H cuts the grass in my yard and for a very reasonable price. When I first hired him, he was younger and even more naive than he is now. I asked him to take a look at the yard and quote his rate. The number was much lower than I expected so I offered higher and he accepted gracefully. H is just a few years older than my daughter and was newly wed at the time. I felt a maternal need to protect him how I could. He is a good kid, well-mannered and friendly. The only problem is that it takes about a week each time to track him down for the job. In the meanwhile, his life has grown more complex. He had a baby and the young parents took turns caring for their son as they worked different shifts on their respective jobs. H added some handyman work to his landscaping, the wife was a nurse. A year ago, I started to hear less about wife and child, but he was always happy to show me pictures of his baby if I asked to see. He is now divorced and paying child support and unable to get his professional life organized.
He cannot be counted on to show up when he says he will. It takes may attempts to make contact with him and get a response of some kind. So recently, we took an afternoon to resuscitate our old lawn-mower back to life and I cut grass myself. It took me a lot longer than it takes H and the quality of my work leaves much to be desired but I controlled the timing of the event which was liberating. I would love to help H - I have previously tried and failed to help kids around that age who shared similar qualities. A nice kid, who probably did not work hard enough at school, now an adult that needs to find their way in the world - willing to work but lacking structure and organization to be successful. The same reasons why they likely did poorly in school. I wish there was a way for me to help H make a successful yard maintenance business but that is wishful thinking.
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