BooksbySunnyside

From the full version of Sunnyside's Lousy Book

Hoquiam

On my way back home through Grays Harbor I thought I’d check out the simi-transparent stain job I’d done on a cedar sided building in Hoquiam eight years earlier. The last time I’d stopped by the Brother’s shop a few years back when I was checking up on an older building that they had mentioned that they were planning to paint at some time down the road. The brother’s assistant was there and mentioned that the brothers had disappointing experience with the painter they had hired to paint the older shop. Apparently the painter not only screwed the job up, but he also turned out to be a child molester. No doubt that would have pissed-off the brothers because they are a couple real down to earth guys.
       The brothers are had earned their wealth over the years by investing in logging truck and equipment when the local logging economy was down and being mechanics, they got a little greasy and fixed things up and worked the equipment as much as they could -- then sold of most of the trucks once the economy went back up.

From what I gathered from their assistant was that they hired the so called painter because they thought I wouldn't be interested in working out on the coast because the last time I had talked to them, I mentioned that surfing hadn't been anything like the years earlier and I’d taken most of my business back to Tacoma to establish more commercial clientele which would supply more year-around-work. (However, I doubt if they could’ve gotten in touch with me if they had tried.)
       On my way back through Grays Harbor that day, I caught up with the Brothers and they said I could do the job as soon as the weather turned around. What got me is when I was discussing the price and how I was going to do the job when one of them said, “Hell we the last time we spoke to you, you said you weren't going to work out on the coast any more. If we couldn’t get you to do it, we'd just let the siding rot."

I understood how they felt and it was clear to me that they’d gotten to know me pretty well from the first time I painted for them. I couldn’t help the feeling of being proud that I usually had a personal relationship with my customers. I'd spent some time with them drinking a few beers after work as we sat around the large homemade double barrel wood stove used to keep their mechanics shop warm. While I was staining and painting their new building years back, they let me camp out in the office. I'd rolled out a foam mattress pad and sleep on the concrete floor of the freshly done dry-walled room. Of course I'd made it my home with my bass guitar, practice amp and top of the line ghetto blaster. They knew there wasn't anything drastic about me, other than the passion I had for what I liked to do.

The next chapter of Sunnyside's Lousy Book is:

Keep your mouth shut Sattler

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Featured chapter prior to

Hoquiam is:

Dirty Deeds