Yes, Another Friday Rolled Around

Friday evening, around 5:10, Hick's phone rang.

"I know. No, I wouldn't be interested in that. That's up to you. Whatever you want to do. But I don't need it."

You never know who Hick is talking to. I could hear a woman's voice (because Hick has the volume on his phone so high, or because the sound goes in one ear and out the other). I could not hear the specifics. Hick has a gal who calls him to sell him stuff for his SUS2.5 (Storage Unit Store 2.5), like knives and collectibles. He will meet her on a parking lot to see what items he wants to buy. I thought it could possibly be her. But I also realized it was FRIDAY. Before I could holler in to ask, Hick said:

"Huh. I think you might be right. That was one of my "Harem," as you call them."

"Of course! It's FRIDAY!"

"And I was even over there today at the apartments!"

"That trick seems not to work anymore. What did she want?"

"It's the lady who's moving in October. With the little dog. Who called me about the dog's shot record last week. Now she says that since she's moving, would I want to buy back the microwave and kitchen table and chairs that I gave her."

"Wait. You GAVE her that stuff for FREE, and now she wants you to buy it back?"

"Yeah. I told her I'm not interested. She said, 'Well, I guess I'll have to get a storage unit and pay to keep them.' I told her to what she's gotta do. There's no way I'm going to pay her for those."

"She could just leave them, rather than pay to store them. Then you could use them again to give to somebody who might need them."

"Yeah. She'll probably end up leaving them, to keep from paying. I have to redo her whole apartment anyway, because of that dog. I'll rip out the carpet, and put in laminate. I can put that stuff in the storeroom."

"Why were you over there today?"

"For another lady's daughter. She called and said her mom had a table in storage, and thought it might have been stolen. I checked, but it was still there."

"Did other people see you there? Your Harem?"

"Yeah, a few. But I still got this call tonight."

We might have to get a landline again, so Hick can have his version of the Bat Phone. It will be the Harem Phone. A direct line to Hick for the Harem's perceived emergencies that can't wait until Monday business hours.

Sweet Dreams May be Unforthcoming

Hick has been trying to get a sleep study for several months. His breather isn't working right, and to get a new one, he needs a referral from a doctor, who needs a sleep study to justify it. Hick's current breather isn't actually "his." The original CPAP, gotten after a sleep study at the local hospital sleep lab, conked out several years ago. 

Being Hick, he found one on his own to use in the meantime. Found it at the flea market. "It belonged to some dead guy," said Hick. "I figure it will work well enough until I can get a sleep study, even though it's not set specifically for me."

You know how Hick delays things that need to be done. It was only recently that he started asking for a sleep study. Molasses in January moves faster than the medical offices around here. Hick had a little fit last week with his doctor (NP) about the lack of an appointment. The sleep lab called him back in a couple days. They could work him in during December.

"That's way too far off! Get me one at another hospital in your network!"

They did. At the hospital 30 miles north. On October 31.

"HEY! That's Halloween!"

"Yeah. Well. That's the soonest they could get me in."

"Heh, heh! You know the staff will be dressed up in costumes."

"Maybe."

"I took my mom for surgery on Halloween. There were Frankensteins and vampires and all kinds of creatures roaming the halls. It did not make her any more confident in her surgeon. Even though he wasn't dressed up."

"Well, if they do, they do."

"You'll wake up and see them. Hope you don't have a nightmare!"

"I think I'll be okay."

"I hope I am. I hope nobody decides to TRICK us while I'm home by myself."

"I think you'll be okay, too."

Yeah. I probably will. We never get any trick-or-treaters. Only one in 27 years.

It's Hard to Find Good (or ANY) Help

Hick is pulling out his remaining hair, trying to get reliable (paid) help for his flipping activities. HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) is only available during school hours, and then sometimes not, because he has morning appointments. Old Buddy hasn't worked for two weeks. Hick is a bit judgmental about the reason why...

