Small house repair

Heloise lives in a nearby house; it is one of the only houses within walking distance of the New Pointe building.

I have done some light gardening for her--planted some pots, took a dead small tree away and that sort of thing. She needed a small trim piece replaced on the exterior of the house. It needed a one by three inch board about twenty feet long.

How much? She had asked me to weed a little in the spring and I had told her there would be no charge. She insisted that I had to be paid. I suggested ten dollars an hour. She thought that 'too much'. So I did the work anyway and when she asked what I should be paid, I suggested that she 'put a little more in the church plate when it came around.' That seemed to work.

But the trim piece was a bigger deal. The wood cost $20--so I said that thirty dollars would be fine.

After I was done, she pressed the money on me but had a question: "How did you paint it so well and get none of the paint on the sidewalk?"

"I bought a pre-painted white broad."

Heloise's mouth went into a perfect oval. She hadn't thought you could just go out and buy painted trim.

I am a genius, as far as she is concerned. She's right.