Mark the Carpenter is back at work on our house today, after a hiatus of almost two months. Sadly, his helper Tony is not returning because of deteriorating mental health. He went off his meds and became increasingly reckless and deranged. Seems amongst other troubles he was in a car crash and the passenger was killed. Tony is now out of the hospital living in a homeless shelter on Camp. Our sympathies go out to him.
So Mark’s got a new helper, Mike — known as Vanny to avoid confusion with Mike the Electrician. (They were friends growing up in Brooklyn.) They are picking up where they left off, basically replacing all the structural wood on the left side of our house. The right side only took seven work days, but this will be slower going because there quite a few more impediments, such as the staircase and plumbing.
At the risk of sounding more cynical than I actually am, do you ever feel tragedyed out? (tragedied?) So many sadnesses, large and small, and yet you and Xy still have such optimism –
Funny you should ask.