About two weeks after I got out of the hospital last month, I did something I would never, ever, ever do under anything resembling normal circumstances; something just plain stupid: I hired one of my garbagemen to repave my front walkway after he knocked on my door asking for work. Just like that.

I blame it on the meds, since I’m normally a pitbull about checking references and negotiating contracts when I hire contractors. I haven’t the first clue as to what I was thinking.

Last week, the garbageman was by the house on Monday to finalize the job terms and we agreed that he’d start the following morning. Then, about two hours later he called to ask if I minded if he came back over that night to get started breaking up the concrete. I thought that was a little weird since it was almost 7:30 and starting to get dark, but I said sure, what the heck.

And he never showed. Hmmmm.

Tuesday morning, I fully expected to be rudely awoken by the garbageman getting to work; he had made a huge production out of the fact that he wanted to get started at the crack of dawn. I thought it was a little weird when I got up at 8 and there was no sign of him; by 10 it was clear that he’d blown me off.

I got tied up Tuesday night, but tried to call him on Wednesday night. No answer, no voice mail, no answering machine. Uh-oh.

By Thursday, still no sign of him - no phone call, nothing - and I was pretty sure I’d been stiffed. Granted, it had rained for most of the week, but I would have expected at least a phone call. The upfront payment hadn’t been huge, but still…

So there I am, minding my own business, yawning and stretching over my first cup of coffee at about 8:30 this morning, when a disreputable pick-up truck starts creaking and groaning its way into my driveway… Aha!! The garbageman! I stumbled out the front door to greet him and make some happy chitchat. He said something about the weather finally cooperating and started unloading concrete forms from the truck.

“OK. This is progress.” I think to myself.

Mr. Garbageman explained that he expected to get all the concrete broken up today and have the forms in place so that the town inspector could check everything tomorrow morning and he could pour concrete by 10 or 11 in the morning. I was thrilled.

Then he left to “get a few things”. And I haven’t seen him since.