| But why's the rum gone? |
[Mar. 19th, 2008|11:42 am] |
So, as I said yesterday in Google-enhanced Spanish, I was freaking out about the gas line dig. They started early, too. Around 8:15am I heard the sounds of the small digging tractor, and visions of Arthur Dent lying in front of a bulldozer entered my head. Of course, they weren't here to technically demolish my house, but I feared the worst. Maybe giant ships would come and demolish the planet to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
I didn't want to meet any Vogons today.
So I tossed on my jacket, grabbed my camera, and watched them toddle this small tank across my yard. They had already started digging this huge hole near where my gas meter was, and they were setting up the pneumatic jackhammer to destroy my sidewalk that surrounds the house.
I had visions of bodies being dug up, ala the "Poltergheist." On this tech board I am on, they regaled me with personal horror stories of utility digs and their yards, punctuated with jokes about "move the bodies before they dig." (I assured them I used chipper shredders and seagulls). I discovered quickly that I had rather healthy, loamy soil. Nice dark rich color.
"Hola," I said. I already knew they spoke Spanish by their shouting. "Lo siento, mi español no es muy bueno. Como estas?" I got some response back, and one of the men came up to me. What can I say that would convince them not to shatter my sidewalk, which I was positive would not be repaired, ever?
"Mira..." I stared. And then I said, in broken Spanish and English that I didn't want them to break up my sidewalk. One of the men spoke broken English, so we kind of met in the middle. The men conferred for a bit, and said something about the pipes. Yeah, I know, the pipes. I showed them what they could do instead, mentioning the power line. They seemed uneasy about this. Then this idea just popped into my head. I am not sure what did it, whether it was my mother, who once bribed garbage men with beer to pick up our trashcans in our shed rather than drag it to the curb, or the thought of digging like Jack Sparrow's liquid treasure, or Ford Prefect taking Arthur Dent out to a pub before the planet blew up. But this came out of my mouth:
"Okay... Yo tengo una ... bottle... ron... Parrot Bay ron..."
THAT got their attention. A bottle of rum? I quickly made a deal if they were nice to my yard, they could have a free bottle of unopened Parrot Bay rum. Quickly, the deals started coming my way. Much laughter, and I went and got them the rum. One of the guys quickly took it and put in in his truck.
The rest of the dig? With the care and detail of a fine quality job. They raked, cleaned up, and only dug a 1" wide trench. It took them probably twice as long to do my yard as it took them to do others, but they even put down grass seed for me. My sidewalk was saved. There was not dirt and hay everywhere. No scattered mounds of soil left behind. In fact, apart from the 2" stripe of hay and grass seed, my house was untouched. And the whole time they were really friendly to me.
Something to keep in mind.
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After:
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| Comments: |
Dude! THAT is effing AWESOME!!! *LMAO*
That is SO the way to do it!
This is the classic win win negotiation.
Congrats!
WOOHOO! Rum solves EVERYTHING!
Nononono. You "exchanged non-cash materials for services". I totally forgot about the "barter" aspect of my job and how far a case or a bottle will go to get results.
You have an excellent future in Construction Management. I just hope they didn't drink the bottle at lunch, or the other neighbors lawns might look even worse than the status quo.
Did they take the tree in the left picture?
No, the tree is unscathed. It was just the angle of the shot (for perspective, the car did not move).
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/39132125/6456581) | From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) vlynn
2008-03-19 06:29 pm (UTC)
Awesome! :) | (Link)
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You got off pretty easy. Then again, how many people in your situation would have the inspiration to offer a gift of rum instead of speaking very loudly in English and being surly?
Go you. | |
