Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The lights are on but no one's home at the Adminstration Building

Except there seem to be crews of people steadily laboring on the renovation. The last I heard they were on schedule, even a bit ahead. Maybe they'll finish on time. The building has a "vacant" look. Perhaps it's the missing windows, or the temporary chain-link fence, or the active piles of dirt...

For a couple of years,or was it three?, yes three, I did four design appointments a day for Behnke's. Five days a week. Two hour meeting, one hour to travel. Do it again, and again, and then one more time. Don't ask. Because the appointments often necessitated the client leaving work early, I occasionally got there before they did. I swear I got to a point where I could sense whether a house was occupied or not. I admit that sometimes there are clues, overt or subtle, but not every time. And there were times I sweat I could "feel" whether a house was empty or not.

One one occasion I got the distinct feeling that the house was occupied. It was the first appointment of the day so I was probably a little early but not a lot. I rang the bell. Nothing. I waited 10 minutes and rang again. Still nothing. I called on my cell phone. No answer. After 45 minutes with no response, I left......The client called me about an hour later. He had been trapped in a shed in his backyard by a large buck attending upon half a dozen does. He'd been there all the time. I knew it.

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