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The pickers are out! Our spring cleanup has them out in droves, or to be exact, trucks and cars. Even after dark silhouettes beneath the street lamp moved about the piles of debris digging for a treasure among the trash. One load taken to the road was gone by the time I made it down with the second run. That fast a car swooped in and claimed a broken power washer, not the entire machine, just the hose. Like mosquitoes they find you, come out of nowhere to pick the bones of the refuse along the road. They are feverish and high from the hunt. An interesting phenomenon.....that I can probably acquaint to digging around the wool bins at Frenchies.
Sunday was a day of rest. Sleeping late and having breakfast in the early afternoon. It’s nice being a grownup, making up new rules as you go along. Later in the afternoon we visited the shop to haul junk to the road but Shane had already done the deed so we drove around town looking at everyone elses piles. I was struck with the lack of good stuff thrown away. I remember when one persons’ junk was another person's treasure but now it looks like junk all around. Maybe the pickers were out and already harvested the good stuff because to my trained eye, none of it was worth hauling home.
This coming week is a busy one. More tearing out at the shop, a different crew this time. I hope they are more productive than the last two. They said the job was bigger than anticipated and needed more help and special staging along the staircase. They deserted like rats from a sinking ship and left the mess for the entire rest of the week. A new guy came by to assess the job and said he would be taking over and seemed genuinely concerned about the current state of things to run my business in. Up until then the crews moved like cold molasses uphill, really, I could move faster with a blindfold and one hand tied behind my back. I’m a sheman, I’ve gutted houses before. Give me a sledge hammer and I’ll break up the gyprock and stuff it into plastic bags and schlep it out to the truck. I could do that wall in half a morning and not break a fingernail! I even had the heat pump removed so they didn’t have to be careful working around that area. Git er done I say, or I’ll strap on my tool belt and show those girlie men what a hard day’s labour looks like!
One day they arrived at 9:30, stopped work at 10:30 for a ½ hour break and then left at 12:30. The only one that broke a sweat was me out of shear frustration. The excuse? They said they needed staging for around the staircase area. I said there are plenty of other areas to strip, and they could have done as high as they could reach on the stairwell. They could have started on the kitchen or the bathroom, downstairs around the side window, but no, they left to work at another job. If this is the trend, my shop won’t be ripped out and put back together before Christmas. I’m more than pissed. The bare walls are exposed making the shop smell like an old barn. My olfactory sense is acutely developed and if my customers sniff half of what I smell, it can’t be good.
I want this mess cleaned up. We have a van load of rug hookers from Japan arriving on Tuesday and without an upstairs to sit and relax, enjoy refreshments, we’ll be crowded downstairs. I’m sure that’s not a great hardship but it would be nice to show off the shop the way it normally shines. Of course, it will probably only bother me so maybe for a distraction I’ll make my homemade doughnuts to help cover the warts on the left side of the store! My grandma’s secret recipe is hypnotic, smells like heaven with sugar on top, and after a quick little warming in the stove the delicious aroma will permeate the shop and no one will even care about exposed beams and ungyprocked walls. After stuffing a few of these deep-fried circles of perfection into my greedy mouth, I’ll be blind to the surroundings like everyone else. We definitely won’t need an interpreter to explain the international aroma and taste of my grandma’s doughnuts. I'll make several dozen so if you're in the area, come on by and taste the wares!
Sunday was a day of rest. Sleeping late and having breakfast in the early afternoon. It’s nice being a grownup, making up new rules as you go along. Later in the afternoon we visited the shop to haul junk to the road but Shane had already done the deed so we drove around town looking at everyone elses piles. I was struck with the lack of good stuff thrown away. I remember when one persons’ junk was another person's treasure but now it looks like junk all around. Maybe the pickers were out and already harvested the good stuff because to my trained eye, none of it was worth hauling home.
This coming week is a busy one. More tearing out at the shop, a different crew this time. I hope they are more productive than the last two. They said the job was bigger than anticipated and needed more help and special staging along the staircase. They deserted like rats from a sinking ship and left the mess for the entire rest of the week. A new guy came by to assess the job and said he would be taking over and seemed genuinely concerned about the current state of things to run my business in. Up until then the crews moved like cold molasses uphill, really, I could move faster with a blindfold and one hand tied behind my back. I’m a sheman, I’ve gutted houses before. Give me a sledge hammer and I’ll break up the gyprock and stuff it into plastic bags and schlep it out to the truck. I could do that wall in half a morning and not break a fingernail! I even had the heat pump removed so they didn’t have to be careful working around that area. Git er done I say, or I’ll strap on my tool belt and show those girlie men what a hard day’s labour looks like!
One day they arrived at 9:30, stopped work at 10:30 for a ½ hour break and then left at 12:30. The only one that broke a sweat was me out of shear frustration. The excuse? They said they needed staging for around the staircase area. I said there are plenty of other areas to strip, and they could have done as high as they could reach on the stairwell. They could have started on the kitchen or the bathroom, downstairs around the side window, but no, they left to work at another job. If this is the trend, my shop won’t be ripped out and put back together before Christmas. I’m more than pissed. The bare walls are exposed making the shop smell like an old barn. My olfactory sense is acutely developed and if my customers sniff half of what I smell, it can’t be good.
I want this mess cleaned up. We have a van load of rug hookers from Japan arriving on Tuesday and without an upstairs to sit and relax, enjoy refreshments, we’ll be crowded downstairs. I’m sure that’s not a great hardship but it would be nice to show off the shop the way it normally shines. Of course, it will probably only bother me so maybe for a distraction I’ll make my homemade doughnuts to help cover the warts on the left side of the store! My grandma’s secret recipe is hypnotic, smells like heaven with sugar on top, and after a quick little warming in the stove the delicious aroma will permeate the shop and no one will even care about exposed beams and ungyprocked walls. After stuffing a few of these deep-fried circles of perfection into my greedy mouth, I’ll be blind to the surroundings like everyone else. We definitely won’t need an interpreter to explain the international aroma and taste of my grandma’s doughnuts. I'll make several dozen so if you're in the area, come on by and taste the wares!
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