So, that's a bit misleading but a couple miles away from my parent's rural Austin, MN home, the zoo better known as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been swinging hammers, knocking things down and pulling in thousands of cheering fans for the past week.
The story behind this makeover, like all others, is specifically chosen to tug at your heartstrings. The family, whom my dad has known for over 20 years, lived in a patched together but falling apart home. With plenty of poorly crafted additions, water made its way in to the home and mold soon followed. The father, who lost his job as a diesel mechanic at an Albert Lea implement dealership a couple years back, will be portrayed as triumphing over adversity. He's made a living as a mechanic while having only one arm (he lost the other at age 10). The parents, Dirk and Susan DeVries, have close ties to a religious school in nearby Hollandale and the 15 year-old son (one of three children) has a fascination with crafting stuff from duct tape.
The big attraction, though, is the excitement surrounding a bunch of Hollywood-types rolling in to town with their fancy three syllable words and big lights (my dad even sounded a bit starstruck as he said he could see the lights from five miles away Saturday night as he sat inside the cab of his combine harvesting soybeans).
Of course tomorrow (Tuesday to you) the hundreds of spectators, a tearful family and a caffeine (and maybe meth)-fueled Ty Pennington screams "Bus driver, move that bus" and within hours, the circus, just like the one with lions and elephants, pulls out of town and like the one with animals and clowns, all that's left is the elephant shit.
And by elephant shit, I mean the mess left behind. Think of the expenses incurred during this excitement. For an entire week, 24 hours a day, a Freeborn County Sheriff's deputy was stationed at either end of the gravel road on which the construction site was located. I'm glad to pay for that sort of overtime because ABC television deserves the ratings. There's also the matter of the demolition debris. The company in charge of hauling it away couldn't do so in the timeframe demanded by the production company. That debris, then, was dumped in a neighbor's yard for later disposal.
It's a mixed blessing, of sorts, to have a reality TV show pull in to town but I wouldn't turn it down because where else would you land a free end of September vacation to dreary and wet Niagara Falls, New York?
4 comments:
You know, I am beginning to question how much good that show is doing, based on the number of homes that they have built that are are now going into foreclosure.
I can't stand that show. One look at that Ty Pennington guy and I want to stick a pencil in my eye and conduct an "extreme lobotomy".
maybe meth hahaha!
yep, what do you want?
Aren't you thankful the Mrs. Devires was not sick the winter while in the new house? Although, she had previously been ill every year.
I have questioned some of the actions of the show. But look at the good they have done for this family. The family is thankful and thanks God daily for this blessing.
We all have something to be thankful for. What are you thankful for?--Beth
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