The Double Géza Factor

Last Saturday, we started the wheel chair ramp project. I drove to my 80 year old friend's house in 30 minutes. In traffic, it's an hour and a half adventure. His name is Géza (you can pronounce that like "Gay-zuh"). From here on out I'm going to stick with the English alphabet and just type Geza. He's been my dearest work colleague for seven years. His son, also named Geza, showed up a few minutes after I did. Of course any work at his house begins with a farmer breakfast: 5 eggs and sliced sausage in a frying pan and a couple slices of bread. (the equivalent of 15 slices of Wonder Bread). His wife, named Piroska, boasted she's never had a bowl of cereal in her life. They like to poke fun at me for eating cereal.

We got right to work when the son arrived--fighting over where to mount the posts to the concrete, where to dig holes and pour concrete. When things got quiet again I asked the question: should lecso (a special hungarian dish) have tomatoes in it or not? Geza thinks it should not and his son thinks it should. The argument ensues.

Thank God my friend Roger showed up shortly after and he could guide one man and I the other. They worked on building the frames for the ramps while Geza and i worked on post placement and measurements. We had a traditional Hungarian gulyas lunch--thin broth meat stew with potatoes, carrots, dumplings, and more bread. It was a cold day, so the hot soup hit the spot. This week we'll try and get it finished. The store that had the strong non-skid plywood disappeared, so I'm in search of surface materials.