Sunday, May 3, 2020 –
Yesterday I talked about the importance of having blessings on your dwelling, office, vehicle, etc. Today I would like to cover the importance of learning a trade or, at the very least, recognizing that is in fact NOT a gift the Lord has bestowed on you and therefore maintaining good relationships with the glorious people who do know a trade.
I am going to be brutally honest: Andrew and I are NOT handy people. We recognize tools exist but have little knowledge of them. I have even had power tools forcibly removed “for my own safety.”
Unfortunately, owning a home and some other properties necessitates “home improvement” skills. Skills we admittedly do not have. We are willing to learn, but we also understand it is easier and probably safer for everyone in a 25-mile radius to just let the professionals handle it.
Over the past year we have had a fair number of projects and fixes needed on our own home, not to mention our office space and other properties. Our house is about 21-ish years, and so most everything needs a general check-up and/or replacement. Likewise, we purchased a commercial property that was closer to condemned status than we would like to admit (see yesterday’s post for a run-down on how Father H saved our dilapidated building).
When explosion is not an imminent threat, we rely on our favorite handymen to keep our properties running smoothly. I cannot thank them enough, and I highly recommend that everyone with any amount of handy skill learn a trade. Seriously, forget college or that PhD in philosophy you may be itching to nab. Not that we don’t need a solid philosopher king, but we really only need one, and I’m sure that position is already filled.
What we really need are good handymen (or handywomen, I’m not genderist). If you can show up on time, relatively clean, and put in some solid work, you’re hired!
We are on a first name basis with Jason, our plumber, who has been to our home more times than I can count in the last few months. It all started with a random leak in our master bath that led to a massive hole in our dining room. Since then we have had Jason out to fix all sorts of little things as well as a huge error the county made when they installed our new water meter. The new-fangly thing caused a loud thumpa-thumpa sound every time we ran any water. Turns out the pressure was too high, which caused our main line to crack, and…well…you get the idea.
Likewise, I’m fairly certain our HVAC man Jonathan is still living under our house. We had a handful of issues with our previous HVAC company that culminated in us having to practically sue them just so they would leave us alone. We called in Johnathan, who came highly recommended to sort out what all was wrong. He spent hours in our crawl space on the hottest day of the year dismantling our backward installed system and painstakingly cleaning and reinstalling it piece by piece. Yes, our system was literally installed BACKWARD!
There is also Manfred, our electrician. He is a hoot and a half, and we just adore him. He and his crew have worked on our home and office (again, see yesterday’s post). This man spent hours sitting on a bucket waiting for county to inspect his exceptionally fine work. He is also the guy who re-wired our very dilapidated office building after declaring Father’s blessing a miracle.
Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of trades! Not everyone needs a masters or PhD. What we really need is more honest working people with handy skills. I know that I am not cut out to hold a power tool, but I recognize the value in paying a good wage to those who have incredible skill.
Saint Homobonus, pray for us!
