SPANISH AMERICAN WAR 2006
The Battle of Murfreesboro

I watched President George W. Bush's address to America. The CBS anchor told us it was an important address because it was coming from the Oval Office. After the president spoke I searched for my mountain climbing gear to help me climb back on the big turnip truck he thinks we all fell from.

My current daily anger over our unsecured borders came from earlier in the day. I came home during the late morning to check on my ailing bestfriend. The most wonderful pooch that has ever walked the Earth. To my surprise a two man crew was tearing hail damaged vinyl siding from my house. The company I had contracted with, J & R Roofing of Murfreesboro, TN., had promised that the roof would be replaced first so the new siding would not be damaged. They also promised to call a day ahead to schedule the work. Even with their failure of these two promises I quickly decided it was good to have the work beginning, until I walked around back.

I understand this type of work creates quite a mess. What I didn't understand was what I saw on the back of my house. The two workers had begun nailing up the new siding. They were so fast that they did not even let the garage door opening get in their way. They had installed the new siding in an unbroken row across the back of the house and on across the garage door opening. The new siding bumped out approximately two inches from the house before sinking back against the wall on each side of the garage opening. I called over to the man that appeared to be the lead worker. I explained that hanging siding over the garage opening was not the best way to do a job and expect to get paid. To my "surprise" he did not speak English or chose not to communicate with me. His partner also did not speak English. As my anger boiled up inside of me I realized I was never going to communicate with these two.

The female voice that answered the telephone at the roofing company was pleasant and religious. This company always made a point of ending a conversation with, "Bless you".
I attempted to explain the problem with the two workers. She failed to understand, but did understand my anger, so I thought. She promised to have the estimator and crew chief come right out. Four hours later they were at my house, along with three obvious American workers and a Hispanic crew chief that spoke better English then his crew.

I was promised by the Hispanic estimator that the crew working on my house was very good and had come up with him from New Orleans. Then he danced around the question about them being legal immigrants. He also assured me that he was an employee of the roofing company and was a citizen. In turn I assured him that if I was unhappy with the repair work that the Bank of America inspector was going to be even more unhappy. He understood that the bank held the money for repairs and would not release any funds if I or the bank were dissatisfied.

For the rest of the evening a six man mixed crew worked hard to finish the vinyl part of the job. My assumption is they were in a hurry to get away from "el Loco Gringo".