Jacob

 Recently, I hired a man named Jacob to clear the windrows left by snowplows over the winter.  He's certainly of an age to be retired, and I got his name from a neighbourhood service that connects retired workers to elderly people who need a bit of assistance.  When we realized that the snow was deep enough to freeze into ice ruts, I called him and asked if he could clear the driveway.

He had another job earlier this morning, but promised to be here before noon.  He arrived at 10:30, ready to shovel the driveway.  David was putting away the yard furniture, and was there to greet him.  When I realized what was going on, I headed out.  During introductions Jacob asked who was J. Findlay, as he'd checked out the address. So we had a chat about names.  Then we talked about how the job would be done, and settled on using a snow blower.  Then we had a chat about where the snow would go which lead to a chat about the neighbour. Everything planned I went back inside and David returned to working with patio furniture.  Next thing the neighbour is out there giving instructions on how the job was to be done and where the snow was to go.  Talking later Jacob told me that he didn't understand anything the neighbour said. 

Finally, the job done and Jacob was paid.  He also let us know that he was available for odd jobs.  Good to know.  David and I returned to the house and the next thing we know Jacob is snow blowing the patio and some of the back yard grass, followed by blowing out the front sidewalk and shoveling off the front steps.  I think he was just having fun playing with his snow Blower.

Quite the character.