"He's always got something wrong. Last thing, he said he had diverticulitis. He's always going to the emergency room. If he'd go to a regular doctor, they might find out what's wrong with him. He sent me a message on the weekend that he'd been to the ER three days in a row. They kept sending him home saying they couldn't find anything. He says they're messing with him. And he had to wait six hours one day. Then a couple days later, he says they figured out he has an inguinal hernia. But then he just texted me saying he has to go to a regular doctor first, before they'll do anything. And that now they think it's just his arthritis. He said he doesn't know if they have to operate to clean him out."

"Of his arthritis???"

"I don't know. They can clean up a joint."

"That's not recommended anymore for knees. Supposedly it speeds up the degeneration when you clean out the other particles from degeneration. It makes the bone bony-er on bone, or something."

"I don't know what's going on with Old Buddy. I imagine he's out of money by now. He's missed out on at least $600 since the first of the month, by not working for me. And HOS says he'll be ready, but then tells me he has an appointment that he hadn't mentioned all week. Between the two of them, I can't get much done."

"Well, HOS has to go to his appointments. I imagine Old Buddy will come back when he needs money."

"There's a guy down at the lockers who does carpentry work like me. I hesitate to ask him, because I have my vision, and that's how I want things done. HOS and Old Buddy do what I tell them. But this guy might have his own ideas. Maybe I could use him in Lap House, because I ain't done nothin' much there yet. Just tell him, 'I want to put walls here, and make a hall and two bedrooms with closets.' But I don't know if I want to ask him yet."

"I think HOS and Old Buddy will keep working. The other guy might not want to do it for $15 an hour."

"Yeah. I guess I'll wait and see."

Maybe Hick should only work them on our flips, and not on his other side jobs. Then they wouldn't get so burned out on working with him, if it was only three hours a day, four days a week.

A Little More Progress on Cheap House

Hick has taken time out of his busy schedule of doing PAID work on an old guy's trailer to make a little progress on Cheap House. Wednesday morning, he sent me a text. As proof, I suspect. Since Tuesday night he was on the phone talking to the trailer guy again.

"Wall built put some drywall up tomorrow" 

I don't see much difference here from the last photos. Only the studs (re-using lumber, it appears) for the bedroom wall. Still, he had to nail them in place, making sure they were level or plumb or whatever the terminology is.

Thursday afternoon, I got another picture.

No text this time. I suppose Hick figured that I could see it was drywall in place to make the bedroom/hall wall. Even though most of the time I CAIN'T UNDERSTAND NOTHIN'!

I think HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) has been doing this work with him, because Old Buddy has another ailment right now. Hick and HOS can only work during the time HOS's son is in school. But still, that's more than Old Buddy, whom Hick usually works just three hours a day.

Eventually, Cheap House will be done enough to sell as a flip...

The Second Feast

Hick did indeed grill on Labor Day, cooking the replacement food that I had to buy after the power outage. We didn't have as much as our regular feasts. Not because of losing the food, but because I didn't want to spend time cooking the sides. The Pony was fine with it. We are both cutting back. Hick will eat whatever is available. So it was no hardship to go without potato salad, or deviled eggs, or Stove Top Stuffing, or Sister Schubert's Rolls. We didn't even have dessert. Nobody accidentally lost a pound, I guarantee!

Hick even seemed to cut back slightly, by not having a whole pork steak.

You can see that Hick was poised to dig in (with my little ceramic paring knife!) when The Pony snapped the picture. He has a slice of pepper jack cheese, plus onion and tomato and pickle on his burger. Plus a pile of baked beans, and a haystack of SLAW.

The Pony is not a slaw aficionado.

The Pony didn't cut back on the Hidden Valley Ranch Dip that I made with sour cream and the powder packet. There are the baby carrots. The Pony actually ate the giant carrot as a snack while we were baking the beans. I used three kinds: Homestyle, Maple and Cured Bacon, and a regular can of Showboat Pork & Beans. Then I added yellow mustard, Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, Kraft Original BBQ Sauce (it was on sale), two diced Vidalia onions, six hot dogs, and half a pound of bacon. Once they were all mixed and in the oven, The Pony assisted with the intermittent stirring. Those beans were delicious!

