Maybe it's just here?

When I was a young lad neighborhoods always had one or two kids willing to work at almost anything for a bit of pocket money.

I haven't heard of or seen this in the last 20 years.

Babysitting seems to be the only thing youngsters are doing anymore.

What brought this up, you ask? We are not happy with our gardener. We weren't happy with the one before that. And we might not be happy with the one I just hired. The new fellow is just going to mow, trim and fertilize our front lawn. Mowing four times a month. About half an hour's work if he doddles. That means he's working for almost $40 an hour.

Sigh.

I can buy a electric lawn mower for less than $200. I might find a used one for $100.

I just know that I am unreliable at gardening. :)

"Smaller?" she asked.

I've been on the phone with swimming pool contractors. It takes each one a few rounds of conversation to get the idea that I want to reduce the footprint of the pool by close to half.

When they do get the idea, they make all sorts of noises about how hard that is.

Hell, I know it's hard and it will be expensive.

We might not reduce it. But we need to get a lot of work done on it in either case. The plumbing needs a lot of work. The pool needs to be relined. We want an electronic controller for the pump/heater/valves.

I know I will choke at the price, though. I expect it to be 70-90k. Without making it smaller, I think we are talking about 30-40K.