I was sitting in the House in Patriot, Ohio (the home of my maternal grandparents when I was a child) and waiting for my father and my mother to return. I wanted to go upstairs and go to sleep, but I thought my father and my mother first needed to give me a key to the room upstairs. Finally, just as they returned, I realized the door upstairs wasn't even locked. Although I didn't need the key, my father tossed it to me anyway. I had waited a long time and I had become extremely tired. I was anxious to go upstairs to sleep.
While I was sitting downstairs, the phone rang and I picked it up. On the other end was a man who was a welder and who was apparently a contractor for a large construction project owned by my father. A large building was in the process of being built and the man wanted to know if he should begin welding some of the girders on the corners of the building.
My father wasn't there at the moment and I realized he had left me partially in charge of the construction project. My sister was also partially in charge. I was unsure what to tell the man and tried to obtain some more information from him. In my hand I had a small metal rod bent in the shape of an "L." I asked the man if he planned to put similar L-shaped rods on the corners of the girders in special grooves designed for them. He informed me he planned to do so. It was almost noon and the man wanted to get started with the work.
It seemed to me that my sister had entered the House and I hollered out, "Linda! Linda! Linda!"
Finally I heard her in another part of the House. She answered and I heard her coming. She entered the room and I explained to her who I was talking to. As we talked I had a mental image of the construction project. Next to it I noticed some large oak trees which had had all the leaves cut off.
As my sister and I talked, I realized she had already spoken with the man, and she had decided not to have him begin doing the welding. I wanted to know why, but she didn't have a good reason. I explained to her that if we didn't have the work done, then the project was going to sit idle, and that would cost much money.
My sister (probably in her late 20s) seemed rather business-like. Although she seemed more prepared than usual to accept responsibility, she still didn't want to have the man begin the work. Still she didn't have a good reason why.
If I wanted to, I had the authority to tell the man to do the work, regardless of what my sister said. I said to my sister, "Well, I'm going to talk to this man a minute."
I began talking again on the phone. I told the man we hadn't yet decided. He told me that he was in a hurry and that he had to go eat. I said, "Well, wait just two minutes."
I put him on hold. I returned to my sister and once again told her I thought we should have the man begin work. I explained my reasons, but she still didn't think we should do it, although she didn't have much to say about it.
I decided I was going to tell the man to begin work. But before I picked the phone back up, I realized that indeed there were some matters concerning the work which weren't clear to me. For example, how much was it going to cost? I was unsure if a contract had actually been written. Several other details were unclear to me. Although I was ready to have the work begin, I began thinking that I needed to first find out the answers to several questions, if I were going to become involved in the matter.
Copyright 2003 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
