Word Count: 339<\/p>\n

Her husband told her to get estimates. At least three.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to talk to them?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said and rattled off a list of questions for her to ask them. She scribbled as he came up with each. He was the boss, she was the worker. He was management, she was help. She was glad when he finally left for the city.<\/p>\n

The first man came the next morning, early. She\u2019d just managed to shower and dry her hair. She showed him the tree half-bent by the storm. \u201cWe want the whole thing down,\u201d she said. He was lean, wiry, darkened by summer\u2019s sun. About her own age, she guessed, or maybe a couple years younger. And he had crinkly green eyes. Amazing crinkly green eyes.<\/p>\n

He left her with an estimate that she thought sounded fair. He told her he\u2019d lay down plywood so as not to leave ruts on the lawn. Said he\u2019d haul the wood and brush away since she didn\u2019t want it. He said he could come out before the end of the week. Anything else he said in that deep husky voice was fine by her too.<\/p>\n

The second man came late in the afternoon. He followed her around, a slight limp slowing them both down. He was older, in his late fifties, she guessed, and didn\u2019t seem to have much hair under his hat. He was jovial, and his price was within fifty dollars of the first estimate she\u2019d gotten. The one from the tanned guy with the amazing green eyes. She said she\u2019d let him know.<\/p>\n

The third estimate was way above the other two and the man was gruff and showed up an hour late. She automatically wrote him off.<\/p>\n

With a little enhancement of facts up or down she told her husband she\u2019d felt Tree Man #1 was the most professional. He agreed.<\/p>\n

When her husband came home Friday evening from the city, he was pleased with the work that\u2019d been done.<\/p>\n

So was she.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count: 339 Her husband told her to get estimates. At least three. \u201cDo you want to talk to them?\u201d she asked. \u201cNo,\u201d he said and rattled off a list of questions for her to ask them. She scribbled as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mainstream","tag-mainstream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}