The Crying Lumberjack

Well, HAPPY Thursday night everyone!

I WAS going to make a video for you today, but there was waaaaaaaay too much going on here.  This has been the CRAZIEST week.

I actually made the tree-cutter-downer man CRY!

Jerry hired the guy to do some work in our very woodsy yard.  It is really hard to get anyone to do that kind of work here.  The people we have had in the past have disappeared from the planet, evidently, because none of the phone numbers we have for them work.

Jerry found this guy on Home Adviser, I think.  He had really good reviews.

We all know from experience; however, some of these people must have lots of family and friends who owe them huge debts write the reviews, because it usually turns out that the opposite is what actually happens when you hire them.

OH!, do I ever have the stories of bad service in my history.  You may remember the contractor we hired who PASSED OUT on the garage floor.  He was drunk!  I got down on my knees and shook his shoulder to wake him up.

He woke up and looked at me and said, "Oh NO!  Am I at work!!!!?"

Well, actually, NO, you were sleeping!!!

So anyway, Jerry hired this guy to cut the little sucker branches off the sides of all our trees, and to grind down several stumps, and to cut down three trees, and to spray all the trees for the nasty web worms that have strangled so many of our pretty tree branches.

The guy was SUPPOSED to show up LAST week.  He never did.  He wasn't able to get here until Monday, this week.  Problem with that is, Jerry left town for the entire week on Monday.  That means I was alone here to tend with the guy.

Here is what the deal was.  He was suppose to arrive WITH HELP Monday morning.  The entire job was to take a day and a half.

Guess what time he showed up Monday morning?????  Never mind, you'll never get it right, because it wasn't even in the morning.  It was 5:00 that evening!!!!  He worked until dark when he announced he would be back EARLY the next morning WITH help and he would be done by noon.

I still haven't figured out how he thought he would be DONE by noon when he didn't even show up until 1:00!  He did call that morning to say he had to pick his help up.  Dorine, Mom's sitter, decided he must have gone to Kansas for them.  He returned much later with a teenager and some other guy.

I decided to call Jerry to complain about the lack of work being done, and ask him what we were paying these people.  Jerry said it was $3,000!  After I fainted and recovered, I went out to investigate.  The tree man was just sitting in his truck.  I walked up to the window and asked if I could talk to him.

He rolled down his window.  I introduced myself and asked if I could talk to him.  He got out of his truck.

I probably could have said this a little differently, but it made sense at the time.  I said, "Exactly WHAT are we paying you $3,000 for?!"

He was immediately upset.  He said, "Look at my phone.  The bid I gave your husband is on my phone."  I told him I didn't care to look at his phone.  I wanted to know WHAT he was supposed to do.  He named a few things.  I asked if he was going to do some other things I wanted done.  He said he WAS NOT!  He said he was only going to do the back yard -- not the front yard or the side yards. I thought that was weird.  A home has a front, back and two side yards.  I asked if he was going to spray the trees by the barn.  He said that was NOT included. I asked if he was going to grind the stumps of the trees he just cut down.  He said that was NOT included.

I sure was not seeing a $3,000 bill by any stretch of my imagination!

So THEN I made him cry.

This is what I said:  "If you don't do what we hired you to do, I will not pay you."

The guy started sobbing!  He walked to the back of his truck that had a huge dump truck type trailer behind it, and he started pulling things out and tossing them.  He said, "I AM LEAVING AND I WON'T EVEN CHARGE YOU FOR ALL THE WORK I HAVE DONE!"

You all know I am taking care of my 89-year old Mom who has dementia.  Whenever ANYTHING is out of the ordinary or different in the daily routine, she gets upset and has to be very involved and asks dozens of questions.  She kept coming outside to WATCH.  I had to keep sending her back into the house so she didn't get hit by a falling tree branch or sprayed with poison.  The three cats have been locked in the garage the ENTIRE week because of the spray that never got put on until late last night and this morning.

Frustrating week to say the least.

The saga goes on and on and on.  First, the guy's "help" got fired.  Then new help was hired but had to drive up from south of Dallas.  Took them about four hours to get here.  They actually were very good though.  Today, one of their trucks got stuck in the ditch.  The other truck wouldn't start.  The machine that was supposed to spray all the bugs in the trees was broken, and the guy worked over two hours on it.  Mom kept asking me what he was doing out there.  They were here after dark two nights.  I didn't know if they were going to pitch a tent or what.

I did pay the guy this afternoon, and he and his crew are gone.  Mom has finally stopped asking me if she can go outside to watch them.  They did end up doing a good job, and I am pleased.  What a shame the boss couldn't get his act together or even tell me when he would be here. He did apologize a bunch of times.  And he did quit crying.  (-;

I have to get to sleep.  EXCITING day tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Hugs, Joy