Today my employer paid me to hep out Mom & Dad!

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I think I mentioned in a previous post about how just amazing it is to a guy that has always worked for himself to actually get paid by an employer to not show up for work.


Yep!  That is one of the perks of actually working for "the man."


The good folks that write my paycheck provide many "holidays," and it is incumbent upon me to take them.  So, after taking two of them last week, and having FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT OFF FROM WORK, I took my "New Years Day" holiday today.  (Which will give me three days straight off this week.  I swear, it's gonna make me soft.  I just know it will).


Anyway, I left the house this morning NOT heading to my place of employment.  Nope!  I headed up north of Shreveport to Mom & Dad's house along with my fantastic Brother-in-Law (Big Sis' husband) to install an under-counter dishwasher for Mom & Dad.  It's a looooooooooong story, but the old kitchen in their house on Caddo Lake had always had a portable dishwasher that was hooked up to the old Washing Machine connection (folks used to have the Washing Machine in the kitchen if they could afford one).  


The old portable crapped out long ago, and Mom & Dad have been hand-washing dishes for a good long while.  Mom decided that she wanted to build in a dishwasher instead.  So...Mom & Dad have been waiting around a looooooooooooong time for their son and Son-in-Law to get around to installing the dishwasher they bought way back.  


Well...today was that day.  I had scheduled my "holiday" for today...so BIL and I cut out the cabinet, ran a hot water supply, re-fixed the drainage, and tapped in to electricity to operate their new machine.


Only took 5 1/2 hours, and ONE (count it...ONE) trip to the small town hardware store about 12 miles north of Mom & Dad's place.  I swear...I was really impressed with the small town hardware store.  It is run by a young guy (probably in his 30s).  It was his Dad's store (and probably his Papaw's, too...but I didn't ask).  


I told the cat what we were trying to accomplish.  I had done one really good thing before heading up there...I took a picture with my iPhone of the set-up under the sink.  The young man that runs the store started asking me what size drain I had, and I said, "Hey!  I took a pitcher!"  I pulled out my iPhone, accessed the photo and handed it to him.


The guy got a dookie-eatin' grin on his face as he took my iPhone...spread the picture with his fingers...pulled everything off the shelf we would need...enlarged the picture further, and showed me exactly where I'd need to cut in to the drain to install the tailpiece...and said, "I just love this.  If everybody would bring me an iPhone picture of their problem, my life would be so much easier."


Then Dad told the guy that he wanted to buy a water shut-off key, too, seeing as he didn't have one handy, and we might need to cut the water off to the whole house (plus, EVERYBODY needs one of those around justin case).  The guy disappeared in to the back, brought one out...rang the whole deal up...


$36.


Really.


$36.


I sure hope that guy can stay in business.  The folks of North Caddo Parish need a good guy like that around.  Trust me...they do.


Anyway...mission accomplished.


I'm gonna be real sore tomorrow (when my regular days off start).  Been rolling around on the linoleum, and twisted in odd positions, up and down, up and down, etc.


But, it got did.


Mom was happy.  Dad was, too.


Life is good.