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You know, sometimes when I set out to write a column, I wonder if, to be honest, very many will actually read it. I mean, it’s not that my journalistic skills are all that laudable. An understatement.

Still, I mostly enjoy doing this, and hope it might reach or touch someone in some fashion. Maybe, just maybe, today’s might tickle a few funny bones.

Here ’tis:

It probably couldn’t have happened at a less convenient time. But it did.

You see, some of Sally’s family were visiting us in Manteo. It was at a time when I was away, attending an annual Barbershop Harmony Society convention and contest. That year it was held in Hartford, CT. However, I was staying in a hotel in Windsor, a few miles from Hartford. Shuttle buses provided transportation to and from. The event is held in a different city each year.

Oh. This was in July. Nice and hot back in Manteo, for sure.

So. What was this “it” you say happened at an inconvenient time?

Here “it” is, then. The septic tank backed up in the house. The outside water pump, located in a little brick “house,” stopped working too. You know, what can go wrong . . .

Sally immediately called our plumbing “go to” man, Carson Creef. He had rescued us on more than one occasion, and took care of all our plumbing needs.

Carson was a much older man, long retired from his job in Norfolk.

He told Sally he would go by and ask Larry, his younger kin, if he would help out. Keep in mind, it was the July 4th holiday.

Larry owned the only septic tank service (a truck) on the island. Carson didn’t come right out and ask Larry to get up and come help out at someone’s house.

“Old man,” Larry asked, “whose house is it?” Carson studied on that just a bit, trying to remember my name.

“Whose house is it?”

Carson finally came up with a name. “It’s, uh, Roto’s.·· .-·You know, Roto.”

Well, the problem was eventually resolved, and God bless Carson for it.

All of this took place while Roto was in Hartford enjoying barbershop harmony.

True story.