Fun times with the service technicians

Today the slowest garage door installer on the planet spent ten whopping hours at my house. At one point he asked to use the bathroom, came out and said the toilet had overflowed--he claimed he had just flushed what was already in it and blamed it on my kids. I hope he's right.

Then he went to plug in the opener, and there was no power to the outlet. Since we had just had an electrician install the outlet last week, I of course called the guy and he came right over. Prompt serviceman, our electrician. And friendly, too. We met him for the first time last week. Today when he came, we had a conversation that went like this:

Ben the electrician: Well, I'll have to fix a wire that has been damaged. I'm totally booked tomorrow and Saturday, and Sunday is my birthday, and my kid's.

Me: Oh, that's fine. Monday will be great.

Bte: Yeah, Sunday's my birthday, otherwise I would come then. We're having a. . . Hey! I wanted to invite you. . . . Do you guys have a fax machine?

Me: Invite us to . . .?

Bte: We're having a big birthday party. Let me fax you an invitation.

Me: Um, wow, that's really nice of you. Here's the fax number at my husband's work. But, uh, Sundays are bad for us to do things like birthday parties. We go to church on Sunday and try to limit our other activities.

Bte: Oh, really? Well, you should really try to come. We're hiring a clown. . . .

Me: It's just that we generally try not to go to birthday parties on Sundays.

Bte: Well, you should come to this one. We're having a big jumping castle, and a clown. . . .

Me: Thanks, Ben the electrician! That is very kind of you to invite us to your birthday party and all. Go ahead and fax the invitation, but don't be offended if we don't show up, it being on a Sunday and all.

Bte: Yeah, no problem. But you should try to make it. We're going to have a clown.



I'm in a bit of a daze.

By the way, happy birthday, Mother Dear. For you, I'll host a birthday party on Sunday.

Comments

Anonymous said…
okay so I decided to check in on you every now and then after you talked about blogging in Washington, so I thought I'd comment so you know I'm here. So I hope you have a clown at your mom's party.
Emily said…
Hooray for Nancy! Comment away.
Fine Emily.
If you won't go, I will.

My Fax# 867-5309
Anonymous said…
ben the electrician is makin' friends. kind of rude not the invite the garage door guy too.
Anonymous said…
Emily,
Hi its Jami. Is this the real Ben the Electrician. If so, I'm hurt... he never invited me. I guess I couldn't go anyway, its Sunday and David has an enormous fear of clowns.
Jami
Emily said…
Cjane, I am so faxing you the invite when I get it. Ben will love you.

Jami, yeah, it's the Ben you sent my way. Kind of a nut, him. Sorry you didn't get invited, but didn't you know? I'm a friend stealer. We're going fishing with him real soon. You're not invited.
Neil and Diana said…
what was the slowest garage door installer in the world doing during this elaborate clowns-on-sunday convo with bte??
amyegodfrey said…
Emily, where do you find these contracting people? Your area seems to abound with sloooooow fix-it types.
Suzie Petunia said…
What you don't like clowns? I'm telling Taylor.

Just catching up on your posts here... I am so sorry to hear about the throwing away of all of your most important documents. That really is terrible! You need a system more like ours: put one important document here...another over there in that random drawer or file. Now they can't all be destroyed at once! Until there's a fire...
Anonymous said…
So...did you go?

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