KEEPING UP... Busy, busy, busy (Part 166s)

KEEPING UP… Busy, busy, busy (Part 166t)

The last thing I wanted to do was to get Elle upset. She’d been concerned ever since migrants had been found living in the neighboring house. I’d talked with Andy, the real estate agent for the sale of the house, about making sure it was locked and the windows latched. He assured me he’d taken care of it. I hadn’t seen or talked with him in quite a while so decided to reach out to him. Calling the police would certainly bring attention that would upset Elle. My problem was our main phone was in the hallway right off the kitchen. The only other phone was in our bedroom and with supper ready to be served I knew it’d be hard to come up a reason to go up there. I was still on the patio when it came to me… take off my dusty clothes outside and make a mad dash upstairs for clean ones. She wasn’t all that happy but I was already in the hall when she yelled at me. I grabbed the book with phone numbers that we frequently used as I passed by the phone. By the time I got to the top of the stairs I realized the chances of getting Andy at home on a Saturday night were pretty slim. Fortunately, he still lived with his parents and his father answered. He said he had keys and would come right over. Before hanging up he asked if Andy had let me know there was work going on inside the house. Before I could answer I heard him sort of mutter “Of course he didn’t”. What I remember most about the call was how mad his father was at Andy.

By the time I got to the table Elle was in a snit. I tried to explain I didn’t want to bring the dust and mold from the leaves into the house and hoped she’d calm down. I offered to play games with the kids in an effort to get back in her good graces. It was while I was doing that the the phone rang. Elle answered and came in to the living room saying some guy wanted to talk to me about the house next door. It was Andy’s father. It had been over an hour since I’d called. He was all apologetic about the fact that Andy hadn’t let me know there would be painters there for a few days. He went on that they’d been stripping off wallpaper and wanted to finish it up. There were no lights and so they had taken a flashlight and put it on a stepladder and forgotten it. I was relieved to hear that and went on to ask why the house was being painted… had it been sold? The answer to the last part was “No…” but one couple had been back for a second look. They’d commented that the rooms on the North side of the house were just too dark. I thought back to when I’d been in the house and remembered all the bedrooms had wallpaper. I also remembered that the willow tree that was on the property line near the front of the house pretty much blocked any sun from getting to the Northwest corner. So a decision was made to get rid of the wallpaper and to paint all the second floor rooms a light color in an effort to make it more desirable. (It’s funny writing this because in today’s world it seems you have to have a professional decorate your house before you can sell it.) I remember asking who the painter was and being told it was someone who’d just moved to town and he couldn’t pronounce his name. Of course Elle wanted to know who the call was from and what it was about. I didn’t tell her the actual sequence of events and made it seem like I knew what was going on over there and wanted to let the real estate agent know there were still lights on. That generated a conversation on how much she wished the place would sell. It also generated the thought that having Sabrina living there again would be welcome. She was a PITA but a nice PITA. I didn’t want to get Elle's hopes up too high but still told her that some people had been there two times so there reeally was some interest.

The highlight of Sunday was that the new clothing items that had been put out at the church’s Thrift Shoppe had gotten a lot of interest and the ’take’ for the day had been over $200. With Winter coming that was like insurance in that we’d be able to afford to heat the church. The other church item that was of concern was the septic system. I’d had it checked by a guy I’d met while working for the County who worked for the Health Department. His assessment was fairly terse… “Borrowed time…”. It would take too much to explain other than the church building was over 100 years old and when indoor plumbing came into vogue the church members did it themselves. If you’ve heard the name  “Rube Goldberg” used for some oddly designed things… well, this certainly qualified. In any case, I knew we still had some more good clothes yet to put out and if they garnered the same amount of money we might be OK.

After the ’busy period’ the routine at the bank had settled down and it seemed like the most pressing thing was now who was going to wear which costume for the Halloween contest. As I said, I vowed not to get directly involved in the process. I’d found a source for the costumes and that was all. However, I had both my eyes and ears open to try and get a gist of what was happening. I won’t deny that at times I wanted to ask but stayed out of it. One of the nice things about the weeks after the ‘busy period’ was that I could go to lunch without feeling guilty. I’d made a purchase of stock at the recommendation of my broker and had been trying to follow it. Because it was a brand new listing there wasn’t much information available so decided to head over to the brokerage. As I walked in the door, Lynda, my broker’s assistant, was on her way out. She asked if I’d like to join her and that was a ‘no brainer’. I’d eaten with her at the restaurant located right across from the office a few times and was comfortable going there. Michael, the owner, greeted me by name which was a bit of a surprise. I’d go there about once a month with the crew from the data processing office back when I worked for the County. If he remembered from back then… well, I was impressed.

Lynda was anxious to talk so I let her. It was about her husband and his Army reserve duty. In previous conversations with her I’d gathered that he’d avoided being called up by using less than honorable means. Even though he was now on active duty there was some kind of investigation going on concerning how he’d been able to evade his service duty… and she was concerned. Knowing nothing about service requirements all I could do was sit and listen. By the time we were getting ready to leave I’d still not gotten any information on my stock. We were sitting in a booth with Lynda on one side and me on the other. I’d not paid much, if any, attention to her body movements while she was talking but when I stood up I had to do a double take. She’d slid her body over to the wall and had pulled one leg up on the seat… and pulled the hem of her skirt up as well. I should’ve known, or at least expected it, based on some of my experiences over at the office. She was looking right at my face and when I saw her smile I knew I’d been ‘had’. My face was still red when we walked out the door and she was still smiling.

To be continued…