To be clear, I am not the Air Force.
I really wanted something simple and straightforward to happen in the household
repair department because I rarely seem to manage this. Having been prodded by
domestic committee to hurry up and do something about the bathroom, I picked
out a plumbing company and made an appointment for a guy to install a new
toilet. I'm done with tinkering; out with the 1955 version, in with a new one.
Plumbing truck arrived, the guy measured the space from the back of the toilet
to the wall, then he went out to the truck to calculate how much the job would
cost. I thought this odd. The lady who made the appointment said their prices
were fair and they charge not by the hour, but by the job. How much
calculating could the installation of one common or garden toilet require. I
joked, "Do you multiply by size of house?" He gave what I now see was a
nervous laugh and exited by the front door.
He returned with an estimate of more than a thousand dollars. I said, "You're
joking."
"No," he said.
"To install a $300 toilet, a job that usually takes about an hour, you want
more than $600 in labor?"
We circled round a bit. He admitted that there were cheaper alternatives. He
said that when he installs one for relatives, he charges $70.
I wondered if we could become relatives, but that's not what he was saying.
When I sent him on his way, he thanked me for not swearing at him. He says he
gets that a lot. I thought about closing with, "I'm not the air force," but he
was too young to understand.
The company has good reviews on the web...which goes to show...something.
Later I found the guy in charge of our Big Dig, the water bureau's neighborhood
pipe replacement, and asked him to put some gravel and tarmac in the mess he's
made of the road right where we back out. He said he would. I added that
he'll have to get an arborist to look at the tree damage caused by his backhoe.
He agreed he'd need to do that too. We'll see.
I noticed during lunchtime's read that the New York soccer team J. went to see
and the Portland Timbers are in exactly the same spot in their divisions, third
from bottom. And their records? New York City 1-6-3, Portland 3-3-4. My
favorite stat is in the goals against column. Philadelphia has 21 goals
against but all others except one have between 8 and 14 goals against. Pretty
similar performances. And the goals for? Between 7 and 17, so a slightly
wider margin, discounting the same single outlier. And the outlier? Montreal
has only scored 3 goals. Goals against? The table says 88.
They might want to have a meeting about that.
Back to reading papers.
Carry on,
David Ritchie,
Portland,
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