Tyler and Emily in PNG

I sat down at my computer desk (aka my other job) after a long day finishing at 4 pm and tried to gather my thoughts of what I accomplished for the day. All I could think of was the two flat tires that I had to fix at 9 am. This was the first task of many on that Monday though I could not remember what else took place.

That is pretty much the picture in a nutshell what Tech Services looks like here in PNG. (Tech Services is your equivalent of a handy man/utility man/maintenance man, etc.) If you recall, I once before had the double duty of two jobs, IT and Tech Services back in Oct/Nov 2011. That was for a definite time period as the person was on furlough. This time around I am the man for the job infinitively. Yes, that is right, I am pulling double duty for an unknown length of time.

Last week Monday, Emily and I went to the airport at 6 am to say goodbye for the final time to our good friends, teammates, and our Tech Services boss man…Bob Harper and his wife Jacque. So pretty much by default, I assume his job responsibility and also supervising three national employees. I can report, so far so good.

As I have been sharpening my handy man skills at work, it never fails that somehow work and home always mix. I wrote before about the hole in my roof and the pipe to nowhere, well this past weekend I tackled another job. This job has been known for many months or perhaps years though it was critical I was able to band aid the problem while we were on furlough last year. The problem we have in PNG is termites (or white ants as they are referred to here).

These buggers love two things we have in quite abundance, water and wood. It is also part of my job to be the exterminator so every weekend I grab my spray bottle filled with chlordane and spray any new termite tunnels. Our home has 100% wood floors so as time progresses and the termites get hungry, our nice wood floors slowly deteriorate. It was my goal to replace three boards this weekend that had large holes in them. Nonetheless, it was a liability.

I purchased the boards, sanded them, applied clear coat varnish, and they were ready to be cut and installed. The job turned out to be more of a challenge than I hoped for partially due to the curvature of the lumber and the boards I bought were not 100% matched to the original. In the ‘Land of the Unexpected’ you learn not to take ‘no’ for an answer so I did overcome these obstacles. Though the finished job is not your professional quality workmanship, it will pass inspection of this house. It also helps that the location is not in a high traffic area, and most visitors will never notice the repairs by sight.

(Sheba gives her four paw approval)

If I could re-title this blog post it would be – ‘honey-do’ list gets shorter.