Slowly but quite surely

"It's a beautiful morning for this," Javier said with a shy smile Saturday. It was overcast, and early (I took this picture in the afternoon, when it had cleared dramatically), and he was happy to be roofing in some gentle weather.

"This is a very complicated job, and that's why I'm the one doing it," he said. "Of course when it's hot -- it gets over 120 up there -- I wish I'd listened to my mother and gone to school and become a doctor or lawyer . . . but this is good work."

When he does it, it's good work. You may see a bump in that one sheet on the dormer, for example, but Javier isn't done with it yet: The sheet has to be crimped and fastened over the edge.

I left him in a gentle rain -- "This is ideal for me," he said, "and I love to work on Saturdays and Sundays: so quiet!" -- and drove out to the hospital to learn that they'd sprung Ref.

His primary nurse, Donna, said he was grinning wide when the doctor set him free. "He has so many family and friends. They're going to take real good care of him."

Hooray!