My Week in Pictures

Better than a Tonka Truck - -

Some windows are just time intensive.  Like in the following photo there are a lot of small panes of glass.  Variously, my customers call these windows French cuts, cut-ups, or true divided light.  Whatever name you prefer, it just takes a lot of time and a small squeegee to clean them all. 
On this particular job, these windows were all around the house; hundreds of them.  The homeowner's four year-old son was inside and walked from room to room while I worked.  He waved at me, put his fingers on the other side of the glass to see what it felt like when someone was washing that window.  He laughed and pointed and jumped around.  After I finished, his mom came out and said, "You're better than a Tonka truck." 

For keeping her son entertained, I'm sure.

Want to see my brother work?  That's after the jump:

That's him.  My little brother.  He's also washing some divided light windows. 
Here's what he looks like from the inside of the house:
I guess that is more entertaining than a Tonka Truck.

 - rick, available for birthday parties, field trips, and other entertainment venues

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

that's not the same house is it? the brick one and the one your brother is working on?

[CV Rick]

no, they're different houses.

[Cherise]

I think you're better than a Tonka Truck, too. ;)

[jane]

Wait, were either of these houses in Minnetonka? Which is where the Tonka truck got its name? Because that would be really something.

Or maybe just mildly interesting.

(FYI, Minnetonka is a suburb of Mpls.)

[jane]

BTW, per Wikipedia:

The word "Minnetonka" comes from the Dakota Indian mni tanka meaning "great water".

[CV Rick]

No Jane. The first was in Minneapolis, the second in Richfield.

Did the Tonka truck really come from Minnetonka? I'll bet my client doesn't know that either. She moved here last year from England.

[Jane]

From the Hasbro site:

In 1947, the first TONKA brand toy trucks were designed and manufactured by the Mound Metalcraft Company, a business then located in a small schoolhouse basement near Lake Minnetonka in Mound, Minnesota, that specialized in manufacturing garden tools. With a staff of just a half dozen people, Mound Metalcraft turned out a total of 37,000 metal trucks in two designs in its first year - a steam shovel and a crane. ("TONKA" means "great" in Sioux.).

In 1949, the first TONKA dump truck was introduced.

+++++++++

I read further and found out Tonka trucks are for boys only:

TONKA celebrates its 60th anniversary in a big, big way with the 2007 TONKA TRUCK TOUR – featuring a real, life-sized TONKA Dump Truck – and the My TONKA Boy Contest!

From classic trucks to innovative new products TONKA is built for boyhood!

[a rose is a rose]

for some reason or another jane, when i was a young 'un (wayyyyyyyyy back in the day), i got a tonka truck for some occasion. it was a hot chocolate shiny (metalic) color.

i don't know why i got it and i never got another gift of that sort again. i LOVED that truck and i don't have a penis (attached to me that is)