Greetings,

I haven't reported on this for a while... After **2 years** of waiting, work on my house has *commenced*.

Day One

~~~~~

Alph and Ralph showed up at 7am while I was still in bed. They came in thru the unfinished closet, right in the bedroom and when they opened the sliding door, it slid right off it's hinges and landed with a SLAP on the floor! As I sat up in bed, Ralph greeted me with a boisterous, "Howdy Doody!" Then she and Alph broke for lunch at 7:45am. Ralph had a big submarine sandwich in her dinner bucket. (GREEEEEN Acres is the place to be...)

I only *wish* this was exaggerating. My construction crew arrived after 2 false starts at 9:30am last Friday. PLEASE SEE PHOTO (where valid) and try to gauge my surprise. Contractor seems to be a party guy. (Just my gut feeling.) The crew is 2 kids, about 20, one being a tiny goth girl that's the one going in the tight crawlspace.

The stepped into my living room, stating, "We're not really sure what we're going to do today."

Decided to start with a "walk thru" which I followed them 3/4 of the way. Backed off and let them alone. Altogether, 45 mins had passed. They passed back by me... "We're going out to the truck to have a coffee break and decide what we're going to do next." They did. 20 mins later they came back and spent another 45 minutes measuring for windows.

At 11:30am, they left... for the day!

It's been downhill from there. The work they are doing is shoddy to the point of amateurish. Clues abound that this is indeed their first whole house job. I'm their guinea pig. After 4 days on the job, there is at least one situation, that may be total slackerdom, and involves lying about work that was said to be completed, but was not.

I've spoke about the cramped 2 room crawlspace with impossible access. They claimed to have completed insulating both rooms, but I was "asleep" over the least accessible room and never heard a peep of movement. (They can access the basement wo. entering the house.)

The electricians, Goober Crew #2, were cussing them for putting up the insulation before they had pulled their wires. (Despite their 3 Stooges/good old boy nature, I *like* the electric crew. They actually work!) One of them went in, got to where the insulating crew claimed to have not been able to get to- and got to it- confirming no insulating done in there. They will have to remove ductwork to gain access to the front bedroom, which is what I suggested to the party crew before they started and they did not do. We'll see where it goes... I've got a bad feeling about this...

When it rains it pours... What better time than in the midst of all this, for my 85 Toyota hatchback to die after 16 years together. The frame has cracked near a strut and welding will apparently be impossible due to the frame being 90 percent rust. Called our out of town mechanic, who I'd trust to do surgery on me, he refused to work on it and it would cost over $800 to do anyway. So he had a 1995 Dodge Neon he'd rebuilt for $1800. Long story short, I bought it. Just about 5 hours ago as I type. More later.

Frenzied,

Dr. Mark

Questions?/Comments? * This Has Been e-mail From: "Dr. Mark" Hill * The Doctor Of Pop Culture /*/ drmark7@juno.com