A Working Man's Tale

All righty- see that wood siding on that dormer? That's what Mr. Moon and Vergil have been working on. There are three dormers so six sides were involved. Vergil worked on the roof, measuring, fitting, and nailing, and Glen worked on the ground, sawing, and getting the boards up to Vergil via the pulley system. Glen had pre-painted all of the boards in the last few weeks which took quite some time to do. 

BECAUSE HE DOES IT RIGHT! 

The man was a painter when I met him. A painter of houses, both inside and out. And before that, he learned everything anyone needs to know about construction and building and all of that stuff from his daddy who had held every job in the world, including working as a carpenter. From what I understand, his father was as much of a perfectionist as his son has turned out to be which is not a surprise. 
Other jobs that his dad had included being a police officer, owning and running a gas station, farming, being in the dairy cow and milk business, and selling seafood. 
When Glen married me, he knew he wanted to open his own business and with the help of his father, he did. They started up a tire and car repair place and it did very well although the learning curve for my husband was pretty steep. Turned out that his mechanics were, uh, not exactly the straightforward, honest guys they presented themselves as. And when you are an honest person, it's very hard to believe that someone could be intentionally ripping you off when you feel like you are doing the very best for them as an employer that you can. 
Still, somehow he succeeded and then he decided that he really needed to own his own building so he spent about a year, looking at properties all over Tallahassee until he found the one he thought was the right one. When we signed the papers on that property, the realtor told me that in all his years doing this work, he'd never had a customer who researched the situation as fully as my husband. 
And then BAM! Glen and his dad designed and had a new building and tire and repair shop built which I could not believe. Somehow I fixated on the fact that I would not even possibly be able to figure out how or where to get paper towel dispensers for the restrooms. But the man and his father were not daunted. They got 'er done. And most of the customers from the old store followed them over and they got more and more customers and they did pretty well although the man was working about fourteen hour days, six days a week, and it seemed like every week he was afraid he wouldn't make payroll but he always did. 
Again, mechanics were something of a problem. I had no idea what divas mechanics can be. Oh my god. The sturm und drang of that whole time just about killed Glen. After some years, he finally sold the business and opened a used car place on the other part of the property he'd bought. That worked pretty well for some time but then he burned out on that. He had to go to Tampa and Orlando every other week to attend the car auctions and that was a lot of work. Of course by then, I'd had two more children so that made four all together and I was somewhat busy myself. Being an essentially single parent for eight to ten days a month was not easy. 

So, Glen closed up the car biz, and built a small strip mall sort of thing on the back part of the property and that has been a very good thing. He had chosen that particular lot because of how he foresaw Tallahassee as growing to the east and by god, he was right. 
Besides doing all of that, he started working as a car finder for a credit union and he did that for many years. People would come to him with their specific needs and budgets and wants and he would find them the right car. Again- the auction was involved. This was pre-internet and so all of his research was done in person. But that job suited him well. No employees, except for a period of time when he hired a secretary/assistant, so that headache was avoided. He did very well at that job because people came to trust him implicitly and he took care of so many people who were overwhelmed by the process of buying a car. He made it simple and easy for them and he treated each customer with respect and attention. 

Covid pretty much put paid to that job. Pre-owned cars became as expensive as new ones. No one had been renting cars for two years and rental cars were usually good prospects because they were only driven for a year and then sold at auction. Of course Mr. Moon knew cars inside and out from all of his years working with them, working on them and he refused to buy anything that he wouldn't put me or one of our kids in. He just would not do it. And his customers loved him. I had so many old-lady rivals and we don't even need to mention the Subaru-driving ladies who came to him, knowing that he was a sweetheart who would never try to bullshit them. 

Wow. I completely did not mean to do a history of my husband's working life. I didn't even mention the government job he had as an inspector of any facility in Florida that kept wild animals. He loved that job. Then Ronald Reagan came along and all of the snakes and alligators and monkeys and wild cats and exotic birds in Florida just had to get along without any accountability. But that was before we met.

So what I guess I'm saying here is that Glen Moon has done a lot of things and he has learned a lot of things and he wants to do things right. Vergil is much the same which is why they work together well. It's beautiful.  

He's at an FSU football game right now. Mr. Moon, that is. He hasn't been to one in over thirty years and I think he was really excited to go. An old friend invited him. I'm glad he's gone out and is having a good time. My god, but he deserves it. 

I am truly astounded at the way this giant boy-man I married became almost overnight, a business owner, a father, a stepfather, a husband. When he said, "I do," he took all of it on his shoulders. Granted, those are some pretty big shoulders but come on! 
You know what also astounds me? The fact that I somehow, despite my horrible childhood where there was not one man beyond my grandfather who did not hurt me deeply, and a history of falling for the bad, wild boys whom I thought I could tame or at least domesticate, I met a man who was sane, incredibly kind, happy, loving, and a former athlete, fell in love and made a conscious decision to leap off a cliff into uncharted waters and marry the guy when he asked me. And I will tell you that there was just enough wild, bad boy in him to intrigue me. So thank goodness for that. 
It need not be mentioned that he is gorgeous. Was then. Is now. A beautiful handsome man. 

I guess that's my story for today. 

Love...Ms. Moon