown mould since long before there was such a thing as the internet. Charging somebody 50 clams an hour to do what I can sleepwalk through seems harsh, I guess, and the window casing doesn�t exactly add anything to the challenge. But after all, I do have to schlep several heavy tools out there, and buttress a mighty tool belt around myself, and pay for a myriad of little things that go on behind the scenes to make all this possible.

Hell, if I didn�t like the guy it�d be $200, easy.

But I always like the sweetness of the words he said next, nearly babbling in his haste.

�I�ll be here at 8 tomorrow with $150 cash in hand, okay?�

Oh yes. That�ll be quite okay. See you at eight.

I love my job. This stuff happens all the time.

And then he wants me to build a deck off the back of the house. Yawn.

I saw this yesterday in the midst of all of my hyper-browsing for the perfect boat plan to build over the winter. Maybe as a warm up, I could knock out one of these for Maggie. And, you know, my first grandchild who�s due this July.

Next it�ll be making alphabet blocks and toy trains out of wood. I�ll never get Ally into a little house of our own at this rate. I get distracted too easily by fun things.

God I�m getting old. This is the kind of stuff that kindly grandfathers do in their retirement, out in the backyard shop wearing flannels and smoking a briar pipe. Listening to talk radio and feeding the birds.

I better go take a nap before all this activity wears me out.

previous - next 0 comments so far