John Halloran is a big, strapping Irishman, he moved to the country after he returned from the New York City Police Department’s Water Unit and started a company called J& H Mechanical, he  fixes, installs and maintains wood stoves and fireplaces. Yesterday, the farmhouse filled with smoke, one of the chimneys attached to the wood stove got clogged there was no draft.

It was a bit hairy getting the smoldering logs out of the fireplaces and out into the snow. I called John and he showed up this morning, he is a warm, conscientious and very good man. He climbed up on the roof and saw that the cap was clogged, he cleaned it out checked the bolts on the stove door, and we had our wood stove fire doing.

John is one of the people you really need to know if you live up her and want a wood stove.

He is a genuinely nice man, he always comes when there is trouble. If I’m not home, I just tell him to come in and do his work, he will live a bill.

I admire the lives of these  traveling workers, they live out of their big  trucks and ride all day long.  They never know what the day willl bring, but whatever it is,  they can handle it.

They live outdoors, are their own bosses, and avoid the corporate lifestyle. In a sense, they are a way of life.

I see John once or twice a year, it is always a pleasure to see him and he always does a great job, he is funny and good to talk to. When I met him a few years ago, I saw that he was crying. It turns out his English bulldog had just died. He loved the dog dearly, he spent most evenings on the floor with her wrestling. He took her everywhere in his truck as he drove all over upstate New York. I have him some of my books, but I don’t know if he ever read them.

Every time we meet, we talk about his getting another dog, his wife is resisting, the kids are out of the house and they are free to travel. We know this story. But John is pining away for another dog, either a French Bulldog or an English Bulldog. He loves wiping their faces every day – they often have respiratory problems – and he especially misses her at night.

Up here in the country, I have noticed that the big men in trucks often have small dogs that ride around with them in their big trucks. These are tough people, their dogs just melt their hearts, the dogs reveal their soft hearts.

John will talk about that Bulldog forever, but it is never tiresome, it is uplifting. He sure loved that dog.

I told John he needs a dog. He asked me to keep a lookout for an English Bulldog. I will do that.

People who love dogs as much as you, I told John, should have a dog.