We needed a new roof. We chose a black metal maintenance free roof that is guaranteed for life. But should you try to call us on the telephonic equipment don’t be surprised if we don’t answer. We only have cell phones and the metal roof blocks the cell signal in certain spots within our house. Not to worry though, you call always call Millheim Pa ask the Amish person who picks up the phone to speak to Henry, then tell Henry you are trying to reach the guy who lives across the street from Amy, the one with the new lawn mower and the shiny black metal roof, who is making a racket with his working chipper shredder.
Okay, since you asked so nicely I will explain.
Millheim Pa sports a large Amish community has a population of 907 people consisting 322 families. Millheim also happens to be located 45 minutes away from our home. We were in Millheim because my wife works with Jamie, Jamie’s husband, Nick is a general contractor who owns his own contracting business Nickolas Klaue Construction. We were hiring Nick to put on our new roof. For you locals, if you are working on a project I’d give Nick a call. His rates are reasonable. He does good work, he was done in the time he said it would take and when done he cleaned up everything. We could not be more satisfied. My wife started talking to Nick about our two lawn mowers that don’t work. Nick suggested that we visit Millheim small engine repair because even if the mowers are not worth fixing, Henry the owner would probably take them as a trade. My wife and I loaded up the ole’ SUV with the incredibly heavy chipper shredder that I have not been able to start in two years and went off in search of Henry and his Millheim Small Engine Repair. We spoke to Henry and told him Nick sent us. We discussed the mower situation and he said bring them on down and we can work something out, after all we are friends with Nick.
Two weeks later we went to pick up our chipper shredder. Rather than bring the mowers down we decided to take pictures. From the pictures alone Henry offered us a deal.
While filling out paper work the woman who works for Henry noticed our address and says to my wife. “Do you know Amy?” To which my wife replied yes we do, Amy lives across the street from us and is the sister to our neighbor John with whom we are good friends. The woman explained that she knows Amy and her husband quite well but does not know John, but knows of John because Linda’s daughter is currently dating John. “Really” we said, we know John is dating but we didn’t know who, nor do we know this Linda. The woman explained that she knows Linda well but not Linda’s daughter and it is Linda X. The name to me sounds familiar. Suddenly I perk up, I know a Dean X we work together or at least in the same company, just different departments. Dean also lives on our street. Yes the woman explained, Dean is Linda’s son so John is dating Dean’s sister.
So 45 minutes from home, a complete stranger is informing us of the socio-geographic landscape of our street. Nothing like life in small town, but wait my big city friends, the saga continues.
The woman helping us with the paper work notices that my wife works at Penn State. “Oh, I used to work there” she says, “where do you work at Penn State?” My wife starts to explain and the woman interrupts my wife because the woman used to work at the same lab my wife works! And their time over lapped each other!
So we ended up supporting two local businesses, learning the gossip on our street, a working chipper shredder, a new riding mower, and a new roof.
Do you remember Nick? Yeah, well after all was said and done Nick purchased one of our non-working mowers from Henry. It is the circle of life I’m tellin’ you. THE CIRCLE…
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