The $150 P

You know, just 'cause my life is destined to be this interesting, I submit this little gem.

We got a new roof a couple of weeks ago. It's a great roof, we're pleased with the color, pleased with the speed and skill of the crew, loved the contractor (I may very well be the only living breathing human being to ever have uttered such words....) It all seemed like a great deal - at the time.

The bill came and was $150 over the estimate. Not surprising, in fact, we were prepared for this - the crew had to replace several pieces of rotted wood in the roof. This money was to go directly to the crew because of some strange thingamajiggy that really doesn't matter. $150 of the nearly $3K bill was to go directly to the crew. We pay the contractor, he pays the crew. Okay, fine.

And then B and I took a lovely little walk around our property and found something eye poppingly bizarre.


We have the 2 most beautiful trees in our neighborhood - the most amazing Oak I've ever seen in the back yard and a glorious Maple in the front. The work crew used this huge maple as a shade tree during their breaks and during lunch - who could blame them? Apparently, however, one of the crew didn't manage to get his graffiti fix at the overpass the night before and decided to tag one of the roots of our Maple tree with a P.

Yep, those are roofing nails embedded into the root of our tree. Embedded so deeply, in fact, that attempting to remove them will only do more damage to the tree than is already done.

Sweet!

So the owner of the company came tonight and took one look at the tree and crapped his pants. He cut $150 off our bill for the trauma to Mabel the Maple. That $150 will come out of the crew boss's paycheck and will, undoubtedly, filter down through the crew.

As for us? We have an extra $150 and a pierced tree.

All I know is that if Mabel had really wanted to rebel, I'd have thought she'd have gone for mohawk or a nipple piercing. Toe bling soooooooo has been done.