One Summer, my friend T and I painted houses. After doing what had been my other job that Summer – selling encyclopedias door to door (and these weren’t Encarta discs, kids) – sweltering under the eaves wasn’t such a big deal. The woman whose house we were painting turned out to be a real pain – switching shades after we had done quite a bit, finding invisible missed spots, and, at the end, demanding we paint the foundation even though that hadn’t been part of the original job quote. It wasn’t so much the additional labor – only an extra day or so – but the fact that to do it right we had to rent a power washer to clean off the foundation so it could be painted as well as buy a lot of extra paint. Goodbye profits! Honest young men that we were, we bought what amounted to white-wash, threw it on to a foundation we had cleaned off with a hose, and prayed it wouldn’t rain until the check cleared. I’m still bothered by it 35+ years later. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Add new tag
Cooking Creole
I was thinking how to get you focused on the terrible tragedy going on in Haiti and then I realized that maybe by using our Foodie Friday post to show you how close to home Haiti really is I could do so. “Yeah,” you’re thinking, “it’s right there offshore a bit – that’s pretty close.” Well, it’s closer than that. I’m not thinking about the big Haitian community in Brooklyn either. Nope. I’m thinking about Creole gumbo from the Bayou, yes sir. Continue reading
Filed under food, Reality checks, What's Going On
Life Lines
I got a note last night from a reader who also happens to be my sister-in-law. She’s way more tuned in than am I to some areas of pop culture (I compensate by over-learning digital, I guess). I couldn’t tell you what’s happening on The View with a gun to my head – she’s actually gone to see them live. Anyway, she asked me a question that got me thinking. Continue reading
Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud
Consult Keith 