Lost Causes part II

Photo above... 2 years ago our home stood on a plot of land that had been farm land. The front of our land had been cleared of trees and bush, most beneficial for farming but not that desirable for a home site. In the span of that 2 years, we've added a number of elements to our yard. A crushed shell driveway and where there was once a mud hole there is now a cement stone planter that features a small magnolia tree. Slowly we will transform it into a lovely landscape, or at least that is what I hope.

As stated in Lost Causes, we were left with a new home and no landscape nor any funds for creating one. Our builder had misappropriated our landscape budget in order to complete the next house and get it ready for its Certificate of Occupancy. He was in a perpetual game of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, or John, or Charlie or whomever. It was a game he would never win.
Brad found himself working alone, nonstop trying to complete what is referred to as a "punch out list", those odd jobs that aren’t up to a new home owners approval such as ; touch-up painting of walls or trim work, doors that need slight adjustments, a window that doesn’t open...you get the picture. Trying to do the job of 3 men was taking its toll, but he had no funds nor anyway of paying someone to help knock out this list of odd jobs and the bottom line in home construction is that "Time is Money". Brad was aware of this, each additional day spent in getting a home ready was money out the door.

above photo...different angle of front of house gives a little better view of small magnolia tree.

During the construction of our own home we heard such a litany of excuses that I soon began to tune them out. "I’m sorry but this week I’ve been taking my wife to the doctors. She’s been having some frightening episodes. We’re not sure if it’s her heart or if she’s having anxiety attacks."... "Would have gotten that done this week but my wife’s mother was in the hospital" ... "Didn’t get that done last week as my dad passed away." ... "This week’s been a bear. My wife’s dad just passed away and we have got to go to his funeral next week, so we’ll be gone for about a week."

Let me see I’m sure there were a few other really good, heart wrenching excuses, oh yes; "Man the past few weeks have been such a strain! My grown daughter has moved back home and we found out she has a bad drug problem. We had to put her into a drug rehab program. It broke our hearts but we had to do it for her own good. So we’ve been seeing and talking with her doctors just about everyday this past week."

There was also the one where his daughter was ill and in the hospital, his father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, his mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer,his dad was diagnosed with dementia, he discovered he had an ulcer. Perhaps all of it was true and he was having the worst spat of luck imaginable, or maybe it was all fabrication, either way I had grown tired of hearing it and towards the end could no longer offer my condolences. After hearing so many excuses for so long I couldn’t decide if I should cry with him or laugh at him. Hard to decide if he was genuinely confiding in us or playing us for fools. Who’s to say ? ...to be continued