the man who's to blame is named james. james is an idiot. he said that he would fix it by putting a piece of metal on top of the part that was crushed. HUH? my mom of course said no, that the metal would most likely damage the cover more. she wanted it professionally fixed, not fixed by a tree cutter. she got an estimate, which was about $4.000. he said that it was too much, and that he would not pay for it. he told my mom to get 3 estimates, and he would pay for the cheapest one.
one night last week, this woman called my mom. she started yelling at my mom, and told my mom that james did not have to pay for the damage done to our property. this woman was james' mother. he told his mom about his work situation, and gave her our phone number and lectured my mother. my mom gently told her that this was not her problem, that she has nothing to do with this issue.
"yes i do have say in this! you cannot force my son to pay $4,000. i work for an insurance company, i know how it works. you need to get more estimates" my mom again, told her that she did not want to deal with her.
"you will have to deal with me, you bitch!" the lady slammed the phone down and hung up.
i was so angry when my mom told me about this. my mom, who never swears, kept repeating the bitch part, and i cringed everytime she said it. i was so upset by the whole situation, so when i saw james' car outside of our neighbors house yesterday afternoon, anger started building up. my mom thought that they were done with the yard tho, so it was unexpected that we would see james again. my mom had talked to james' boss tho, and he was a really nice guy that reassured my mom that he would take care of james' mess, that he would not have to deal with him anymore.
after i washed my car yesterday, i went to our backyard with my mom to help her pick peaches from our peach tree. we saw james, and when he saw us, he stopped what he was doing, and just stared at us for a couple of minutes. *gross* then he yelled over, 'hey, did you get more estimates yet?' my mom called back over and said no, she didnt' have time to. she's been busy with my dad, and at work. besides, darrell, his boss told her that he would handle everything.
"i'm not paying $4,000 for this damage, i told you that. you have to get 3 estimates and i'll choose the cheapest one"
my mom kept telling him that he did not want to talk to him about it. james walked onto our side, onto our back porch, came onto our property, raised his voice and said that he would not pay $4,000 to fix the patio cover. he pointed out other parts of the patio that was damaged and said that that wasn't his fault, and he didn't want to pay for it. although that was understandable, i was still angry. then he said that his lawyer said that he could sue us for giving him such a high estimate. the only smart comment i could think of us, "oh, are you sure that it wasn't what your mother told you?" then i started going off, saying somethings like, "how old are you that you have to have your mother yell at my mom? who is she to call my mom a bitch? do you see that you damaged our property? and you tell your mother to call my mom about it?" a series of phrases like that came out of my mouth. at that same time i was thinking, damn, i wish i had a smart mouth like cindy and ivy. their witty smart comments come out so easily, but my words sucked.
anyways, my mom told me to stop talking to him, and that he didn't want to deal with him, that she would only deal with his boss. then i told him to get off of our property. suddenly my dad came out from his room, he'd heard us arguing, and started yelling. i got so scared cuz my dad was so mad and yelled, "didn't you hear the lady? she said that she didnt' want to talk to you anymore!" i told him once again to get off of our property, and finally he relented and as he started walking back to the neighbors with my dad screaming at him, this huge black guy came our way. *dammit, was this gonna turn into a brawl?* i was ready tho, but turns out this huge black guy was the boss, and was super nice. he spoke gently to my mother and said, 'mrs lee, dont' worry, i'm taking care of everything,' and told james to stay away. as james walked away i heard him say to the boss, 'my mom called her but she didn't call her a bitch.' *stooopid* bossman talked to my mom after james left and she told him that she trusted him. i hope he doesn't let her down.
as the evening wore down, instead of picking the peaches, i started pruning the tree. is that the right word? the peach season was over, and most of the peaches were soft and eaten by the birds. there were only a handful left, so i started cutting the branches. when i looked over to the neighbor's side, james was just standing there, watching me. *psycho!* i just kept to my business, snipping here, throwing branches there. i was still pretty mad, so this was stress relieving. as i moved around the tree, i could still see him in my peripherral watching me, and i didn't really care. if that was his intimidation technique, whatever. let me describe this man to you. imagine an old version of tom green, lanky, tall, lots of hair and a mustache. a dumber version of tom green. i already think tom green's an idiot, so you can imagine what i thought of this guy.
but he looked like he would do something immature and stupid, like scratch or spit on my freshly washed car. haha i knew that he was going to tell his mom what had happened, so all night when the phone rang, i ran to the phone half expecting, half hoping she would call so that i could talk to her, but there was only one caller that called and didnt' say anything when i answered the phone. *darn*
wonder if i'll see him again today...
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