The roofing company that is selling me a new roof has subcontracted the job to a 'metal specialist' and he showed up tonight to carefully measure the roof.

Almost the first thing he did was try to sell me covers for the rain gutters to keep the pine needles out. Later he told me the gutters were loose, but he'll tighten them up for us 'because I'm that kind of guy.' I thought he was kind of a jerk, that's the kind of guy I was thinking.

Later, he gave me his business card, and turns out he is the son-in-law of my former friend aka the forensic botanist who testified in the Casey Anthony trial.

Now, he's all happy about what a small world it is, and he's looking forward to telling his in-laws that he's putting a metal roof on my house. I'd love to be a fly on the wall there because they dropped me as a friend two years ago.

Meanwhile, I hope this guy really does know something about installing metal roofs. All I ever heard about him was that he was an incompetent fool and was lucky to find a job toting shingles up the ladder to the real roofers. But that's the mother-in-law talking.

This manner of subcontracting roofing jobs is very common around here. Fortunately, the roofing company that hired him will stand behind the work.