{"id":1693,"date":"2007-01-04T02:11:59","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T07:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2007-01-04T02:22:33","modified_gmt":"2007-01-04T07:22:33","slug":"the-bible-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2007\/01\/04\/the-bible-belt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible Belt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Between hospital visits, Jeff and I work off a list Karen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s created at my request. Stop the upstairs toilet from rocking, replace the outside light, install a new downstairs bath faucet, clean out the dryer vent, patch the crumbling plaster on the way to the basement,  that sort of thing. Every job, with the exception of buying a new paper towel holder, mushroomed into a This Old House How-Not-To,  and we mostly drove back and forth to Home Depot.   <\/p>\n<p>For our first home  improvement project we tackled the door bell that rang by itself, and now, rather than a   continuous buzzing, we&#8217;ve been surprised only once by the phantom ringer. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who was it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The door bell.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d call it fixed, which is why I was surprised Monday, after Jeff and Karen slipped off to work,  to hear banging on the front door.  I opened it and smiling before me was a nineteen year old (I&#8217;m guessin&#8217;) with short red hair and eyes way too close together.<\/p>\n<p>He said hi and I said hi and even before he peered down at his clipboard, he said, &#8220;What&#8217;s with the si&#8230;?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I knew where he was going so I cut him off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What can I do for you?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He looked back at his clipboard, ran his finger down his list of names and said, &#8220;I see you&#8217;re an Insight customer and you have Broadband.  We&#8217;d like to package it with..&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t live here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;cable TV at a low rate of&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;See that green truck other there, opposite those signs. That&#8217;s mine. I&#8217;m from Boston. And, besides, I know the owners and they don&#8217;t want watch anything but The News Hour on PBS.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Red (I&#8217;m guessin&#8217;) wasn&#8217;t phased.  He dropped his clipboard to his side and said,  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You tell them if they change their minds to call us.&#8221; Then he motioned over his left shoulder.  &#8220;Say, what&#8217;s with the <a href=\"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/IMGP0482.jpg\">signs <\/a>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Impeach Bush?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pretty neat, huh?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re big, I&#8217;ll give you that. You don&#8217;t see much of that around here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where I live you see them everywhere.&#8221; I lied. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In New England?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yep.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not here. This is the  Bible Belt.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between hospital visits, Jeff and I work off a list Karen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s created at my request. Stop the upstairs toilet from rocking, replace the outside light, install a new downstairs bath faucet, clean out the dryer vent, patch the crumbling plaster &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2007\/01\/04\/the-bible-belt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}