Progress is a house afire, figuratively, because if it were literal I’d be crying. Crying, because finally the home improvements are feeling like improvements.

A bit of carpentry work was done in the bathroom, but I am promised painted walls tomorrow. Once there is paint, there will be sink.

The noteworthiness of the carpentry is not about the wood, it is about the carpenter, Joe. Joe seems a careful and fastidious guy, which is great in a carpenter who is part of a team that will one day allow you to christen wonderful porcelain goodness.

Anyway, Joe, who has been incredibly polite and deferential, asked me today if he could ask a personal question. The question was, “Who was that guy last week and did I know him?” He meant, of course, the monitor-buying guy.

As it turns out, he and the other guy who was working here last Wednesday ended up eavesdropping on my conversation, because they were growing concerned for me. In fact, they went outside to take a break, then talked about how they didn’t think they should leave me alone with that man, and decided to come back inside and continue working to ensure I would be alright.

The lesson, fucking listen to your gut instincts and manners be damned. Say “no,” mean no and assholes can go fuck themselves if they don’t like your sense of self-preservation.

In other house news, the new windows are in — Fucking yippee, whoopdedoo and all 0ther expressions of unadulterated, enthusiastic happiness. They still need to be finished and framed and insulated and caulked and stuff, but they are in their new little window hole homes.