Life in the Country

At dinner time, my hands are usually dirty with some ingredient. Yesterday it was raw chicken. I was cutting the meat off the bone before I froze it, when the doorbell rang. I don't have many visitors yet so I washed my hands and went to see who was calling. I opened the door and a pot-bellied leathery old man with white hair is standing there with what looks like the water irrigation sign up list.
A little explanation: we don't have a sprinkler system. We have a irrigation canal at the back edge of our property that floods our yard every week. There is a complicated process of closing your neighbor's valves and putting the stopgate in below your valves in order to direct the flow to your yard. Then you have to wade through the couple inches of water back to your porch. I need some Wellies :) or apparently as they are called on a farm "Muck Boots".
Back to the story. As I answered the door, he kind of mumbled through this introduction of himself "You the new customer? Ya need to sign this and there's a fifty dollar change of owner fee." As he's saying this, he's leaning in through the frame of my front door. I asked a few questions then went to go get my check book. He walked right in! I then asked him if he wanted to come in and he followed me right to my kitchen work table. He then plunks his paperwork right down. Its was like he wanted to pull a chair right up and sit and have a chat. As he left he was eyeing my candy boxes, so I asked him if he wanted a piece. So he selects a hard candy and starts telling me all about his children's Valentine's gift of chocolate "They gave us some See's and I shouldn't have more". As we walk towards the front door, he starts telling me all about the previous owners "Epps, he was a real good guy" and how he needs to check on his wife "She broke her shoulder on the 7th" and how slow the 911 response was "They put us on hold!" with a little side wiggle of his head and that old man sucking noise.
Not an East Coast service man with an attitude, a pack of cigarettes and a sour face. We do things different here :)