Friday, June 15, 2018

out all day

Well, that's my plan now. Maybe I even hit the antiques shops.

Because this morning, as I was fixing breakfast, there came a knock on the door. At first I ignored it (which, as it turns out, might have been bad*) but then I peeked out a window and saw trucks lined up on the street.

I wondered if maybe my neighbor's air conditioning unit had died - it sounded bad the other day - and if it was going to be the HVAC guys wanting access to my drive (which is right next to it) for repair.

No. It was a roofer. He wanted to know if they could park their trailer in my drive.

Okay, this is where I'm kind of chicken livered. Or too nice. Or something. I felt internal irritation - but I NEED my drive! but I said "Give me a few minutes to finish getting ready" (fortunately I was already dressed) "and I'll move my car."

(*I wonder what they would have done if I hadn't answered the door. Would they have assumed I was not home, out of town, at work, and just pulled in the drive? I mean, if I had walked out and found that had happened, I'm sure one of the guys would move the trailer, but....)

They took no time pulling into my drive once I moved my car. And I guess they sent the one Anglophone to speak to me; I can hear guys calling to each other in Spanish. (Around here, roofing is one of the professions Mexican or Central American immigrants go into. It's hard work).

I'm also thinking, when I'm out, maybe I get a magnet and tie it to a string and drag my drive for fallen nails before driving up into it again....the roofers I had all those years back were careful about retrieving fallen nails but I know when the neighbors had the new air-conditioning unit put in I found a couple of sharp bits of metal and some sheet-metal screws in my drive afterward.

But yeah. I mean, part of me wants to say yes, to help the guys out - roofing is a hard job and anything that makes it easier is good. But a big part of me is annoyed at the neighbor for not moving their truck even though they're not home (these are people who apparently are "flipping" the house - they don't actually live there, they are rarely around) and apparently they didn't give a contact number to the roofers? Or maybe they're renting the place but are never home, but it seems odd to me to pay rent on a place you're not going to stay at.

(Something is hysterically funny to the roofers; this is the second time I've heard gales of laughter from them out there. I have no idea if something funny happened - I'm not watching what goes on - and I don't know if someone said something funny because they are speaking Spanish to one another and I don't know any Spanish outside of the few "polite" words (please, thank you, where is the WC, etc.)

But yeah. I'm going to do my daily Duolingo and some piano practice and then go, and plan on being gone most of the day, just to avoid the noise and the chaos, and hopefully when I get home the guys will have left with their trailer.


***

Edited to add: when I returned home about 3 pm, they had moved the trailer and swept my drive (removing all the pecan catkins and leaves and junk). I presume they did that to be sure no roofing nails wound up in my drive. I was able to garage my car, no problem, so no harm, no foul and I don't regret saying "yes" to the guy.

Still, it's annoying to me that the people who are allegedly living in that house just left their big old truck in the drive. Either they didn't know the roofers were coming (I suppose, if it's a rental house, though if I owned a house I rented out I'd let the tenants know of any maintenance) or they did not care. 

1 comment:

purlewe said...

I am actually really pleased for you that they swept the driveway so thoroughly. If you remembered their name/company I would hold onto that for if you ever needed them.