[M.D. Holloway]

My Wife decided that we finally need to get our floors cleaned professionally. So, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving she arranges for Stanley Steamer to come by. The only time they could arrange was between 7 and 9PM.

The kids spent a few days in Iowa with her folks so we had the house to our selves till Wednesday night (and yes we did have loads of sex! Like high schoolers all over again).

The guys from Stanley Steamer didn’t get to our house till 9:20 PM and proceeded to clean the first floor. My Wife decided to hit the hay and goes upstairs to the guest room leaving me to watch after these guys. I get a call about 10:20 PM from a neighbor whom we get together with at least twice a week. She and her husband are about the same age as us except they do not have kids. We consider them close friends. The call went something like this:

“Mike, this is Andrea, what the heck is all the racket?”

“Andrea you have to speak up I can’t hear you the carpets and ceramic floors are being cleaned.”

“It sounds like a bulldozer in your driveway! Why did they come so late?”

“It was the only window of opportunity that we could have them. Busy time of the season and all.”

“Christall mighty it’s loud! How much longer?

“About 30 minutes or so. They are doing a great job. Want me to send them over to your place.”

“No, that’s alright…”

Ten minutes later there is a knock at the door.

“Hi Officer Oliver, come on in.” I know pretty much all the cops in our town.

“Mike, how much longer you gonna be doing this? I got a call about the noise. It’s against town ordinance, noise restrictions and all that. You should know, you’re on the Zoning Commission!”

“These guys started prior to ten, they applied some chemicals and I am not sure they can just stop”.

The guy from Stanley Steamer backed up my story and said they could stop half way through the job. It could ruin the floors. Officer Oliver told us he was gonna have to write a citation then. The guy from Stanley Steamer told him to go ahead – they would cover it.

I know Officer Oliver pretty well. He will swing through from time to time and gab with us. Our kids like him and I know he felt bad having to do it. He even said that if we were going to finish up in the next ten minutes then he wouldn’t write us up but the cleaning guy said it would be at least 45 minutes – he had little to no choice.

Of coarse the fact that the Law was called absolutely pissed off my Wife. She requested to know who called. Turns out it was Lloyd – Andrea’s husband.

I don’t think I want to drink beer with them anymore. Pussy law calling pussy! If he had a problem, he should have come over personal like. Our next door neighbors were all cool with it. I wouldn't call the Law on any one of them unless some serious shyt was going down. What a pussy…