Hot tin roofers

It was a tossup between the heat and the date, but the headline had to be either the Tennessee Williams reference or something about firecrackers. In either case, the Dan Ace crew started work on the flashing Monday.

Dan Jr. (the "Ace" is for Acevedo) stopped by to check on the squad -- apparently his dad has stepped away from most daily business, except for barking orders by cellphone -- and confirmed they would not be working July 4, which Ref wrote off to slacking.

He and Tommy were siding the big wall of the den/bedroom addition, slowly but surely. By the time the afternoon sun swung around there, they decided Tuesday morning would be a great time to finish it.

Matt, the electrician, came by, too -- he does want to get cracking on the Fourth, since he has to go out of town this weekend to visit his ailing sister in Michigan, and he'd like to get to the point where his son can get going. We talked switches and such, and like either of the Dans, it seems as if he's at about the top of his field.

Ditto Tony the painter, who also came by, taking a final look before submitting a quote. Interesting guy: Turned out he'd trod in Holly Hill's neighborhood during his full transit of the Appalachian Trail in 1995, and I think he was pleasantly surprised that I had Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" on my reading table.

Henry Johnson, an old friend of Ref's and a retired contractor himself, stopped by to tour the project -- and what a fine guy. Turns out he and Marvin, the previous owner of the house, had been great friends and occasional traveling companions to the VA Hospital in Miami.

Somewhere among all the conversations, I had a minute to sit in the pool and wiggle my legs from the sitting bench. Of course the only water in it is about an eight-inch-deep mess of collected rainwater at the deep end, an unfortunate shade of brown and topped by a floating slice of plywood -- but there is a pool, and it's a beaut.