Small town stories

We live in a smallish town. Not tiny (about 28,000 people) but definitely smaller and much different in feel than the larger city of Fort Worth in which I was raised. 

Because we live on 30 acres, our home has a rural feel, although it is at the end of a neighborhood of homes on about an acre each. 

Vera petting our horse, Hachie.

The "downtown" has some restored buildings that are fun to see and visit.

A cute little restored depot by the train tracks, across from the weekly Farmer's Market that I frequent and where I am well-known by a few vendors. Small wonder, given the large number of people I feed!

Our town is known for its gingerbread houses. We used to live on the same street as this house and the one below. Aren't they adorable? We were renting a much smaller restored home, but it was really great, too.

Yesterday, the small town quality of our town was brought home to me in a new and kind of funny way.

Our dryer has been on the blink for a while. As you can imagine, this is tragic for a family of our size. I had it fixed a few months ago, then the same thing happened again. When it was fixed the first time, the repairman said he thought we would need to have the vent cleaned or it would happen again. So, yeah, he was right.

Ok, who cleans dryer vents? I discussed matters with my brother-in-law, a local doctor. He is the resource for everything local, and is plenty smart besides. He decided to have his newest handyman, Jesus, take his leaf blower and use it to blow out our dryer vent. He messaged me Jesus's number...no last name, so now as I scroll down my contact list it appear as though I have Jesus on speed dial. 

Turns out, Jesus maintains the washers and dryers at the local laundromat, so he was well able to attend to the needs of our dryer. He wasn't planning to come over, though, so he kept having to borrow tools from us. He and his wife had been working at my BIL's house a couple of doors down, a fact that I first learned when he made his wife come down and clean up the mess he made when he blew out the vent--from the attic into my house! It blew around a corner and a good 30-35 feet into my living room! 

I further found it out when he asked to borrow a bike to go get his tools out of his truck. How many times have you had your handyman ask to borrow your bike? Of course, we only had Vera's bike handy! Didn't bother him...

Finally, I found out when he asked me to take him to the appliance shop to get a part because his wife had taken their truck home and it was too close to closing time to wait on her. If I hadn't had to pay for the part, I would have just let him drive my 12 passenger van (Jesus, take the wheeeeeeel). I can assure you, he would have returned it! When we left the shop, he asked me to drop him off at his house so he could get his truck. Seriously. And I did it! Why not? 

So there you have it: life in our smallish town where leaf blowers are community property and doctors are key people to know and Jesus rides your bike.

Y'all come back now, y'hear!