I'd rather not describe it all in detail. No matter what I was told, I should have known better. There was nagging doubt. There wwas what my eyes told me, but no, they said, blablabla. When will I learn to obey that little hunch? It has happened before when I thought, "Maybe they know something I don't, but it doesn't quite make sense". Then I go ahead, and since I do the thing, I am responsible. Drat!
This time it may mean a job which would have paid rent rent ends up costing me more than I want to estimate.
At first the problem was all that was clear. What was there orginally, and how to fix it was a mystery. It is a stroke of luck, a miracle that through persistent inquiry we discovered that Raul was the guy who worked his specialized, secret process magic on this project. The real miracle is that he was actually located and met us at the scene of the crime. I felt he took pity on me as he assured me he'd help me out of this fix. I'd made it clear if I could do some or all the work to defray expense it would be a life saver.
He could have been insulting and uncooperative. Fortunately he seemed a good soul. He recognized my sincere respect for his work and interest in how to make this right.
I didn't think the project was that necessary to begin with. Had anyone known the real deal, Bringing it back to a better state would have been a simple thing. A maintenance process which ought to be done yearly. It has been four or five years.
This makes for early morning because I need to get some things done at fatcat house #1 and be in the area when Raul can get there. Could be I need to seriously find another line of work. Could be I'll learn something very good which can be applied to a range of items.
Boy did I sweat this out when the mystery phase was in full swing; hours of research, inquiries to every source I could find on the subject. Research did put me on the right track but I couldn't be sure of details. Inquiries to various outfits in the area yielded absolutely nothing.
Please, wood finishing gods, make sure Raul shows up and is in a benevolent mood. He holds the cards. Still, I need to recognize the stroke of good fortune that got me to this point, knowing some of what I'm dealing with and who is the master of such things. For that I do feel rather fortunate.
Another incident which reinforces what coworkers said about me long ago--for an unlucky guy, I'm the luckiest guy around.
This is less than a third of the overall deal.
It dried to a less hideous aspect than what you see here. Not that it was supposed to look good at this point. Had to do with ---never mind. It is what it is.
Yes, I know. I can be as big an idiot and nincompoop as anyone I ever called out for such buffoonery.
I've not slept all that well for a couple of nights. Maybe I could be a politician. You don't have to do anything right and when you screw up you just do things to make it worse then blame someone else.
You'd make a lousy politician. That's a compliment.
ReplyDeleteI hope it all works out...Raul is Ralph in Spanish..
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