I didn't treat myself to the slaw this time, because I wanted more meat.

I love pickle and onions on the side. They were Baby Whole Dill Pickles from Save A Lot. They're my favorite whole pickle, with a nice crunch, although I don't consider them to be very "babyish." The Petite Dills I get at 10Box are much smaller than the babies. I use them in tuna salad and potato salad, because they don't leak a lot of juice. Anyhoo... Hick only wanted one slice of tomato, and The Pony doesn't like them. So I got the rest. It was only storebought, but better than no tomato.

You might think the meat looks overdone, but it was not. Both the burgers and pork steaks were delicious. I would be the first to complain if Hick overcooked the meat! The pork steaks had a nice saucy char on the fatty edge, which is how we like them. They were tender. The burgers were just right. Still juicy, but not rare.

The Pony took home a second bag of baby carrots, but plans to make the dip later. Also three hamburgers, and half the baked beans. We are all enjoying leftovers for several days.

I, Myself, Would Prefer a Harmless Lie to Save Hurt Feelings

I mentioned how we lost our meat during the 13-hour power outage on Saturday night. Part of that meat was four gigantic pork steaks that Hick got from one of his buddies at his SUS2.5 (Storage Unit Store 2.5) on Saturday. As I said, Hick was really proud of them, because they weren't just pork steaks from a store, but from a hog that his buddy had butchered.

At first I was leery of those pork steaks. "I don't know. How will you get them home without them spoiling? It's over 100 degrees, and he's bringing them to your store!" 

"I have air conditioning there, Val. And I have a refrigerator."

"A mini fridge! Will they even fit? And how will you get them home in your truck?"

"They'll be fine, Val. My truck has air conditioning."

Even so, I sent Hick a text midday on Saturday, after he sent one announcing the procurement of those pork steaks at 11:36 a.m.

"Val i got the four pork steaks here in the fridge"

"OK. Try to wrap them in something to stay cool on the way home."

Hick agreed. I don't know what he used, but carried in a bundle of meat that was inside a paper bag. He tore away the paper bag, revealing a gallon zip-lock bag stuffed with meat and white butcher paper. He chucked the whole thing in the bottom of FRIG II.

No way was I going to take a chance on ANY meat left in FRIG II after 13 hours without electricity. Especially meat that had traveled 30 minutes through the sweltering afternoon without a cooler. I couldn't throw it out, because the dogs would gorge on it. I couldn't just put it in the trash, because it would stink terribly before trash pickup day, and wild animals (and my dogs) would be trying to get into the dumpster. So I baked it, to ration to the dogs as daily treats/meals.

On Monday evening, we were sitting at the table, enjoying our grilled replacement meats. Hick got a text. 

"Huh. It's my buddy, asking how the pork steaks are."

"Oh, no! Just tell him they're delicious."

"Too late. I just texted that we had to throw them out."

"It wouldn't hurt to tell him we enjoyed them."

"No. I'm telling the truth. He ain't gonna care. I paid for them."

If the buddy didn't really care, why would he send a text asking about those precious pork steaks? At least Hick might have said that the dogs found them tasty.

The Culprit

This is the limb that fell on the bridge that took down the electric line that gives Val all the amenities of modern life. It doesn't look like a big limb. But its dive was powerful enough to leave Val powerless for 13 hours and 20 minutes.

This was on the way home from town Sunday. With $79.40 of groceries to replace those I had to throw out. That's actually just a limb off a big tree. I saw where the branch had twisted off as I came from the other side on the way to town. It's not visible, but was around the upper right corner area of the picture.

I don't sense that the tree-trimming crew did much trimming. Looks like they just shoved the whole thing off the bridge into the creek. The other side only had an itty bitty limb.

Hick said he could see where they patched the electric line. I couldn't even see where the actual line was running across the creek. All I know is I'm happy to have my power back! I don't need to know how the sausage is made...