Good Help

My husband and I have a saying "It's hard to find good help these days". We apply it when:

• a waitress brings our dinner, but neglects to refill our drinks and disappears until we are leaving
• we discover an obvious typo in the newspaper (what are proofreaders for?)
• we are looking at a brand new car and notice the interior door handle cover is missing (QA anyone?)

Recently, a gentleman came by our house offering his services to prune our trees. By all appearances, he seemed like a nice fellow ... clean cut, clean clothes, and he talked intelligently about pruning trees. We'd been collecting fliers from tree pruners because our live oaks needed pruning and we had a few cedars we wanted removed. So we negotiated a price and he went to work. Now, mind you, I was somewhat skeptical. We've had to apply the above saying more than once to drive by pruners.

I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised! This guy really knows what he is doing. He is cautious in climbing the trees ... not just for his own safety but also so as to not damage the living portions of the tree. He has taken care to not obstruct the side walk. When he leaves for the day, he has left the cut limbs in orderly piles. He is almost done and has raked the yard and swept the side walk.

I can't help but wonder if the universe sent him to our door as a way of saying "yes, you can get good help these days!"!!!