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Fall is in the works and so are my chores here around the quinta. Today I took off the screens and washed the protector bars, windows, and cleaned out any cobwebs. I'm not finished yet but I did get the most difficult parts out of the way. I can't use a hose as it really isn't of any value, a bucket with soap and water with some vinegar to get the water stains off the windows (the sprinklers sometimes hit the windows with hard well water) and to clean the bars on the windows. After 25 years, I can't imagine living in a house without bars on the windows.
You know, there are two things that scare me; clowns and people who whistle. Not the "whistle while you work kind", but that scary warbling kind. There is a guy who lives about 2 kms from here and his mother lives around the corner. He reminds me of Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird. He wears a camouflage duck hunting cap and whistles all the way down the road. Spooky to say the least. So here I am, with the front gates open, standing on a ladder when Boo comes by. He thinks I can't see him. He stands in front of the gates for a minute watching me but I can see him in the reflection of the window. Chills were running up my spine.
This kind of work gives me time to think. The weather is changing, dark clouds hover overhead, their is just a bit of a breeze and the smell of burning leaves is in the air. It reminds me of a time more than 35 years ago. I worked part-time after school in a clock repair shop. It was called Thompson's in Kansas City. A strange job to say the least. We worked in an old house in the basement. The first floor was the showroom and counter filled with grandfather clocks, wall clocks and time pieces of all types. We dealt a lot with antique clocks. My job was cleaning them as they came in, tightening wheels and being the time keeper. Talk about time going by slowly. Oh so slowly. Now that I look back it was a cool job but at the time I just couldn't take it. There were three clockmakers. One was ready to retire and had returned from a trip to Hawaii. That fall he invited me out to his house to rake leaves. It was a day just like today.
I still have bad feelings about that job. You see, I left the job after six months. It was still two weeks later and I hadn't told my dad. I was looking feverishly for a new job, it was after school anyway, not like I was going to starve without it. So here we are at dinner one night and my dad says, "I stopped by Thompson's today to walk you home". That's all he said to me. To this day I feel like I really let him down. We talked about it years later but I carry that with me to this day. He was a real wiener at times but now that I am older, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. To this day, Juan calls me the human clock. I can tell you the time almost to the minute. BTW, I never wear a watch.
Tomorrow I will finish the windows and then move on to the next task; touch up the bars with paint and clean the front gates using my rv brush. I need to attempt a tile removal tomorrow and the roof on the corner shed needs tile on the roof.
You know, there are two things that scare me; clowns and people who whistle. Not the "whistle while you work kind", but that scary warbling kind. There is a guy who lives about 2 kms from here and his mother lives around the corner. He reminds me of Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird. He wears a camouflage duck hunting cap and whistles all the way down the road. Spooky to say the least. So here I am, with the front gates open, standing on a ladder when Boo comes by. He thinks I can't see him. He stands in front of the gates for a minute watching me but I can see him in the reflection of the window. Chills were running up my spine.
This kind of work gives me time to think. The weather is changing, dark clouds hover overhead, their is just a bit of a breeze and the smell of burning leaves is in the air. It reminds me of a time more than 35 years ago. I worked part-time after school in a clock repair shop. It was called Thompson's in Kansas City. A strange job to say the least. We worked in an old house in the basement. The first floor was the showroom and counter filled with grandfather clocks, wall clocks and time pieces of all types. We dealt a lot with antique clocks. My job was cleaning them as they came in, tightening wheels and being the time keeper. Talk about time going by slowly. Oh so slowly. Now that I look back it was a cool job but at the time I just couldn't take it. There were three clockmakers. One was ready to retire and had returned from a trip to Hawaii. That fall he invited me out to his house to rake leaves. It was a day just like today.
I still have bad feelings about that job. You see, I left the job after six months. It was still two weeks later and I hadn't told my dad. I was looking feverishly for a new job, it was after school anyway, not like I was going to starve without it. So here we are at dinner one night and my dad says, "I stopped by Thompson's today to walk you home". That's all he said to me. To this day I feel like I really let him down. We talked about it years later but I carry that with me to this day. He was a real wiener at times but now that I am older, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. To this day, Juan calls me the human clock. I can tell you the time almost to the minute. BTW, I never wear a watch.
Tomorrow I will finish the windows and then move on to the next task; touch up the bars with paint and clean the front gates using my rv brush. I need to attempt a tile removal tomorrow and the roof on the corner shed needs tile on the roof.
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