Needless to say, our family isn’t too thrilled about outsourcing. The one time we tried it was when I was a bit younger, and Pa trialled a few guys to wash the pigs. I don’t actually remember them doing a good job, but they weren’t up to Pa’s impossible standards, so…out the door they went, and we never hired anyone again after that.
Naturally, it falls to me to reverse that. The trees out the back of the house are really getting overgrown, and while we’ve always had a miniature forest out there, it’s getting to the point where it’s encroaching on our land. We need tree lopping…and Pa isn’t qualified. Even if his hip wasn’t acting up, he wouldn’t be qualified. But I have no clue how to let him know that there are people who offer professional tree removal. Melbourne has a rich history of experienced arborists dealing with difficult trees, They exist to simply deal with this kind of problem. If I just say that, I know exactly how Pa will react. He’ll think that the arborists, with all their fancy equipment, are just doing something that he could do himself for free. That’s not true at all, but it’s how he’ll see it. And then he’ll run off to go and chop down some trees, one will fall on his head, and that’s that. No more Pa, overgrown trees, and no one to trim them. I’d try to do some of it myself, but it’s a jungle out there, and there’s only so much tree trimming theory one can learn. It’s something that needs a bit of experience, you know?
So the way I need to put it is…well, maybe I’ll point out that Pa can watch how the tree removers do it this time, and then he’ll know for sure that they’re actually amateurs and he’ll know for the future that he can do it better.
Of course, he can’t. I just have to find the best tree trimmers in Melbourne, who’ll do an amazing job that’s above criticism. Nothing is ABOVE criticism with Pa, but I can minimise it. And then he’ll have forgotten our talk by the next time…so the cycle continues.
-Forrest Jacoby Jr. Jr.