The Gutter Guy

This fall has been a stream of getting ready for winter and leaving for Florida - more than ever. We had to get the entire house painted and new blinds because Zoey chewed the old ones.  Oh, and new window sills. She chewed them, too.  Then there was the regular maintenance - window guy, Joey. the fireplace guy, Sean, the appliance repair guy, Dave, the carpet cleaner Don, ...ah, yes, then a new gutter cleaner, Calvin

I go on Yelp these days and typically have good results.  Calvin had "wow" 5 star ratings on Yelp and gazillion 5 stars on google.  His business had a strange name and he had no local address.  But I signed him up over the phone and he arrived on time.

Calvin was 50 ish, dressed all in black with a gold crucifix around his neck.  He was balding and compensated for this by growing the curly fringe around his skull all the way down to his shoulders.  But what alarmed me was his belly.  Surely one of the largest I have ever seen.

Well, he looked with chagrin at our house.  Couldn't clean the gutters with gutter guards, says he.  The guys who did it before were scamming me, etc. I figured Calvin wasn't up for the climb and looking for an excuse.  I wanted to get it done.  So I told him to take off the gutter guards and get to work.  But where was his crew?  I work alone, says he.

Big belly Calvin, sucking on his cigarette, climbed ladders all day and did an excellent, if expensive job.  One of these days he won't be so lucky.