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Susie's musings

Jesus the Carpenter

As I typed this title, I wrote Jesus the Fisherman. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus was a carpenter, "by trade", but he didn’t choose any carpenters to walk with him, rather fishermen and a tax collector. Yesterday I had occasion to call upon Jesus the Carpenter when Chuck got stuck in one of his many projects where I have called for help…. As we were leaving Lake Placid to come home for a doctor’s appointment today (the surgeon wants to do an ultrasound on Chuck’s 2 hernias), the garage door wouldn’t close…. So Chuck went into the garage and stayed for quite a long time… He came back to the truck to tell me it might be a while longer, he is looking for a bigger wrench. It turns out that when we unloaded the trailer into the garage there were a lot of poles, wood, pipe, etc and they were stacked in the front corner of the garage, but they shifted and fell into the track of the garage door as it was being closed. Broke a spring? I’m not sure. Lots of banging at a bent track, trying to get the wheels out of the broken track, etc, and the door was all bent and not straight…. I looked at Chuck struggling, and I couldn’t help because I’m not strong and not able to lift half the door, and not supposed to anyway… so I did the only thing left, I prayed, "Jesus the Carpenter, we need help here." I walked out to the truck to get a small tool box of widgets for Chuck and I saw a truck pulling up. The Property Appraiser. Never in our lives have Property Appraiser or Building and Zoning been our friend, but I saw "young muscle." Indeed he was coming to see us because our tax roll had some items on it that we didn’t recognize. I said, "Hi, do you know anything about garage doors?" He looked at the sorry wreck of door, half way down, one side much lower than the other…. and he said, "looks like a broken spring." I said, "you ought to see the other side." The door was literally falling apart on the inside. So the 2 boys, Chuck and the Property Appraiser, went off to the back yard to look at our boat dock which is 3 taxable units!!! Yes! you put a roof on a boat dock and it’s called a gazebo. Put on a little deck and it’s called something else. Three taxable units. OK! So then the nice guy said, "Let’s look at that door," and into the garage they went. Together they lowered the door. He gave us the names of 2 garage door installers and we left for Miami. Sometimes when we get into trouble, a call to Jesus the Carpenter, who must have called for help himself at times, is in order. Thank God.

This weekend was a little costlier that we wished. When we got to the house, the garage door didn’t work, the push button for it didn’t work, and the master bedroom lights didn’t work. At this point one goes to the fuse box. When that doesn’t work, you call an electrician. He actually came at 6pm and found the problem. When the concrete guys put in the pathway between house, slab for shed, and to the dock, they cut an electric wire to the dock and that shorted out the electric to the garage. Ah ha! Problem fixed by Brian the electric guy. Bedroom light and garage door and overhead garage light now lighted! We will call Brian back as we still need electric to the dock to lift the boat and put up dock lights. Thank you Brian. The Air conditioning guys came to open up the vents to the porches, but it was still hot in there. It is so hot this summer, as the nation knows. When the air conditioning guys came, I was painting the bathroom in my underpants as I couldn’t find my painting shorts. It very necessary for me to wear painting shorts as I do tend to bump into my own work. And this time sure enough I was scrubbing paint off hips and thighs. I painted the master bathroom and entry room as they were dark… but my color still looks dark. Could be the lighting, but at least it’s less dark than it was. We are ready for the movers on September 3. Today we go for ultrasound so doctor can make sure he sees a clear path to Chuck’s hernias. Also pre op blood work for Chuck today so he couldn’t drink any wine last night and he sure needed it after the garage door scuffle!!!! I am fine, I swam with Mike for over an hour in the lake and the rains didn’t come. Today looks sunny for a while so I will hang laundry. If it rains we get a third rinse. No problem. God bless you!!!! Angels with us. And Jesus the Carpenter. Thank God!