TheBanyanTree: Beaver Moon

[Dale M. Parish]

20091128T0134

The Kubota was ready, they said on the phone, so I told the service  
manager that I'd be over to Beaumont in about an hour to pick it up.  
I'd left it there while we went to Uvalde before TurkeyDay looking for  
land, and they said that all the parts would be in and it would be  
ready Tuesday before Thanksgiving, for surethe day after Thanksgiving,  
when I would be able to pick it up.

I hooked up the loboy and stopped at the Donut Palace to charge my  
coffee mug and get a jalapeño colache, and then stayed on the feeder  
road to circle back to the John Deere dealer to order a seat for the  
450G, but when I passed under the freeway and got back to them, they  
were locked up.  Taking the extra holiday.  Can't blame them.


The Kubota dealer was sparsely populated, but my tractor was sitting  
right outside the service manager's office.  I started in, but then  
went over to check it out.  They hadn't fixed the one of the cowlings  
like I'd asked, but they did get the three-point hitch control fixed--  
the main thing it had gone in for.  When the service manager came out,  
he apoligized for not checking it before he'd left Wednesday-- the  
mechanic to which it'd been assigned had taken today off, and he  
promised to get that fixed next time I brought it in.  I paid up and  
loaded up.  Without the mower on the back as a counterweight, it  
didn't want to crawl up on the trailer at first, but eventually loaded  
and I boomed her down.  I headed on to the Beaumont house to check it  
out before heading back to Orange County.

Good thing I did-- I found water leaking up in front of the porch. I  
finally gave up trying to get a combination wrench down into the water  
meter box and went to Home Depot, where I bought a meter wrench and  
returned.  On the way back with the meter wrench, one lane of the  
street was blocked where a group of Mexicans were breaking up a  
concrete driveway by hand.  They had pretty much destroyed one side of  
it with sledgehammers and several were loading the concrete onto a  
loboy similar to mine.

Nothing to closing the water meter with the right tool.  I checked the  
leak, staked it, and when Mr. Carbello came out to get his mail, asked  
him who he'd recommend as a local plumber, and called.  Answering  
machine!  Left a message, but felt that it would be Monday before I  
got a call back.  I backed the loboy across the street again and  
started back out, but when I got to where the street was choked down,  
as I eased by the trucks in the traffic lane, a young Mexican boy came  
running out, waiving his arms.  "Can you load the concrete inna  
truck?" he asked.  "How much you charge to load the concrete?"  It  
wasn't on my list of things to do, but by then, one of the adults made  
it out to the road, and in broken English, asked me if I could load a  
dumptruck with my front-end loader, and how much I'd charge.  I don't  
normally hire out-- had plenty of work of my own to do, but it sounded  
like an adventure, and I quoted him a sweetheart rate-- $30 an hour  
for two hours.  I felt like I had to give myself an out or I'd be  
there all day.

They didn't get a dump truck-- the older man and the two boys took the  
loboy and left-- took them nearly an hour to get back, and I loaded  
--- actually overloaded at their insistance, their trailer.  I agreed  
to strip the remaining grass and spread the dirt before I left-- gave  
them an extra hour-- but then left, loaded the tractor, went to the  
Exxon station to refuel both truck and tractor and headed home.

Cindy and Carrie had gone to Beaumont to get a massage-- the Mother &  
Daughter special, from the pictures they posted on Facebook. ;-)   
Anyway, when I pulled in, I swung wide to allow room to turn the  
trailer around before I loaded up the trash to take to the shop, and  
when I tried to back up, I was stuck.  21mm of rain a few days ago,  
according to the gage, and the yard's still soft.  Today just isn't  
the day that I was intended to get the tractor back to the shop, so  
it's still sitting there.  I will unload it in the morning and back  
the truck out, reload and boom it down and make the trash run then.   
Maybe tomorrow will go better.

Hugs,
Dale

Beaver --
Dale M. Parish
628 Parish Rd
Orange TX 77632		http://parishdm.home.att.net