Little Bucking Horses

Wow. It's been a tumultuous couple of days even though nothing has really happened. Nothing, except confirm the fact that we are in a serious economic crisis, of course - and no I don't mean the nation. On Friday I opened the first scary threat from the gas company that they were going to shut off the gas, um today. (Maybe I should check the mail more often) Depressing, yes, but expected. The tumult of the weekend stems from the dangerous mixture of doing business with family. R is in a tough spot: he is the son in law (not technically, but in practice anyways) and not only does he feel like he has to do an excellent job on my parent's property, but he is genetically bound to his perfectionism. He can't be haphazard no matter how hard he tries. The thing is, he's only one guy. He's not a painting contractor with a van and a crew. He is not a landscaping company. He is not a domestic manager who professionally deals with all the little things that come up in a house. Like I said, he's just this guy, you know? Yet, he does all these things a)out of the goodness of his heart and b)because my parents (unconsciously) take advantage of this goodness. R works for way too cheap, precisely because he is not set up as a company, so he knows that things will take him longer. Anyways, the shit hit the fan this morning when we discover that a tree company has been hired (by my dad, presumably) to do a job that R was originally hired to do. What gets me is that this was never mentioned to either of us. My dad must have hired the tree guys sometime last week - before they went away - because they were there working at 7 this morning. He had ample time to notify R that he wouldn't be needing him to do the job. Instead R spends Saturday and a good chunk of Sunday doing the estimates for this same job. 2 days for naught.
I realize that this has been a delicate situation from the start, and truth be told, not one that I have been totally comfortable with. But work is work, and my parents needed somebody to help them with their place. Maybe they don't see that R takes the work seriously. I wish he didn't, but he does. Way too seriously. A little professional courtesy would have been nice. It's quite a jab to discover by accident that you've been shafted out of your next job.
I guess we deserve it for getting involved with family in the first place. Like I should talk. At least there's a bureaucracy hanging over my head to reign in the wild horses.