Never ask What Else Can Happen.

It's only Thursday and I have had to deal with firing Gary and all the work that comes with this, a customer who was so awful that when the refund was 666 I thought it was appropriate, a dog who took out some of her own stitches and made her vet unhappy, dealing with interviewing and finding skilled workers who speak English and actually want to work, and then I take a fall down a flight of stairs and jam my knee. 

I think I could be a country music song - you'll see why.

Let's start with the crazy client.
We were hired by a big local contractor.
This contractor was hired to repair/remodel a home for 2 older folks who set their house on fire accidentally. The contractor warned us she was difficult and it has been a very trying year.

When he called me he prefaced our conversation with, I know these are odd requests but she wants what she wants and she can be difficult. I hope you can help me.

The word difficult isn't strong enough for this old bat.

She had all new fixture in her remodeled bathrooms. A new white bathtub, a new white toilet, a new white sink. She hated it all. She wanted them to be harvest gold and red. Yes, colors from the 70's. He tried to talk her out of it to no avail.
Because you can't buy a harvest gold toilet and tub any longer and for damn good reason, he asked us to refinish them in those colors.

Rick met the contractor and the homeowner. Rick said to me that she was evil mean. I knew what he meant. They walked through each bathroom.
Bathroom 1 was to have a tub, toilet and sink in red. Rick told them we don't do toilets and the reason why. She began to scream, not raise her voice but scream she didn't care that is what she wants. Rick compromised and said I can do the outside but the inside can't be done it will just begin to peel with standing water and that will look horrendous. She could apparently live with that.
In Bathroom 2 it was to be a toilet and tub in harvest gold. 

She picked these colors from the Sherwin Williams color wheel and then we had to have the chemical company match the colors she requested. She agreed to the special order fee and off we go.

Rick arrived on Monday morning at 8am. He asked her to walk through the bathrooms with him. He took his work order and repeated all that was being done. Bath 1, tub, sink and toilet in red is that correct. She said Yes. Haven't we been over this before? Rick explained I just want to be sure nothing has changed because it has been over 2 months since I was here last. Sometimes your contractor makes changes.  They moved to bath 2, tub and toilet in harvest gold.
She said Yes, correct, can I go now?

Rick finished and asked the homeowner to come in to view. She liked the harvest gold and we know that because she said, "Well you did what I told you to do, do you want a medal?"  No, I would like you to look everything over to be sure you are happy before I leave. She waved a hand and said the flippant word whatever and moved to the other bathroom. Then the screaming began. I DID NOT WANT THE TOILET IN RED YOU DUMB ASS. OH MY GOD HOW FUCKING STUPID ARE YOU? YOU'RE AN IDIOT. YOUR MAMA MADE A MORON. (Rick chuckled at that one) When Rick reminded her that they did the walkthrough and she agreed her response was, "YOU ASSHOLE I NEVER SAID THAT WHO THE HELL WOULD WANT THIS RED?"  Rick put his hand in front of her face and said, "walk away and don't ever speak to me like this again or I will not make this right"   
Her husband is mild meek little hunched over kind of man who looked at Rick and shrugged his shoulders. She walked away as did her little husband. But she was screaming the whole time.

Rick called the contractor. The contractors first words were, "See what I have been dealing with for the better part of a year?" 
Rick said, Can we get her another toilet? I will pay for it.  I didn't see why we had to do this but we do a lot of work for this contractor and we are making him look bad too. Rick felt it was the best thing to do after their conversations. I wasn't there but speaking to her on the phone was enough. 

So we paid for a new toilet and the plumber to reinstall new toilet and deducted that from what they owed us. Rick told the contractor that he will never ever go back out there (way out in the country) and she has no warranty. He will not work for her ever again. The contractor said he understood and he was okay with that. He thanked us and on we went.

