The Roof Boys

This story starts back last year when it hailed really bad at our house and beat our poor shingles to smithereens. In the middle there is a long dull stretch where insurance adjusters come out to survey the damage. There is much deliberation between fashion conscious mom and practical dad about whether we should go with tin or shingles, and then what color to pick for decided upon tin. Then there is a slight bout of excitement when dad makes the call to a local dude who has done work for us before, who says he will send his team over.

 



Now fast-forward a  few months to the last two weeks.

We've had these three guys...I don't know what to call them. Roofers ( that kind of sounds doggish)? Tinners? I don't know. Anyway, they are three guys. Two brothers. And one who is not a brother.
The only way I can keep them straight is Kyle. Kyle's brother. And the other one.
Now I kid you not, these guys didn't say ten words to me. And most of it was some variation of "Can we turn the power off for a little while?"

But despite their lack of communication, they were so fun to have around.

...and a little bit restricting.

 

 I don't know about where you live, but it's been pretty darn warm and muggy here, and we keep the windows and screen door open most of the day. Which means we get to hear every single old song that comes on their radio (as well as all three of them trying to sing it- Funky Town anyone?), and they get to hear every thing that goes on inside. I really don't think that was too bad, except mom and dad seemed really paranoid, and most of their conversation with us the last few weeks has consisted of "Knock it off. There are people outside."

As Minion 1 so perfectly stated it "We can't even have a decent argument with these guys around."

I don't know what was up with Minion 2, but she suddenly wanted to go swimming a lot when they were around. And jump off the ladder very gloriously, and do lots of screaming when I tried to splash her...Like, the roof boys are singing. I don't think they're going to pay attention to a drowning minion.

These guys love our animals. Like at any given time I could look out the window and see at least one of them playing with a cat or Maggie. And at dinner time? Oh man, those boys must have been starving for weeks, because they gave 90% of their meals to Maggie. And I mean, she loved it and all, but it was completely unnecessary. I feed Maggie well. She's a fat little tub. They don't need to starve themselves down for her sake. By feeding her and playing with her all the time though they created a little razor toothed monster, because then every time they were down on the ground cutting stuff, she was right in their laps, so we had to lock her up in the barn some of the times they were here.

During the summer we also sleep in a tent almost every night because the upstairs bedrooms are so blasted hot that a demon would probably die of heat stroke up there, so of course when we discovered that this diesel truck load of guys liked to pop up around 7 in the morning, we started hauling out hair brushes and wearing really nice clothes to bed. It's really odd some of the things you hear when in a tent and the roof guys are here. Minion 1 relayed this one to me.

*random roof guy (either Kyle's brother, or the other one) talking to Maggie*

"No. No. No. No. No. Stop. Do you want to get locked up? No. You don't want locked up. I don't want to get you locked up. Stop it."

*A few minutes later*

"Yeah, you love me don't you? Yes, you do."

They just can't resist her little face I guess.

 

You know how unnerving it is to come into your bedroom and there's a dude hanging out outside the window banging away with a hammer? There are still towels tacked over the window. Or trying to wash dishes and every time you glance up there's a brother singing away just outside the kitchen window? Or grilling your burgers and there's  fire leaping out of the grill everywhere and they're just hanging out eating at the picnic table and spiking their hair in the hydrant (true story)?

It's just a little bit awkward. But funny.

Minion 2 has this turtle that lives in a big plastic barrel outside. And we were in the pool and suddenly she looks over at me and she's like "They just threw their trash in with my turtle."
So I swim over and look and sure enough they're packing up all their wrap and stuff and heading for the barrel. And I was like "Watch them realize there's a turtle in there."
So Kyle rolls up with a handful of stuff, throws it in, turns away, stops, and turns back around and starts pulling junk out of the bucket. Then all three of them crowd around and sit and look at it for awhile, and they end up leaving all the trash in the yard instead of the barrel.

Yesterday was their last day here. They got everything all done and packed up.

 Minion 2 was a little sad to see them go. </3