He Came!

He came!  The landscaper came!  

I was really impressed, because he messaged me first and let me know he was running behind on another job, and would be a few minutes late, but he was coming.  Sure enough, he showed up when he said he was going to.  That's more than you get from most people around here. 

He was a lot younger than I expected, and indeed if I hadn't known he's married with three kids, I'd have thought he was a teenager.  All that aside, he was very polite and respectful.  We discussed what I wanted, and he was very up front about pricing.  It's going to cost this much to rent the dirt spreader thingy -- because he's just starting to build his business and doesn't have his own equipment yet, and that much for the dirt, then add in his labor on top of that.  He asked me how much I was wanting to spend, and I said I had no idea how much this type of thing costs, and for him to charge me a price that's fair to both of us, but from what he'd told me so far, he was still within my budget.  

Just between you and me, I'd saved up $5K for the entire project, but that includes getting the area prepped, plus the beds, the dirt to put into the beds, and the pea gravel or sand, or whatever I want to put between the beds.  I have one of those molds that you use with the Quick-crete, and I may use that between the beds.  I haven't decided yet. 

Anyway,  I told him, "All I ask is that you treat me the same way you'd want someone to treat your mother.''  And I showed him where I had started digging up the day lilies and spider lilies.  "I got this far," I said, "and said, 'I need help'."

So, now we have to wait for a week free of rain, which won't be this week, to give the dirt time to settle, "because you don't want me to do all of this work, then it gets washed away in a storm", he said.  

On a similar note, I got home from work, and there was a box from Home Depot in my car port.  

What in the world, I wondered.  I didn't order anything from Home Depot.  I got out of the car, checked the label, and sure enough it was a neighbor's package that had been mis-delivered.  I put my stuff inside, let the cat out, and went back out picked the package up.  It wasn't too heavy, so I decided to just walk it down to his house.  

When I got there, I saw another package in his car port.  "I'll just put this one right beside his other package," and as I did so, my eye caught the label on the package that was already there, and it was mine!  Oh, the delivery guy must have gotten them mixed up.  No problem.  I'd leave the neighbor's package, and carry mine home. 

Only mine was heavy.  About half way home, I was regretting that decision to walk, but I doggedly pressed on and made it home.  And what was in that package?  Why, it was the other raised bed I'd ordered.  

You know what else I ordered?  An air conditioner.  Seriously.  Last night, I got onto Amazon and ordered a new window unit.  It's supposed to get here Thursday, so I don't have to make an extra trip into town to get one.  

Oh, and I forgot to tell you yesterday that my lemon verbena and my lemon thyme didn't come back this year.  I want to try the lemon verbena again, and I think it might do better in a bed on the ground.  If I mulch it well, the roots won't freeze, which is what I feel happened to the last one.  

I also didn't tell you about the shenanigans at work, but not because I forgot.  I don't want to feel like I'm constantly complaining about my coworkers.  I will tell you that Stalker was back to wearing a t-shirt today.  We laughed at him, and one of the other brazers said, "He must have run out of polo shirts."   Saturday, he came in wearing a home-made "official" shirt.  He'd bought himself a blue polo shirt, then took it into town and had someone put a company logo onto it.  Or maybe he did it himself.  You can buy that stuff to make the iron on transfers and print it out at home.  Who knows?

And finally, just so this post isn't a total waste of your time, here is hat progress. 

 One more thing.  I started learning a really fun song in my Faber book.  It's pretty easy.  So much so, I almost have it down and I only started learning it yesterday.  I might just record that one for you.  

Maybe.