fun day at work

i worked with cowboy this week.

every time i've worked with him before, it was an empty house and we worked alone with the radio on.

this week, though, we worked in a house where people lived.

we were let in a door from the garage that led down a hallway to the bathroom needing work. the hallway passed the main living room where an older woman sat on a sofa and played solitair on her ipad and watched game shows the entire day. the entire day.

the morning began quietly - except for the frustration cowboy had with rockboard and my lack of skill and gravity and the toilet paper holder - but it quickly turned.

first, the woman's thirteen year-old grandson came home and stared unflinchingly at both of us working, but when i said hello, he responded with the same stare. it was a bit more awkward when this scrawny pale kid changed into baggy shorts, a wife-beater tanktop, yellow-tinted shades, and a cap. in this new outfit, he again just walked slowly in and out of rooms staring at us.

he was even kind enough to continue the awkward walk and stare out in the garage when i cut tile.

then, the dogs arrived. they stayed behind the temporary gate put up by the woman who presumably took a moment away from solitair.

at the point in the day when the sun slanted and pointed directly in my eyes when i stood at the tile saw, when the teenage boy's relentless staring added to him mumbling things to his grandmother when she wasn't in the room, and the dogs barked uncontrollably. that's when we decided when the day was over.