Now can you believe this old bat was close to 80? Her husband was 80 and the contractor said she mentioned something about wanting this done before her 78th birthday. I was a bit shocked that she was this old and yet spoke the way she did to Rick.  We hope to be paid today after the contractor has the new toilet installed. We received the copy of the bill for the toilet and the plumber so as soon as everything is in place we get paid. As I said earlier the amount came to 666.02 and I said to Rick that I felt that number was very appropriate for this mean lady. 666 and satan seem about right to me.
This job was crazy from beginning to end.
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Izzy methodically will remove stitches from a football and that will amuse her for hours. She does this so well that she doesn't rip the football, just takes out stitch by stitch. Surgically. We have watched her and we find it amazing.

The other night we heard her before we saw her doing the same thing on her front leg stitches. We stopped her. I actually had to rub some lemon on my hands and then rubbed my hand all around that area. ( No, I didn't put it on there, I'm not that mean.) She hates that smell and then doesn't touch them until it wears off of course.
Yesterday when we got her to the vet Rick told him he thinks she got the stitches pretty much off last night from her lump on her front leg.I woke up hearing her and made her stop.
He looked at it and Oh my God she did this without any skin irritation or hair removal. What did she do this with? Rick said, "her teeth. You should see her do this to a football." The vet called in a vet tech to show her. They found it funny and said, she did as good a job as I would do.   
2 more weeks before she can do the stairs and we all get sleep in the bedroom. Yipee.
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Speaking of stairs.
We have something blocking the stairs so Izzy doesn't try to climb.
I was coming downstairs from my office around 5:30p. Rick was home and he was on the floor playing with Izzy. I had on socks. I never wear socks in the house. I am barefoot, socks cause me to slip and slide on the carpeted steps. When I am on the first floor where there is all hardwoods I wear my slippers.
So something we have known would happen for the last 18 years is that this klutzy woman would take a tumble.  Rick did in year 2. It was inevitable.

I tried to put my foot in between these things on the steps, my heel slipped and I took a tumble and landed on the hardwoods (over concrete) with my right foot. It would have been better if I had tucked and rolled.
But I landed hard on my right leg.
My right foot came down so hard it jammed my knee. It was like when you stove a finger only my knee. I went down. I laid there and I knew immediately this was a hot mess. I got up. My knee felt swollen instantly but in the back of my knee and inside. Oh my God the pain. Rick was there to help me up.
I hobbled to the sofa. I iced it, I then put on heat. The heat felt better but I could not walk well. Rick fetched my crutches. The longer I sit, the worse it is. So I was hobbling around the first floor to keep it loose. 

I have to admit that when I was falling and then landed upright that was pretty remarkable. Rick said after he knew I was okay, "Babe you really nailed that landing"  That made me laugh and I needed it right then. Thank God for Rick who makes me laugh all the time. Laughter sure helps a lot of life's ills.

Looks like Izzy and I both need to sleep downstairs due to stairs. 
This morning I am not a lot better. I was going to go to Urgent Care but they really can't tell anything by an X-Ray, can they?  I really feel that I jammed it and it will be better in a week or so. Right now I can not fully extend my leg without pain. Now my husband is going to be certain I do these things so I can see my Dr. Tall Tan and Gorgeous who fixed my shoulder and my other knee. Geez.

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Interviewing and/or finding people that want to work full time and can communicate is troublesome. The labor pool is all Mexicans and not one could communicate enough to answer our questions so how could they work with a client on all the details?  

A candidate that applied then told us that working 35-40 hours was a lot would we be interested in 20 hours because he has a lot of hobbies.
Yes, his exact words to us. It did make us laugh. 

The last time we went through all of this Rick offered to pay for English classes if a young man was willing because he was a good candidate but he couldn't be alone with a client we would have to have Gary or Rick with him to speak with the customers. That is not cost effective. He said he was unwilling to even if we paid for it because he would have to go to classes 2 times a week and he didn't want to do this on his own time.  (classes were 1.5 hrs 2x a week)

So he chose not to work here. Yes, that is our hiring pool. 

Having a good week though, I am not dead yet. 😀
But I do think I'd make a great country music song.