OUR house is in need of some repair. After all, our house is now almost 15 years old. There are many things that need to be fixed and perhaps the most obvious would have to be the gate and the wall that is attached to the gate.

For some reason, the gate started to unhinge itself a few months back. One part of the gate rose by a few inches and because of that, our help at home started to develop stronger muscles because they had to be very strong in closing the gate.

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They had to find it in them to find a way to close the gate by pushing and inserting the bar to its proper place and hole. Every time. Thus, they developed upper body strength. And it was especially weird for one of our help because she only stands a mere 4’8”.

Furthermore the front wall that encloses our property started to lean to one side. And we could not allow it because we might wake up one day with a collapsed wall. And so my wife and I started looking around for someone to fix the wall and the gate.

We found someone and he quoted us almost close to P300. I told my wife, let the wall collapse. That was too much and we had to find another person who could do it at a lesser price.

And so my wife called on "The Colonel." He is one of our secret weapons. He can do anything. Do plumbing, paint, evaluate power lines, do welding, read cards, make tea. You name it, he can do it. And at a much cheaper price at that. And so we called on "The Colonel" to do the wall and the gate.

I do not know what it is but it seems to be taking a long time for the wall and the gate to be finished. It seems that they are taking their unhurried pace in fixing the wall and the gate. At first I did not notice it but after sometime I began to notice it because when they started our mango trees did not have any fruits yet.

Now the trees are bearing fruits and still they are not done. My wife who is financing the repairs asked "The Colonel" to speed up the work because she was running out of finances.

"The Colonel" said that work like this could not be hurried because he wanted it to be perfect. Unknown to many, "The Colonel" is a stickler for details and is a perfectionist.

While we, my wife and I, are just concerned about the opening and the closing of the gate and of course if the wall will hold on its own. And of course if we still have enough money left because there are other repairs still.

A good example to that would be our lanai. The roof in our lanai started leaking some months back. I was dismayed at that because it has only been a few years but the roof started leaking. I should have not listened to the idiot who suggested that contractor. But back to the gate.

The gate as of today is working fine, just fine. The household help no longer have to cringe and moan and groan any longer. Now all they have to do is just open it. The wall is, as of this writing still there. It is no longer leaning because it has been fixed, finally. Now all we have to do is paint the wall which would probably take another two years.

But before that can happen we need to also fix the smaller gate. And it is being done right now by one of "the Colonel's" men. He is also fixing the door bell.

We cannot start the painting yet because "the Colonel" has said emphatically that the flowers and plants have to be uprooted because they will get in the way of the painting of the wall. And that means that we have to get our landscaper into the picture. But our landscaper is not here still.

I think he left as to where he went I do not know. But the plants have to be uprooted and the people my wife has asked to do the uprooting are the tricycle drivers who have made the front of our house as their own personal parking space. Why did they start parking there, you may ask.

Simple, because of the shade of the big mango tree in front of our house. The drivers stay there because it is cool and it is shaded. We do not mind them staying there because at the very least we have some people guarding the house. And besides when we need to have something done, we can call on them.

Peaceful co-existence, ika nga. And now my wife is going to ask them take out the plants and flowers because "the Colonel" cannot paint the wall and the gate. And we need to have those things painted because if we do not have them painted now, the persons working on them will never leave.

After the gate and the wall and the painting, my wife is looking at the computer room.

She wants to have sliding doors placed so that we can buy an aircon for the room. That is where the children are spending most of their lives anyway. Computer, dota, downloading, chatting, researching (daw), studying (daw uli!) and whatever they can do with the net.

But then again she must just train her eyes on the lanai because the roof is leaking and the roof of the prayer room is having the same fate. Wala pa yan five years and may sira na. As I said I should have not listened to that moron who suggested the contractor.

But it is too late for that. The wall is still there and we have to have it painted. Good thing we have "The Colonel" with us.