Someday we'll find it - The Rainbow Connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me - Kermit

     April showers bring more than May flowers... they reveal all the dog shit on your lawn from the last 6 months. So, one of my other jobs that I've tried in the last 5 years is a business I call "Call of Doody". I started it in the spring of 2009 and did quite a few spring clean-ups, but the idea didn't really take off locally. After three years of part time poop scooping, I can tell you Great Danes have the biggest and Rottweilers have the worst smell. Also, please don't let your dogs have anything from the Easter dinner table.
     My best client is a gentleman in Belleville who calls me every spring to clean his little yard of the excrement from his little, scruffy dog. It takes me about half an hour and this man always gives me twice my asking price. Today, he gave me almost three times my asking price and I could almost cry at the generosity of some people. Before I had a chance to open the envelope he gave me as payment, I took the time to ask him about his winter. Now, I haven't said more than a few words of small talk with this fellow in the last 3 years, but I pegged him for an interesting sort and I was curious about his life. Within seconds, he invited me in to see his house.
     I know what you're thinking, but this is not a horror flick. However, a scene from the movie "Faster" did replay in my mind for a split second as I was taking off my boots at the front door. If you haven't seen it, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) plays an ex-con who is looking for revenge. One of the men he kills is a frail, little, old man who makes snuff films with young girls by luring them into his house and drugging them with Kool-aid. I pity the fool who feels the need to drug an almost 40, pertnear 200 pound woman with a glass of juice when there are hundreds of scantily clad, 20-somethings obliviously staggering down Oxford Street in London, Ontario on any given Saturday night. I seriously fear for the lives of those silly girls (even if I was one back in tha' day <<sigh>>).
     Back in the house, I am getting the Royal tour. The place is like a show room or a museum with displays of his father-in-law's art. This man, who had fought in the First World War, was a painter (he mostly did flowers - like pansies), a wood carver (he had at least a hundred different bird species on display) and a furniture designer (he built an 8-piece bedroom suite for his daughter about 70 years ago).
     My client, let's call him "Bob", also collects old clocks. He had a grandfather clock on display that he said was over 100 years old and still kept good time. His sitting room, where he used to enjoy coffee every morning at 10 a.m.with his wife (now in a nursing home with Alzheimer's), had 18 clocks ticking away. This would normally drive me insane, but I found it nostalgic and even serene as I shared stories of Bob's life. He likes gardening, he likes to keep the house really warm (even if it costs him a fortune in electric heat) and he remembers going on a field trip to Deerborn, Michigan with 130 sixth grade students once.

     What I find so interesting about how I spent my morning is how everyone really does have a story. Sometimes stories, like the ones I write for this blog, are not always nail-biting, laugh-out-loud, future screenplays. But, they all have a genuine person behind them and I'm glad I took the time out of my "busy" life to make a connection with someone. Notwithstanding the fact that he gave me $80 (!) to pick up his dog's poop. And, regardless of whether or not I could have been abducted and killed.
     After my visit, I went to the mall... obvsly. I had to pick up some things at the Bulk Barn, had to get some sushi for lunch and had to get my husband the new "Nascar 2011" for Xbox 360. While I was at the game store, I picked up "Country Dance" for Wii. That may be what I'm doing tonight after work. I'll let you know how it goes.