Maria and I think we have the nicest and most stylish handy man anywhere. Jay Bridge showed up this morning to take the shingles off of our porch roof, they were disintegrating and when it rained last week, water poured onto the porch from the roof.

We had to move quickly, we were afraid the roof itself would soon be rotting and there are storms coming every afternoon this week during this  relentless heat wave.

Beyond that, Maria was preparing to get up on the ladder and put a tarp on the roof herself, she feels personally responsible for any trouble that happens to our house for some reason even though she hates to be doing that kind of work instead of her art.

Yesterday, I texted Jay, who is also a friend,  and I said Maria was planning to get up on the roof this morning. He answered me in seconds, bless him, and said he would come this morning at 10 a.m. and put a tarp on the roof before the afternoon storms come.

Jay is not like the other handy men I have known.

He is, by training an engineer, and has the engineers penchant for working alone, and working methodically and with great skill.

Jay is an intellectual, I realized soon after meeting him, a voracious reader and follower of culture.

Everything he does is done perfectly, and with great respect for price. He only takes projects that interest him – he built our Little Free Library and refused to take any money for the labor – he said it was his contribution to literature.

He retired from engineering a few years ago, and took up farming and carpentry.

Jay showed up in a classy orange plaid shirt with khaki pants and a straw hat precisely at 10 a.m.

The heat and cold do not seem to bother him, although I did bring him a cold bottle of water. He always has lunch at home with his wife Judy, and always has tea with her. He left for lunch and tea at l p.m. and was back at 2 p.m.

I called him once when the pipes burst in my study, and he said he would be over as soon as he finished his tea. Jay works in his own way, we do not bother or trouble him. He is a true patron of the arts and loves theater. He lives on a farm and has 90 sheep, which he shears himself.

He has a wonderful dry sense of humor, although he is not chatty. He is unflappable. When we first went to lunch, he confided that he doesn’t talk much.

That’s okay, I said, I talk a lot. We have good times. We appreciate Jay, and we know we are very fortunate to know him. Maria is quite relieved, and so am I. I headed her off just in the nick of time.