Lazy-Ferret
07-01-2015, 14:02
So, I am sitting in the truck waiting for Suzanne to come out of the doctors, mindlessly checking Twitter and the forum on my phone, when out of the corner of my eye, I see this elderly gentleman who can barely walk, despite having 2 walking sticks, come out of the automatic doors of the doctors, and set to work negotiating the steps down to the car park. As it is not Suz, I go back to my phone, but become aware of him walking over to the car, and walking very very slowly round the car reading the stickers... I try not to make eye contact, but suddenly there he is tapping on the drivers window.
I switch the ignition on, and lower the window, where he very abruptly asks me "What is Bio Weasel"... A little taken aback by his way of striking up conversation, I go on to explain it is a joke, and how the truck runs on Bio-Diesel, but as we have ferrets, which are often called weasels, its a play on words, all the time thinking to my self there should be a shorter and more succinct way to explain this to people, and actually, it might just be easier to remove the stickers than have to explain them all the time. As I finish, he just says... "I see, and what about the 4x4 response".
Having already worked out he is a man of few words, I go on to explain as succinctly as possible, how we are a group of volunteers who all drive 4x4's and when there are things like floods, storms and snow, help out the local community by transporting care workers, and meals on wheels etc, so they can still be delivered regardless of the road conditions.
He looks me straight in the eye, and says "I see.... so who do I call, and how do I go about arranging for a couple of men to help to move a fridge from my car to my Kitchen?"
By now, Suz has come out of the doctors, and got in the car. I politely explain that that is not really what 4x4 Response do, and then think "oh what the hell, he needs help, and has taken the courage to ask...", so ask him where he lives. He points down the road, and says "you see the house with the overgrown front garden, just there". It turns out, he lives literally 3 houses down from the doctors surgery. I look at Suz, and then say to him, "It's OK, we will do it for you".
Apparently, he has picked up a second hand fridge, which the people he got it from have loaded into the rear of his old car, but he has no way to get it out of the car, let alone through the Jungle to his front door. He can't get to the the side door of the house either, as there is a caravan blocking access to the passageway, which must have been 40 or 50 years old, and almost completely green with moss, even the windows, and has overgrown trees all around and over it. He then explains that the house is a bit of a mess... Not a problem, we are not the tidiest of people ourselves...
Now, when I say we are not the tidiest people, the house is clean, but we seem to have lots of clutter clogging up surfaces, and I have a lot of, "That might be useful one day" type of junk stashed away... but.... nothing in the world could have prepared me for what are about to see, and made our house look like a palace...
Once we snapped off many of the brambles and tree branches, so we had a wide enough path to get the fridge to the house, he opened the front door, explaining he likes to keep it closed as much as possible, to keep the heat in. We stepped in, and two thoughts went through my mind... What heat?, and "Oh my goodness"... You know that program on TV where they go to a "hoarders" house, and try and clear it out... This was worse... I never knew people actually lived like that in real life, and had assumed that while there might be a room or two of junk, it was made to look worse for the sake of "making a good tv program".
Well, now I know differently... There was barely enough room to open the front door, and you had to walk down the hall way sideways as there was so much stuff piled up either side. The two rooms you could see off the hall way were both piled high with black bin bags and cardboard boxes, with just a narrow walkway into one of the rooms, which had a single high backed chair about 5 foot into it, and the rest of the room was just piled to the top with bags. The chair was in danger of being engulfed in a landslide of bin bags.
We get through to the kitchen, and Ironically, the only clear place in the the whole area we could see, was where the fridge was to go, so we put it down, and got it how he wanted it.
He then asked what he owed us... We told him there was no charge, there are kind people who help out Suz's disabled dad all the time, when we are not around, this is our way of giving something back for all their good will, wished him a happy New Year, and got out of there, taking deep breaths of the fresh air, which suddenly seemed so much better than before.
The only thing is, now we can't help but wonder about this guy, is he happy like that, or is it all just beyond him, and could he do with some help... having said that, I would not even know where to start, as it would cost an arm and leg to get skips in to get rid of all that stuff, and I don't think he has a lot, if any money.
All in all, it was very sad...
I switch the ignition on, and lower the window, where he very abruptly asks me "What is Bio Weasel"... A little taken aback by his way of striking up conversation, I go on to explain it is a joke, and how the truck runs on Bio-Diesel, but as we have ferrets, which are often called weasels, its a play on words, all the time thinking to my self there should be a shorter and more succinct way to explain this to people, and actually, it might just be easier to remove the stickers than have to explain them all the time. As I finish, he just says... "I see, and what about the 4x4 response".
Having already worked out he is a man of few words, I go on to explain as succinctly as possible, how we are a group of volunteers who all drive 4x4's and when there are things like floods, storms and snow, help out the local community by transporting care workers, and meals on wheels etc, so they can still be delivered regardless of the road conditions.
He looks me straight in the eye, and says "I see.... so who do I call, and how do I go about arranging for a couple of men to help to move a fridge from my car to my Kitchen?"
By now, Suz has come out of the doctors, and got in the car. I politely explain that that is not really what 4x4 Response do, and then think "oh what the hell, he needs help, and has taken the courage to ask...", so ask him where he lives. He points down the road, and says "you see the house with the overgrown front garden, just there". It turns out, he lives literally 3 houses down from the doctors surgery. I look at Suz, and then say to him, "It's OK, we will do it for you".
Apparently, he has picked up a second hand fridge, which the people he got it from have loaded into the rear of his old car, but he has no way to get it out of the car, let alone through the Jungle to his front door. He can't get to the the side door of the house either, as there is a caravan blocking access to the passageway, which must have been 40 or 50 years old, and almost completely green with moss, even the windows, and has overgrown trees all around and over it. He then explains that the house is a bit of a mess... Not a problem, we are not the tidiest of people ourselves...
Now, when I say we are not the tidiest people, the house is clean, but we seem to have lots of clutter clogging up surfaces, and I have a lot of, "That might be useful one day" type of junk stashed away... but.... nothing in the world could have prepared me for what are about to see, and made our house look like a palace...
Once we snapped off many of the brambles and tree branches, so we had a wide enough path to get the fridge to the house, he opened the front door, explaining he likes to keep it closed as much as possible, to keep the heat in. We stepped in, and two thoughts went through my mind... What heat?, and "Oh my goodness"... You know that program on TV where they go to a "hoarders" house, and try and clear it out... This was worse... I never knew people actually lived like that in real life, and had assumed that while there might be a room or two of junk, it was made to look worse for the sake of "making a good tv program".
Well, now I know differently... There was barely enough room to open the front door, and you had to walk down the hall way sideways as there was so much stuff piled up either side. The two rooms you could see off the hall way were both piled high with black bin bags and cardboard boxes, with just a narrow walkway into one of the rooms, which had a single high backed chair about 5 foot into it, and the rest of the room was just piled to the top with bags. The chair was in danger of being engulfed in a landslide of bin bags.
We get through to the kitchen, and Ironically, the only clear place in the the whole area we could see, was where the fridge was to go, so we put it down, and got it how he wanted it.
He then asked what he owed us... We told him there was no charge, there are kind people who help out Suz's disabled dad all the time, when we are not around, this is our way of giving something back for all their good will, wished him a happy New Year, and got out of there, taking deep breaths of the fresh air, which suddenly seemed so much better than before.
The only thing is, now we can't help but wonder about this guy, is he happy like that, or is it all just beyond him, and could he do with some help... having said that, I would not even know where to start, as it would cost an arm and leg to get skips in to get rid of all that stuff, and I don't think he has a lot, if any money.
All in all, it was very sad...