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(A short story of peace of mind)

     Years ago my wife and I bought a fixer upper to flip.  We have always enjoyed working on properties and hoped to make a little money to subsidize our teaching careers.  I was young and excited to be an investor in the real estate world.  As we neared the end of the project and put the house on the market, we left for a summer road trip.  I paid a young man who lived a few doors down to keep the yard mowed and looking nice while we were gone.  We left town believing everything was being taken care of and that we were in good hands.

     To my shock when we returned the yard was completely overgrown (Insert your Paul is way too trusting joke here).  Rainy Florida summers will do that to a lawn in just a short time.  I am sure this did not make a good impression for this house being just put on the market.  I immediately marched down the street to talk to my “yard guy.”   The young man’s mom answered the door.  When I asked her where her son was and why he never mowed my yard, she said, “Oh, he came across some money a few weeks ago and bought a bus ticket to move up north with his girlfriend.”  Sadly, she looked relieved, and I realized it was a lost cause.  I walked back to the house and began mowing.

     Fast forward to present time.  We have friends in the area who spend their summers up north.  While they are gone, I help keep an eye on things.  In the time immediately after they leave their yard is mowed and looking great.  Not long after though, a week will go by and the lawn guy doesn’t show up, and then a couple weeks and the grass starts getting long.  I give my friend a call and miraculously the next day the lawn guy is there mowing.  It reminds me of my “yard guy” years ago.  I realized my friend and I are surely not the only ones who need somebody to keep an eye on things while they are away…