Where oh where are the storms going to go?

The sky is clearing and I see a Navy plane coming in for a landing, a grey dot against the bluing sky. A couple sailboats are making their way south down the river at what seems to be a leisurely pace. Earlier today, as you might notice in the photos posted this late morning, dark clouds were dominant, threatening rain but not producing any, at least here. Connie was busy with the hose, cleaning up behind the painters as they scraped the loose paint from the railings on each floor.

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The one painter, quite the friendly guy, was telling me about how their next job might be in Tampa or wherever they are sent. They work all over the place and all he needs to do is get back to Jax to get his check. I thought that was odd, certainly the boss would give him his pay wherever they were, but he went on to tell me about his retirement money he gets for over 22 years in the service! He served in Viet Nam, and he had served a long time with John McCain, who had been stationed out of NAS Cecil Field at the time. Cool! Of course, I thanked him for his service and gave him a can of Mountain Dew!

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My day began quite early with an appointment with Frank. We are supposed to talk about money and track its progress, thankfully starting to recoup some of the losses, but much of the time was in discussion about construction. He was all frustrated because he was having a relatively small addition put on his garage and was having every kind of problem with the contractors. Oh, how we had to laugh! I told him the story about Jimmie many years ago, when I told Jimmie if I ever ever again said anything about being a General Contractor, he should just shoot me! And Frank finished the sentence for me, since he had the same feeling about his project, just shoot me and have it over with!

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These are just the problems Frank deals with, expectations! Betty and I talked about this too the other night, about what I considered the "training by mistake" when folks go into a position for which they are unprepared. Hence, the classes, the training, the being made familiar with systems and such. Supposedly Frank's contractor had arranged to just send photos to the inspector to prove the nail pattern was correct on the roof. What!?? It had better be date and address stamped, too, then. No way is a photo evidence for passing an inspection.

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Our formerly quiet tropics have begun to heat up, with one storm smacking around the Florida panhandle today, another losing some of its steam as it works its way toward land, and yet, Bill, heading toward us at a rapid pace. Hopefully that hurricane will be forced away from land when it gets closer and swerves away from us. Our temperatures are being slightly affected with the low temps at the beginning of next week expected to be around 72. Now, I know some of the readers like that just fine, but, I do not. I am going to be so grumpy when summer is gone!

p.s. this weather map changed since I posted it...wonder what happens when the storms are gone, over time.....hmmm

Look! There is a man outside my window!

This morning as I was leaving for an appointment with Frank at Edward Jones, I saw the two guys who are referred to as "the Cambodians", by the paint crew, working on a plastic chair with a rod up the middle. My nosiness forced me to go over and see what they were trying to rig, attaching a motor under the chair. No! Don't tell me! Yup, this is what the guys use to hang over the edge of the roof to attach the rain gutters which were replaced as part of this project. Oh, my!

After I got home from my appointment with the two Franks, one who manages investments and who protects my car investment by doing oil changes, I managed to lean close enough to the window to catch a shot of the one guy as he sort of bounced around on the side of the building, installing these gutters. His buddy was down below, handing the next length of gutter to the guy suspended from the roof in the chair. The man below called his buddy in the chair, speaking in their language, and the guy turned to wave at me from his seat on the side of the building. I talked to Connie, our maintenance lady, about this daunting task, asking her if they drew straws to see who got stuck with the job of riding in the chair. She said she doubted it, that "the Cambodians" do all the work on the scaffolding and chair, by default. Everything is so specialized these days. Not for all the tea in Cambodia would I be the one suspended in the chair!!!!