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While the Laundry Sits Unfolded...
May. 7th, 2006 08:35 amJDK has given up entirely on media advertising. Instead he gets the phone book for every town the circus travels through and sends out illustrated mailers with free passes and $3 off coupons to every business in town. On days when they are not putting up or tearing down the tent, the entire support team of 35 legal HB1 Mexican aliens sits in the cook tent stuffing envelopes.
The strategy seems to be working. Attendance this year is up 20% over all; operational costs down 15%.
On Thursday, JDK showed up at the Little Store with Arturo, one of the afore-mentioned legal HB1 aliens, to pick up mail.
Arturo was born deaf and with multiple birth defects like an external submandibular duct that constantly drains saliva. JDK who found the young man with his deaf brother Agostino and his deaf cousin Primo, living the lives of Village Idiots in a small village outside Jalisco, takes a paternal interest in him. JDK is interesting that way – very smart, lives totally outside the cookie cutter and is therefore capable of acts of astonishing benevolence. A regular Annie Sullivan (though oddly enough, he's never seen The Miracle Worker), he taught himself and the boys ASL and gave them all jobs with the show which allows them to send money home and gives them prestiege for when they finally return there to live.
He is also paying entirely out of pocket for Arturo's medical treatment.
In Hesperia, the high desert, JDK found a doctor who agreed to sew Arturo up. The doctor didn't do a very good job – I imagine the kind of doctor who'd agree to sew up a fistula without x-rays or lab tests and he's one whose license has bounced around suspension several times and whose office has no air conditioning. His hands shake as he sews; the Lavoris on his breath doesn't quite disguise the vodka double martinis he had for lunch.
Anyway, JDK had commissioned me to find a doctor to repair that doctor's malfeance and I found him Billy Falor's father, Max's old Pony League team mate, the leading ENT guy in town. They will do lab tests. They will also attempt to charge an arm and a leg but JDK is a tough negotiator, savvy to the fact that cash in the hand trumps an insurance payment in the bush.
"Nice place," said JDK, looking around the store. "How are you?"
"Not so good," I said.
"What's up?"
I took a deep breath. "Well, my husband ran off two weeks ago to join the Carson and Barnes circus, leaving me to deal with the store, my work with you and a grieving eleven year old kid."
JDK raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing for Carson & Barnes?"
"I don't know. Ask Alfreida."
"Is he coming back?"
"He wants to. I don't want him back though. Behavior like that is absolutely beyond the pall. Anyway my life is pretty much a mess right now. I wanted to start on that sponsor website but honest to God, I can't take on anything new. I'm managing to keep up with everything I have to do but clearing the decks for new projects is impossible. Robin has to be my main priority. He's hurting."
"And obviously you can't put him in an orphanage," JDK nods jovially. "Well, don't sweat it."
And this is part 1 of a very long series of Exciting Dialogue and Adventures but the timer has rung so now it's time for me to scurry off for Adventures in Folding Laundry!
The strategy seems to be working. Attendance this year is up 20% over all; operational costs down 15%.
On Thursday, JDK showed up at the Little Store with Arturo, one of the afore-mentioned legal HB1 aliens, to pick up mail.
Arturo was born deaf and with multiple birth defects like an external submandibular duct that constantly drains saliva. JDK who found the young man with his deaf brother Agostino and his deaf cousin Primo, living the lives of Village Idiots in a small village outside Jalisco, takes a paternal interest in him. JDK is interesting that way – very smart, lives totally outside the cookie cutter and is therefore capable of acts of astonishing benevolence. A regular Annie Sullivan (though oddly enough, he's never seen The Miracle Worker), he taught himself and the boys ASL and gave them all jobs with the show which allows them to send money home and gives them prestiege for when they finally return there to live.
He is also paying entirely out of pocket for Arturo's medical treatment.
In Hesperia, the high desert, JDK found a doctor who agreed to sew Arturo up. The doctor didn't do a very good job – I imagine the kind of doctor who'd agree to sew up a fistula without x-rays or lab tests and he's one whose license has bounced around suspension several times and whose office has no air conditioning. His hands shake as he sews; the Lavoris on his breath doesn't quite disguise the vodka double martinis he had for lunch.
Anyway, JDK had commissioned me to find a doctor to repair that doctor's malfeance and I found him Billy Falor's father, Max's old Pony League team mate, the leading ENT guy in town. They will do lab tests. They will also attempt to charge an arm and a leg but JDK is a tough negotiator, savvy to the fact that cash in the hand trumps an insurance payment in the bush.
"Nice place," said JDK, looking around the store. "How are you?"
"Not so good," I said.
"What's up?"
I took a deep breath. "Well, my husband ran off two weeks ago to join the Carson and Barnes circus, leaving me to deal with the store, my work with you and a grieving eleven year old kid."
JDK raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing for Carson & Barnes?"
"I don't know. Ask Alfreida."
"Is he coming back?"
"He wants to. I don't want him back though. Behavior like that is absolutely beyond the pall. Anyway my life is pretty much a mess right now. I wanted to start on that sponsor website but honest to God, I can't take on anything new. I'm managing to keep up with everything I have to do but clearing the decks for new projects is impossible. Robin has to be my main priority. He's hurting."
"And obviously you can't put him in an orphanage," JDK nods jovially. "Well, don't sweat it."
And this is part 1 of a very long series of Exciting Dialogue and Adventures but the timer has rung so now it's time for me to scurry off for Adventures in Folding Laundry!
