As one of those men who understands little about how the world works, I am somewhat in awe of those special men who understand well how it is put together and can put it back together when it is broken. Jay Bridge is a geologist who worked for years on the General Electric/PCB cleanup of the Hudson River. Afterwards, he became a craftsman, a carpenter. He is quiet, soft-spoken intelligent man who whistles while he works, loves to work by himself out in the weather, and has an intimate knowledge of wood, posts and beams.

It turns out our porch was rotting away, splits in the wood and posts had allowed rainwater to pour in, probably for years, the corner of the porch was about to collapse, several boards on the porch had rotten. Jay has been here for several days digging out the rot, measuring each piece of wood, cutting and sawing wood to replace it. We are getting there. We gulp a bit at the cost, as everyone does, but we are also grateful that we found the rot in time – Maria saw it – and that there was somebody around like Jay to fix it.

Before Jay, our friend Ben Osterhaudt, also a wizard with wood, would come by, but Ben got busy and his work took him elsewhere – men who know how things work are in great and eternal demand in our world –  I ran into Jay’s wife Judy at the food co-op and she gave me his card. “You will like him,” she said. I do, we had lunch together at the Round House, I enjoyed it very much. Jay is one of those men who has shaped his own life without complaint or drama. He also had open heart surgery – a tumor removed from his heart – and it is good to talk to him about it.

Someone e-mailed me yesterday to express sorrow about the porch, but I don’t feel sorry. This is life, there is no normal, just life. If you live in and love an old farmhouse – ours was built around 1840 – it will take very good care of you, through storms and blizzards and winds and rain. But you have to love it back and take care of it from time to time. Like my heart, our porch was saved just in time.