Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tom, Tom, the Tiler’s Son

Posted on by
6

Jack gets over the line again – –

We are having our main bathroom re-modeled and the guy in charge is called Tom – hence the title of this post.

Wendy had a recent disappointment and as a consolation prize we agreed to get her the nearest thing to the bathroom of her dreams as possible. We did some searching around for potential folk to undertake the work and settled on ‘Tom’.

The trouble is that we quickly discovered that he’s a ‘bletherskite’ – an excellent Scots word for someone who just won’t stop talking. But he mostly talks about anything except the job in hand.

On the odd occasion when he randomly inserts something into the conversation about the job it’s mostly incomprehensible to me. That’s because despite my background in construction, my technical language is from Scotland and it’s very different. For instance, I talked about the stoppers and he talked about the drain and we went about ten minutes waiting for each other to get to the point.

So – a fair bit of mess-communication ensued! Part of that was when he planned to start demolishing the existing stuff. He messaged me mentioning ‘demo’ – well, to a child of the 1960s a demo is when you sit in the road to protest something! When we discovered on Monday that he planned to start the next day we went into a panic because all the bathroom cupboards and closets were still stuffed full. Wendy had just held a yard sale and we had some empty boxes…..

So most of Monday we were desperately removing lots of stuff including things we didn’t know we had or hadn’t seen for years. Then finding where on earth to stash it for the next two weeks. At least we hope it is two weeks. Tom said “15 days” and we can’t translate if that is 15 working days, meaning three weeks????

But Tom and his helper are, right now as I write this, bashing away at the ‘demo’ and I’m hopeful that everything will turn out to be as we want in the end. More correctly, as Wendy wants it.

I’ll keep you posted of course over the next couple of weeks, and yes, we are taking offers of places to shower. Tom has just come in and I asked him about taps.

He cocked his head and said, “You play the trumpet? I came in here to talk to you about faucets.”

But where will we get a bath or a shower in the meantime – – –

And the Award Goes To Most of Us

Posted on by
Reply

I’m off to my first ever awards ceremony for the Associated Press Virginias Broadcasters Award. Which is fitting because I’ve been nominated for my first ever story for Inside Appalachia as a Folkways reporter.

The story was on mushroom hunting’s popularity. You can read/hear it here.

The group of people who work in broadcasting are fun but also funny. Ageism reigns supreme, which is interesting in a culture that honors its elders. A lot of the stories we produce are about people in their golden years who have practiced their art form for decades, so the attitude toward the older reporters can border on comedic irony at times.

It is fun to learn a new skill later in life, notwithstanding the heaved sighs and eye rolls of those who expect us to be less interesting/intelligent because we don’t know about all the tech they learned to use in college. Children, we know things you will not learn for another decade or so, and that’s why we see more clearly through our bifocals. Don’t worry about it; you’ll see someday. And laugh about it, just as we do. (At you.)

Meanwhile, let the good times roll, rather than the eyes. You’d be surprised what good conversationalists someone with a few wrinkles about the eyes can be. Those lines? They mean we laughed a lot. We saw things. We could interpret them. We have thoughts that we are smart enough to keep to ourselves unless invited into safe spaces for conversation.

So I’m off to the award ceremony, wearing comfy low-heeled shoes and a bright smile. It will be fun; I’ve never been to one of these and I look forward to meeting some new friends. Or watching from the corner as people schmooze. Both are entertaining. I’m taking some crocheting.