Hepp the Electrician

The kitchen on Tholozan was huge and had beautiful black and white tile around the sink and

counters. Unfortunately, it also had black and white square linoleum on the huge floor. At

some point it was discovered that some of the wiring in the kitchen needed work. Enter

Hepp the Electrician. He was a friend of Dad's but I'm not sure how they knew each other.

In addition to fixing the electrical stuff, he was also going to redo the floors, change the

cabinets, grout the tiles and get new counter tops. I was reminded of this when we were at

Sally's and she was going to the bathroom to get cooking water. John was putting in a new

sink and fixing the dishwasher, which he accomplished in a few hours.

Unfortunately, Hepp the Electrician was not so speedy. He also tore out the plumbing before

starting the other revamping. I mainly remember this because we had to get cooking water

from the bathroom. And do the dishes in the bathroom sink. And every time you wanted a

glass of water, the bathroom sink.

Soon the parents engaged in conversations that were variations on a theme: Mom would ask

dad, "When is he going to be done?" Dad would reply, "I don't know." "Could you ask him?" Then Dad would ask Hepp, "How's it going?" And Hepp would say, "It's getting there" or "Almost ready to put the plumbing in" or "Any day now."

In addition to being a very slow and meticulous worker, he also spoke very slowly and

his stories were quite long and drawn out. So if we had to pass through the kitchen for

any reason, we didn't want to ignore him, but on the other had we didn't want to spend the

next half hour listening to him. Every minute spent in conversation, and I use the term

loosely, was another minute not being used to get our sink back in service. We had to

develop the knack of whisking through the kitchen, saying hello, and then whisk right

out again.

I'm not sure exactly how long the renovation took, but I do remember coming home from school and if Hepp wasn't laying down with his head under the sink, I thought maybe he had taken a sick day. Eventually, just as with daVinci, Hepp a true artist in his own right, finished

the kitchen. For a while I think we actually missed him.