Playing hooky

Well, not exactly hooky.  Use of the word hooky would imply that I gave no notice or explanation for my absence.  I gave notice and explanation, but nevertheless, here I am, missing work today.  It's serendipitous, actually.  I had a staff development day today, and the plumber needed one more day to finish work.  I decided to stay home today so I could be in the house for the occasion.  The same guy is out there today, filling in the giant gash in the front yard.  I also had the opportunity to meet Coco, the woman who Cas has had cleaning up after him for years.  When we moved in together, we apparently both needed Coco.  This woman has been washing my bed sheets and vacuuming my carpets for a few months, now, and I guess it's about time I met her.  She seems nice and she appears to work hard.

It was getting kind of late in the morning, and I hadn't heard from anyone at the plumbing company or the water damage company.  I called them both.  The plumbers said they were responding to an emergency, and there seemed to be some question about their ability to come today.  I was as polite as I could be while still saying that I had taken a day off of work, and I would be unable to do so again tomorrow.  I was clear that I was not angry or even mildly upset, but I did need to be able to plan my week, so some more information would certainly be necessary.  They sent the same guy out within the hour.  I imagine he will complete the work today- he is out there shoveling dirt into the lawn-hole now.

He said they pulled him from the emergency.  I felt bad.  Then he told me they were digging under a house and it was pretty disgusting- to the point where they all needed protective attire, and he was more than happy to go do a much cleaner job in the shaded grass out in my front yard.  Shoot... Glad I could help.

This is what the front yard looked like this morning:

It looks a bit different, now.

I also called the water damage people.  I keep assuming they will do some actual work when they come out.  They came on Friday, and the guy measured things before leaving.  I want the person with the baseboards and the carpet cleaning equipment to come out.  That's the thing we need.  The baseboards came off on October 2nd.  The house was officially dry on the 5th.  The 5th was exactly two weeks ago, so now, I am wondering if we will have our dining room reassembled in any kind of pre-holiday time frame.  At some point, I genuinely want to have Jeanne and Dave over for dinner.  I think that would be a very nice thing for Cas to do.  I just want the table to be in a room that has baseboards at the bottom of the walls, but it looks like I won't be able to resolve that during my skip day.  At least the hole in the grass (a grass-hole?) is vanishing.