All these people that you mention, yes I know them - they're quite lame..

I had to re-arrange their faces, and give them all another name"

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

Oops - almost thought it was Desperation not Desolation Row. Don't know how that applies to this post, but it sounded good.

I was going to go with XTC's "people will always be tempted to wipe their feet with anything written welcome on it", but subbed it out at the last minute, though the XTC line is actually more appropriate.

Lately my life lesson is assertion. The cruel realty is if you don't stand up, people do have a way of walking all over you. This year I have learned that with many different people - they know who they are for the most part. Now it is with our contractor. He was in a real hurry to collect from us, and we foolishly paid him a hefty amount, but once we did, he wasn't in a real hurry to fix the work that he had not done to our liking. Once I forked out the money to put a stop payment on that same check, he changed his tune real quickly though - from - I can't get out there until I am in the area again, to - I will be out there tomorrow. Funny how that works - and another near sleepless night to experience, but that seems to be the theme for me this entire year - with everyone from my family, to my boss at work, to the guy I work with - and now - this contractor.