You’ve probably heard stories about right hands and left hands. The saying goes that the 
right hand doesn’t always know what the left hand is doing. If you have a relationship with anyone you’ve probably experienced such a conundrum. Husbands plan things for wives, wives plan things for husbands, parents plan things for children, children make plans with friends, and nobody informs every one of the potential consequences. The result is chaos and, at the very least, confusion.
A month ago we had a flood in our house. If you are an active reader of “I Have a Story for You” you know that already. What you don’t know is the system to get things repaired is flawed. We contacted our insurance company and they helped us find a company that could “do everything”. “Do everything” meant that they could clean up our mess and repair all of our damage. It sounded great.
They did a wonderful job with the clean up. They arrived within an hour of our call and started removing wet carpet, packed books from bookcases, and generally removed everything from harms way. The source of the flood was a failed water softener. The water was salt water and we were told that salt water damaged materials should all be moved from the house. We had wet drywall which meant that the ceramic tile over the drywall had to be removed as well. When all was said and done the entire bathroom had been gutted down to the studs.
While the cleanup went well, the repairs are another story. That’s where the right hand and the left hand come in. The right hand (the bosses) have made claims regarding the repairs to Ruth and me but haven’t shared those conversations with the left hand (the workers). We like the workers and are happy with the quality of their work. The workers don’t always show up as we have been told by the bosses. For example: the bosses tell us that the workers will be here on Tuesday but they send the workers to another location. As talented as they might be, I know that can’t work in two places at one time. I find the process to be extremely frustrating.
To compound the problem there are two bosses. Boss number one told me on Tuesday that “workers will be on site everyday until the job is complete”. When boss number two asked me this morning how things were progressing, I replied, “Everything should be fine as long as the workers report everyday as we have been told.”
“We can’t promise that the workers will be there everyday! I didn’t say that!”
“No, you didn’t say that, but boss number one did.”
So, I have right and left hand bosses as well. They don’t communicate and I get to deal with the fallout.
When all of this began, I asked for a timeline. I wanted to know what to expect and when to expect it. It seemed to me to be a reasonable request. I’ve never been provided one and so every day is an adventure.
I have begun to document every conversation, every day, with everyone that I speak with. Someday this will get done but not for several days (maybe weeks) down the road. I’ll keep you posted.