How To Pay Rent

     Page One Hundred-Five.
     Today's writing is not about anything related to children or cooking. It is about the things we do to pay rent.
     As mentioned previously, I was laid-off from my job with the three princes for ten weeks while they're away at this camp or that camp, traveling to California with their parents, etc. I do have my job as part-time manager of a beauty salon, but really the bulk of my yearly take is from the royal family. My temp job with the fifteen year kid has picked up some of the slack, but not the entire thing, and that job ends this Friday when Shem goes off to camp anyhow. (Side note: I'm trying to talk them into keeping me long-term. I think that I can aid in this situation.) So, I've put word out to many friends and acquaintances that I'll do anything for cash (as long as it's moderately legal in at least one U.S. state).
     Last week I painted a totem pole. Yeah, that's right, you read correctly. I have a long-time acquaintance who's a Cleveland-based interior designer and his house will be on the Heights Heritage Tour this autumn and he's working really hard at getting his home "over the top".
     The Heights Heritage Tour was established in the mid-late '70's, here in Cleveland Heights, as a way to showcase some of our grand or stunning homes. The tour organizer, a non-profit organization, approach private homeowners who's homes have reputations for beauty and ask them to open their houses to the paying public one Sunday in September. Typically, they get about five or six homes plus another three or four gardens each year. And then, one of our stunning houses of worship will allow the entire crowd to gather for coffee and cake in their community room and tour that building as well. The entire afternoon is self-guided and informal and gets hundreds and hundreds of people. It's a major September event for Cleveland's gracious and curious. I go every year, and in fact, last year (2012) I secured one of the homes on the tour (separate story).
     So, my buddy's home will be showcased this year. His home is not big or gracious, but being a designer, he's turned a modest sized salt-box into a showstopper. And his grounds are equally jaw-dropping. So... just for fun, he had a front yard tree stripped of all its branches a  few weeks ago and then I came by and painted very wide, colorful stripes on it. Then. he wants me to paint a few eyes, that's right, eyes, on it so that it appears to be watching over the home. The only problem with this project is that the stump is as tall as his house. I was able to go up rather high but not all the way due to my low-level acrophobia. He hired someone else to go higher, but that person didn't complete the job either. I don't know how he's going to get someone to risk their life for the sake of a stinkin' tree.
     Then, tomorrow, I'm helping another friend who's an estate liquidator. She's been hired to empty out a nearby, small, old bungalow and apparently it's a disaster. She's actually giving me a mask to wear.
     Sometime in the next few weeks, I'll also be cleaning out the Shapiro's basement. (The Shapiros are the people whom I lived with for eight years and raised their kids during the '80's and early '90's.)
     The things we do to pay rent.
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