You're Fired!

What an interesting morning.

Today, Juan and I went to the rental shop to pick up the sod cutter we reserved yesterday, brought it back to the front yard, and life as we knew it ended in a fiery explosion.

No, the sod cutter worked just fine, but Juan (1) would not read the directions (2) would not listen to me read the directions (3) would not stop the machine when it got clogged with too much sod because he had already done the strip, so it was loose and jamming the machine. He kept pushing the machine and, as it started to fall to the side, started cursing.

I reached over and shut the machine off myself so I could talk to him, and he went psycho! He screamed at me, repeatedly, and when I repeatedly told him to calm down and be quiet, he went off on the "don't tell me what to do" rampage.

It got so bad that I told him to shut up, now, and leave the property, that I no longer needed his services. He fired back with "I quit!" but then he didn't leave. He walked it off, cooled off, got his temper somewhat under control, and came back to the cutter.

He did finally restart the equipment and finish cutting all the sod, but when we loaded the cutter back into the truck to return it, he started in again, yelling at me about telling him what to do. He was really pissed that I had told him to shut up and told me never to say that to him again.

He didn't have to worry about that happening.

I let him rant and rave, then told him that I will not tolerate his disrespect, and as soon as we return to the job site, he'll leave. I paid him extra for using the machinery, as I had promised I would, and I paid him for a full 4 hours, even though he was only here for 3. I made him sign the contract as terminated by mutual consent, and told him not to come back.

Now, all of that is well and good, but I'm back to a lot of work left to do all by my lonesome. Granted, I have as much time as it takes, but it goes so much faster when there are 2 people shoveling dirt! It's a hard job, but one I want to do, so I'll just keep chipping away at it, one day at a time.