July 17, 2026. Grumpy Old Men

 To be clear, I'm not referring to my husband!

Retirement is slowly, but surely, beginning to take hold.  We do still have that occasional person who just won't take no for an answer, which brings us to my latest encounter to share.

One soft spot my husband and I share is the old people who need help.  Yes, we are considered old people, but I'm referring to the more advanced of those.  Our doorbell rang one evening (why is it the people who basically have all darned day to do things show up during meal time??) and the door opened to our most recent culprit.

Basically, his mower wasn't running.  Randy explained, since we've never seen him before, that he was retired, but he just kept on kvetching about the mower, as unpleasant as can be.  In the end, Randy told him he'd pick it up and look at it.  I still wonder how he managed to get down (or up!) the deck stairs, but he did.

Randy continued out with him, and listened to how he needed to have this lawn mowed, how much it cost him to have it fixed previously, so Randy told him he had grandsons that could mow and he'd send one of them down in a day or so.  He also tried to convince him that maybe it was time to just hire someone to mow, rather that put more money into an old machine.

Now, Grand2 mowed the lawn for him. Last night he told us he wouldn't go back again, as Crankypants came out and told him he didn't do a good enough job (likely so he didn't have to pay him).  Randy also lent him one of our mowers to use, and it "ran too fast" and he didn't like it.  No thanks for any of the help.  The lawn, for the record, was done well.  That kid is a perfectionist...I trained him!

So parts can't be found for his mower, but Randy did manage to fix it well enough that it runs.  He has a theory that the mower's main problem is the operator. 

He's not optimistic about getting his labor covered, so he's planning to give him the bill before he returns the mower, at which time Crankypants will be told parts are not available so if anything else happens to the mower, he'll have to take it elsewhere.  Also, our grandson is no longer available to him as he has other lawns to keep him busy. 

I get that he's not getting around well and things are not as easy as they once were, but who is so mean as to take out his frustration on a 14 year old who is as nice as they come?

On the plus side, the shop is done, in theory. All siding is up, but they ran out of caulk (again).  When it comes in, it will take them about 10 minutes to finish that.  We have some finishing up of our own, so it's okay.

I also found today's oppressive heat makes it a perfect day to defrost the upright freezer in the garage and the mini fridge in the kitchen!

I'd say we are all pretty darned happy around here. ☘

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