We began in the basement in the laundry room. I had cleaned the washer and dryer several days ago but today, Gary moved the dryer out to get to the main water valve for the house and I cleaned behind it.Here I am, all outfitted for work: a headset to protect my ears from the noise of the shop vac and a light on my head to see into the corners both on the floor and the ceiling. Dust bunnies and cobwebs are my targets.
Meanwhile Gary was examining the main level bathroom faucet and the kitchen sink, both of which leaked and have been leaking long enough to get limed up. Finally finished with my vacuuming, I journeyed up to the local Casey’s for some coffee and some donuts. We can get so much more done with a taste of donut in our mouths. Back at the house, I began mowing. With the drought, I was mowing only short tufts since the grass wasn’t very green.
Gary spent some time cleaning the gutters.
Yesterday when we arrived, Lug was fretting about the shingles in his garage so we asked Jack to come over with his truck, load them up and take them back to his house overnight. Today, Jack arrived at 10:45 with his truck, already filled with the shingles, and, when he backed into the garage, Gary and he began to fill the remaining space with other things they found in the garage. Lug has been storing lots of old lumber, bricks, pvc piping, rebar, etc. in a back area of his garage and we took the liberty of tossing some of the pieces which could never be used again, like broken bricks and 1’ long pieces of 2”x4”, and other things into the truck. We’re hoping Lug never misses them. Jack and I then took them off to the landfill where I used Lug’s annual one ‘free’ dump - rather than paying $18.00. They took my word for it that I was dumping for him. Whew.
As Gary examined the plumbing he found more leaks than he had anticipated and decided to call a plumber. Now, we had not told Lug about any plumbing problems we had seen because we didn’t want to alarm him. We’re thinking he might have noticed leaks and mineral buildup on some faucets but didn’t want to deal with these problems. Gary had originally planned to handle them himself but realized that there were more than he could handle in the time we had in Fort Dodge and thus the call to a plumber. However, it was Monday, the day after a weekend and all the plumbers were busy. Finally on the 4th call, he found a plumber who could swing by and appraise the situation. We wanted him to come early so he could be gone by the time Lug came home but - you know plumbers, they work on emergencies and can be delayed.
Sure enough, as the plumbers were examining the problems with Gary, Lug drove up. After Gary introduced them all, Lug’s first words were:
’No’ and
‘Not right now’ and
‘Maybe later’ and
‘Let me handle this.’
Gary began explaining the leaks that he had found in the house but Lug was not ready to deal with leaks. Then the plumber, realizing that he might lose a sale began his pitch. Actually, he had installed a furnace for Lug many years ago, knew all of Lug’s brothers and played the good old boy, small town friend and Lug was mollified.
Then Lug pulled off his dark glasses and - OOPS - his regular glasses were not on his face. He had driven all the way home (3 miles through traffic) without his glasses. OMG. We checked the car, no glasses. So, here was the perfect opportunity: I took him the long way to Barb’s home where he had left them and the really long way back so that Gary could show the plumbers the rest of the problems and straighten up the house before we returned.
The plumbers left, we left and Lug had his home to himself.
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