“Jim Class” is a feature that airs within The HomeFix Show. Written by original charter show listener Jim Forrer from Caldwell Idaho, Jim shares his observations, life experiences and lessons learned in life. Joe Prin reads these at various times in most of the HomeFix Shows. Here is the original written text.
On rare occasions. when called upon to bid a prospective job, I would rather forget about it and just walk away.
This particular instance happened when attempting to follow through with a lead and for a local lumber yard. A lady called asking to have a chain-link fence placed on the back property line of her yard. She said that she was not getting along with one of her neighbors and to solve any forthcoming troubles, she wanted the fence erected immediately.
That same day, I received a phone call from a very distressed and irate lady. This lady said that she was having trouble with a neighbor and wanted a fence put up immediately, a wood fence. I had my suspicions, but wasn’t sure.
Well, let me go back to the first lady. The woman worked at the local hospital as a nurse and was on duty when I called on her request. She said that she had put the dog up and just go ahead with the bid and place the paperwork in the screen door. The lady lived at the far end of a well landscaped cul-de-sac, with flowers blooming in all their glory and manicured shrubs in each and every lawn. I stepped around from the side yard heading to the back with my tape and bid sheet, but stopped in my tracks. There, the back yard was completely different from the front. Below my feet was the most disgusting ‘land-mines’ that I had ever encountered, a veritable carpeting for my eyes to behold. There was no square foot of lawn that was not covered in dog waste. There was along chain attached to a post somewhat in the center as to allow access to every inch of that disposal site. I backed out of there, jumped into my truck and left that place. All the way, as I was leaving, I kept thinking of that poor dogs’ living condition, but most of all, I kept saying to myself, ‘and this lady is a nurse’! Disgusting ! I left her a phone message, saying that I would have to charge three fold to complete her wishes or standard billing if she cleaned the area. A case for—- [just walk away.]
As I had surmised, the second ladys’ phone request was from the neighbor to the first. She was complaining of the path her neighbor had worn into her grass and she wanted to put a stop to it by placing a Cedar fence along the back of her property. It seems that her neighbor walked through her yard every day on her way to work. Living on a cul-de-sac required the first lady to walk around the block, but cutting through the back yard required a lot less effort.
I informed the second lady that I did not want to become the buffer between the two of them. Being lodged between two women who are in disagreement is no place that I want to be. Boy, talk about being between a rock and a hard place. The second lady understood my unwillingness to get involved with this particular predicament of theirs. I told her that once their differences were resolved to both of their satisfaction, I would gladly do the job.
At this point, ladies and gentlemen, I just walked away!