Mostly-Mommy

I have a “No Soliciting” sign on my door. I don’t like it but it became necessary because of the copious numbers of sleezebags trying to sell magazines that cruise our neighborhood. There were only so many times I was willing to be insulted, sexually harassed and bullied by these scumbags before the sign went up.

A couple days ago a man came to the door looking for work. He had a story about unemployment, kids and hard times. I’ve seen him around mowing yards and he seemed genuine so I told him to come back and we would discuss if we could give him some work. He came back the next day and we hired him to do some painting up on the roof that we are quite frankly too chickenshit to do ourselves. Mike can get up there if there is something like a leaky roof that is an immediate situation, but we both really like to be on solid ground.

After we made the deal he asked for some money to feed his kids that night. I gave him $20. I really like to believe that most people are good and honest, at least the ones I feel I can trust enough to open my front door for. I hoped he would feed his kids, or at the very least feed his addiction and still come back to do the work.

He was supposed to get started Saturday morning at 9am. We waited. 10am and still no show, I was beginning to doubt my trustworthy nature. Then something very surprising happened. At 10:40am he showed up and brought a friend to split the work with. The guys got to work scraping and priming. After that was done they asked for some lunch money, which Mike gave to them. They came back and did the painting. And guess what? They did a good job and were very respectful and thankful for the work.

At one point Mike overheard the one guy we originally hired talking to his friend, telling him that there is always work to be had. You just have to get out there and find it. I really appreciate someone who is willing to do the work, willing to put in the effort needed to find the work and leave the job so that all parties are satisfied.

Today they painted part of our house, but they also restored my faith in humanity. It doesn’t take much but sometimes we all need to be reminded of the good in people. It is so easy to assume people are going to stiff you, which sadly I think many of them would. It’s too bad that those are the cases that stand out — the people that will cheat you, murder you, that kind of thing. I’m just glad that none of those things happened todday!