The Contractor
The Contractor
Years ago our county and city officials hired a contractor. Not just any contractor, the only contractor that was available to do the job they needed done. On the agreed date the contractor showed up at the municipal building for a meeting. On his cellular phone he had directions to the very room where the meeting was to take place. When he walked into the room a few minutes early everyone went quiet, for they had heard the legend of the contractor, and they just knew that this guy was not him.
Unfortunately, on the very same day a public notice meeting was taking place and the contractor standing in a room full of suits and ties, with his shirt unbuttoned and wearing flip flops, was mistaken for a participant in that other meeting. When I say he had his shirt unbuttoned, I mean he had on a button shirt that had no buttons.
One of the officials escorted him back into the hallway and pointed out where the other meeting was to take place. He informed the person that this was the room he was told to meet in, but the official said he was in the wrong place, so he left.
He almost made it out of town, before he got the call. Profuse apologies were accepted and he went back, signed the contract, and everyone went back to work.
I met the contractor when a crew started clearing my road of the thousands of trees that had fallen in a straight line wind. That was in 2012 when we had so many tornadoes all around the country, and the first time I heard the term bow echo. Over the next several weeks they worked diligently. He stopped by my house every day with his little dog, in his brand new truck, to check on me, and see how my cleanup was going. One of the nicest people I have ever met. He even helped me get an ancient old engine started. He asked me a few questions about it, then started explaining some of the finer points of diesel injector pumps. One unseized detent ball later and we had her coughing to life.
Mine was a bit of a special case, in that I lived over two miles from the nearest neighbor, and he had crews working on my road for weeks, so he kind of hung around to keep an eye on them. Over that time the story came out about the meeting. I never saw him wear shoes, but I did see him with a button on one of his shirts, one bottom button.
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