The man from Nantucket

When I purchased this old house I did so via the internet, it was the way people used to purchase houses, trust me. Back then, we would log onto the internet, check a city we might like to move to, purchase a house and a flight and in a week we would be signing paperwork in an office building in that very same city, it was all very romantic and modern. Oh, those were the days.

Then I drove from the law offices to the ghetto, where the door to my new home was barely hanging open, on a hinge, and I thought I may have made a mistake in my investment. I drove my rental car to Lowes, where I met Dave Lowe, who worked there. He is not part of the Lowes family, although, in that new corporate America family way, he is part of the Lowes family because he wears a blue vest with his name in the corner and a smile on his face. He said "can I help you?" and I smiled and leered at him and said, "my lord, you have no idea."

Dave did not have any idea. By the time I was roaming the halls of Lowes, I had already created a list of things I would need to secure my new house. Locks, window glass, hinges, flash lights, some initial sorts of electrical testing equipment and the list continued. The house was a shambles and would need all sorts of work, but then again, I paid less than a person would pay for a used car. Dave helped me find many of the things from my list and offered advice of securing the front door, apparently there had been a recent series of people repairing doors. Imagine that.

I spent the weekend running between the new house and Lowes, and it seemed that any time the doors opened Dave and his infectious smile would greet me and he would walk with me as I would search for circuit breakers, replacement parts for broken pipes and windows. Always windows.

I was at Lowes this week because the light switch on the second floor really needed to be a motion sensor. Magically enough, there in the electrical section was Dave and he smiled as I approached. We shook hands, it's been months since I have been at Lowes and at least that long since I may have run into Dave. He found the right motion detection switch I would need, told me it would fit into the second floor landing switch, he knew which one I was talking about and even knew which sort of box was installed into the plaster. He was right too. Then he told me he had married Nancy and that this was his last week at Lowes, they were moving back to Nantucket.

I said goodbye and drove home and installed the sensor and now whenever I go up or down the stairs, the light comes on.