The Saga Continues

It was a slow day here as April begins to come to a close.  Wow ... that went fast!!  It was not the usual sunny day, but an overcast gray day filled with energy sapping cleanup work.  Company was coming.  My friend from Sacramento was on her way.

I had every intention of showing off the gazanias that I had grown from the small cuttings she deposited on my patio.  Boy they are blooming now!!  She didn't get to see anything, because by the time I showed her, it was 7:00 at night and they had all closed up and gone to sleep.  Who knew they did that?  Hopefully today I can show them off.

And so the saga of the gardeners continues like Groundhog Day.  Over and over again!  The last one named Luis was still running over sprinkler heads, cutting them off and never fixing them.  The neighbor's concrete is growing nicely.  He missed several weeks and never applied the weed formula to the lawn, resulting in more weeds than grass.  FIRED.  I had my bank send him a check.

Let's hire the guy who works across the street.  Their lawn is immaculate!!  Sure enough, Eduardo agreed, but for more money of course.  He edged, mowed and left.  It's okay, he promised to replace the broken sprinklers, adjust all of them, put on weed and feed and trim the overgrown hedges next week.  

Three weeks passed.  Each time, he spent 15 minutes at my house, 30 minutes at the house next door where I got him ANOTHER job, and THREE HOURS at the first guys house across the street.  He never did any of the things he said he would ... NOT ONE.  

He did such a bad job at the neighbors place that the husband called him up and gave him what for.  He came back and mowed their entire lawn TWICE (it's twice the size of mine) ... but STILL did nothing for my yard.  That's it Eduardo ... FIRED!!!  I sent him off into the sunset.  He had four weeks to do just one thing more than mow and go.  Just what is up with these guys???

No kidding ... this is getting absolutely ridiculous.  I'm now on to gardener number TEN.  This time I got a personal recommendation from a friend.  I would give her name, but I haven't asked yet.  Her brother does yard maintenance locally, and he is actually an adult.  I'm sure he has a better work ethic since he was raised on a farm nearby.  

He stopped by ... a VERY nice man ... whom I hired immediately.  He even fixed a sprinkler before he left.  He will start next week.  I just know my lawn maintenance woes are OVER!  Besides that, he said he would be more than happy to haul off to the dump, all the junk I've accumulated in the back yard.

To make it a little easier, I got the Weed Man to apply weed and feed to the entire front and back yards, you know, since he ruined a good section of my grass.  Then I found this picture.  Maybe I could get rid of one whole side of lawn (and sprinklers) by having their landscaper replace all that dead grass with something like this.  Not all the greenery, but the bricks and large gravel.  Less mowing, less water usage ... it just might work!

That's when I got the text message from Luis.  YOU SEND CHECK.  I did Luis ... three weeks ago.  I NO GET ... YOU SEND CHECK.  No Luis, I'm NOT sending you another check.  That went on for 30 minutes and he was getting pretty mad.  I'll check with the bank first.

Come to find out, I wasn't talking to Luis at all, but his BROTHER.  Where's Luis???  No answer.  Apparently he's either in jail or off to Mexico for a long vacation.  I called the bank and the money has been taken out.  Whether that means the check was cashed or not, I don't know.  It's one of those Bill Pay services.  Oh boy ... now I get to deal with them to find out if the check was actually cashed.  Oh the fun!!

And so the gardener saga continues as did the Days Of Our Lives.  Anyone remember that one??