Stopped by to visit my friend John Roof this morning. John and his wife Betsy run a general store/furniture
restoration business in the little town of Staples, TX. My daughter had a table that was damaged on the top by some kind of defense department secret weapon ingredient that is also used as potpourri. I had another piece of furniture to get an estimate on as well.
My mother owned an antique store in Martindale, TX which is near Staples. John and Betsy were frequent
visitors so that was my original connection. Many years later, after my mother passed away, (and my abject
poverty – though there’s no connection between the two) I contacted John about restoring a huge display cabinet from my wife’s parent’s pharmacy they operated on South Congress Avenue in Austin (now a very “hip” part of town). The cabinet was 12 feet long and 8 feet high and at least some of the sections were 80 plus years old. This job was more than a little restoration. It was a virtual reconstruction. Still, the piece is practically the only furniture I regard as of any value dollar wise or sentimentally. The job was not cheap (and I am a notorious cheapskate), but I don’t think anybody else would have tackled it at all, much less with the pure love John did, for any price.
John and his wife bailed on corporate life some decades back to open up the furniture restoration/general store and they fashioned an apartment for themselves in the back of the store. John is also an artist. John can be temperamental and a certified kook and an admitted agoraphobic but shouldn’t every artist be? I find him delightful. I imagine he can be a pain in the arse.
This morning John didn’t look so good. He says he’s been fighting diverticulitis since December. I hope that’s all it is. He hadn’t really been painting to much in recent years but he has apparently become more prolific since I last visited with him. I got to see some of his recent series of works as well as their remodeled kitchen in the apartment. Both the paintings and the carpentry work made me terribly envious. I turn into all three stooges at once any time I attempt the slightest bit of handiwork. Besides furniture and art, we discussed everything from absinthe to politics to grandchildren. He gave me good advise on the daughter’s table and an outrageous price on restoring the other piece of furniture. But if I pay anybody tackle that job its likely to be him.
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