Windows, windows, and more windows, with some other stuff...

Yes, the week has fast escaped me, yet again. In the flood of work and business there's not been much time to sit down and contemplate what I'm going to write about next... we've finished with that 21-window job (on Thursday) and spend Friday doing some odd-jobs; you know, little "catch-up" jobs that you wouldn't be able to make profit on, if you only did one at a time. We had 2 such jobs in Atlantic- one was finishing up on painting that facia we replaced a few weeks ago, the other was installing some lattice skirting on a deck. We also combined a trip to the rock quarry in the same run.

So loaded up the tools into the truck, all the materials we needed and headed out. Ryan was staying home to do paperwork, so Josh was with me on this run- little Sam wanted to come too, so after clearing it with Mom, he pulled on his boots and coat and joined the crew :) We trucked on over to Atlantic, deciding to tackle the painting first, then moving smoothly onto the deck and finally hitting the quarry on the way home. We had the dump trailer along for that.

Pulling up to the job site, we climbed out of the truck and grabbed the ladders. While Josh set the two Little-Giants (a kind of ladder that is very versatile) I got the 15' scaffolding out of the trailer and carried it over. We set the whole thing up on one side of the house and were ready to start painting. I walked over to the door and rang the doorbell. The owner had all the paint in her garage, so we needed permission to enter. I waited a little bit and nobody came to the door. I tried to bell again. Nothing. I knocked on the door several time. Still, no answer.

Well, this won't do, I thought. Walking over to the garage door I tried the knob. Josh was commenting on how he thought it was open, when the knob turned and I walked inside. Looking around I called out to make sure no one was there. No reply, so I began to look for the paint. After several minutes of fruitful searching I called Ryan. I asked if the homeowner was supposed to be there and he said he'd call them.

After a few minutes he called me back, saying he couldn't get ahold of them... Well, we chose to leave that job site and go to the next. Onward to the deck!

Piling back into the truck, we roared over to the other job. The only problem was that I had no idea where it was. I was about to call Ry for directions when Josh said he thought he remembered where it was. I was game to just do some "scenic" driving, so we explored around. Josh remembered exactly where it was, and we felt pretty smug, not needing directions from "the boss" :) He were congratulating ourselves as we got the tools out and laid things out.

Suddenly it downed upon us that we had forgotten to get the black sheeting to go behind the lattice. Sigh. Another delay. Josh and Sam stayed at the job, measuring everything out and prepping the sub framing.

I ran over to the hardware store and got the material we needed. On the way back I got some refreshments (as requested by the "crew"); 3 bottles of Gatorade and 3 packs of peanut M&M's. It was a strange snack, but it sounded good :) I wondered what the clerk thought about the strange purchase. Oh well. The boys would enjoy it :)

Coming back we got to work. Josh did a great job with the sub frame so I was able to get the lattice up real quick, right after he stretched the plastic over it. We got it done in good time, even though I was very meticulous while finishing all the cut edges, matching up the corners and taking care to make it tight everywhere.

Boy, the day wasn't going too bad after all. This turned out so nice, we were so proud of ourselves for the quality and speed of our work. Josh and I patted each other on the backs and Sam celebrated by eating some more M&Ms. I snapped a picture of the deck and sent it back to "the boss" to show off our handy work. It wasn't 30 seconds after I sent the picture that Ryan called. Thinking that he was going to congratulate us on the good work, I answered the phone with a cheerful "Hi!"

"Uh, guys..... that's the wrong deck."

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....
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I sat there in stunned disbelief-- was he pulling my leg?

"And no, I'm not kidding. That's the wrong deck. It's one we did a while ago, but it's the wrong one!"

"Well..." I didn't know what to say. Poor Josh would feel horrible that he sent us to the wrong deck. The whole day come crashing down into a huge pile of humiliation :) Oh well, nothing we could do now!

"I guess they get a free addition on their job." Ryan said with some consternation.

We headed over to the painting job again, a feeling of utter failure and defeat upon our grieving hearts... ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but we did feel pretty silly!! Arriving back at the painting job, the home owner was still not there. Ryan called her again and was able to have her come back home to get us the paint.

We finished that up in good time. As we drove off I grinned at Josh.

"Well, Ryan said that lady you guys did that deck for enjoys getting 'something for nothing', so we should be good on it. She'll be thrilled we put that lattice on. Ry said it was only about $50 of materials, so it's not a big loss. Just our time, and some pride!!" We laughed and went to find the rock quarry.

There we got 6 tons of 1" rock for another job and swung back around to McDonalds for lunch. For the sake of you dear ones in Haiti, I'll refrain from describing the succulent smells and flavors which wafted into the truck as we received our order and pulled out of the drive-through. I don't describe the juicy, tender chicken sandwich I had, nor the honey mustard chicken nuggets Sam devoured, nor the Angus burger Josh ordered, dripping with cheesy goodness and loaded with pickles, lettuce, onions, sauces, all piled onto a hefty chunk of beef, teeming with wonderful tastes and hunger-satisfying goodness...

Anyhow....

;)

We got home around 2pm and called it a day. Josh did some more work with the trailer and rock, but for the most part we relaxed the rest of the day.

On Saturday I cleaned our work trailer, sorting out the tools from the dust, and each other :) It was a mess. Probably hadn't been cleaned out in months... :) It was fun though.

After lunch, Ryan and I went to Leon Zook's house for a workday. We helped to swap some patio doors out and replaced one of them. It was about 6:30 when we got back home. We were greeted with a wonderful smell- authentic (or as close as possible) Haitian food! More specifically, Haitian rice with bean sauce. It was sooo good :) I hadn't had rice since I got back form Haiti, so I was delighted.

Today's church service was good. Ryan spoke about the glory of Christ and Leon spoke about God giving us windows of opportunity. I was feeling pretty down most of the day- just a lot going on in this half-brain of mine and sometimes it gets me down...

Tonight we're going over to Edward Martin's house for supper and a hymn sing. I trust it'll be a really refreshing time.

God bless you all, dear readers. Thanks for keeping up with things here! Pray for us.

In Christ's love and hope,
-nate

Driving down the interstate, on our way to a job :)