Today my husband planned on having a showdown with the deadbeat contractors. They told him that they would be there by 9 AM. He told me this as I was leaving at 9:30 AM and he was still in bed. He had felt so confident that they wouldn’t be there that he had bet them a full breakfast and they still didn’t show up.

By 1:30 PM he called and left a message not to even bother showing up. This was 2 hours after they called and said they were on their way. At 2:45 I was on my way out and they pulled in the driveway. I informed the husband. He came out and told them that he had told them not to come today and other things that I shouldn’t repeat. I got in the car and drove off. I don’t like conflict.

When I got back at 5:30 the contractor’s truck was gone. I was proud. I went in to see how the husband had fared. No husband. I had a sense of foreboding. I called his cellphone.

Me: Are you at Lowe’s with the contractors?
Him: Uh, yeah.
Me: Why?
Him: I’ll talk to you later.

He came home and told me that he had had a good talking-to with them and they had an understanding that the next time they didn’t show up on time they were fired. I believe this is the same talking-to they had before. I got the impression from the husband though that he did not want to discuss this in detail or perhaps at all. We are going out to dinner so I’ll see what he says.