Just Because Me Smile, Doesn't Mean I give a ...!!!

What part of a friendly person says yes, I want to hear about your weird hobbies, or please show me your odd collection of weird shit? I think in general I'm a happy out going kind of person, but then again when it comes to my job, I have to be a pleasant person being that I work for/with the public. Now a smile and a slight question about something I might notice in someones house sure can open a large can of I don't care. But yet time after time I find myself looking at a customer's old love notes, or drinking glasses from the 1900's. These are impressive things to some people, just not me. Why someone would hold onto a collection of Dale Earnhardt anything is beyond me. And while we are on the subject of racing, the amount of toy racing cars still in packages I've seen stapled to a wood paneled wall is just ridiculous!!! These are grown ups with Hot Wheels stapled to their walls, uhm who do you think is going to buy these from you? I also don't think stuffed animals should ever be used to decorate any room in your trailer, especially if no children live there! The whole wall was just stuffed animals, like when they tried to hide E.T. in the closet.
I had a guy that kept all his old Pabst Blue Ribbon 12 pack boxes, he had to be a drunk, the whole out building was filled with them. On a side note, a child came running down the stairs of a house I was in today yelling "the chicken somehow got out of it again!" LOL, not going upstairs is all I was thinking. Yesterday I was lucky enough to have to work on a customer who phone line is in buried cable. Well wouldn't you know it, every pedestal I had to go in was a mouses house. And those mice sure do pee and pooh a LOT!!! And this is a very distinctive smell. So once I bleached my hands, I found the customers problem underneath his deck/wheelchair ramp. I start to crawl under it and get myself in a position to work on the wire. I find that the wonderful cat has chewed on the wire and the water from the lovely weather we've had was making a horrible static noise on their line. As I'm fixing the problem I keep smelling a weird smell, after a slight turn of the head, I notice I'm 3-4 inches from cat shit. This is where their cat takes his moment in the day to reflect and I'm laying next to it. I guess the cat finds himself bored while pooping and feels the need to chew on the phone wire...WTF?! But the customer is fixed, I'm cat pooh free and it's going to be warm this weekend...Glass is half full people!
Marc

Tighter Than a Duck's Butt

Today I had what I felt to be a close encounter of the worst kind. And it got me thinking about certain situations on my job that have made me a little more than uncomfortable. Where I work has a good portion of it in the mountains and February through March is windy season. Now if you have never experienced the warm feeling of being 30 feet in the air when a 65 mph wind comes at you, then you don't know how well certain muscles will work all by themselves. You become at one with the pole and hope your ladder has the same idea. The incident today happened under a trailer. I was a good distance underneath it when I heard a flush of the toilet. Now if anyone knows a thing or two about trailers, then you also know that more than not someone besides a plumber is connecting all the piping up. Which means sometimes you find a little toilet drainage on the ground under and around the trailer. Mmmm mmmm good I tell you!!! So when your underneath and you hear any kind of water rolling through the pipes, you become a bit weary. But all was good and they had a professional do their plumbing...win for me! Another time where I did an ass pucker was when I was working on a customers box on the outside of the house, been there about 2-3 minutes and was just getting ready to go back to my van when I noticed a very large dog in between me and my van. Now from past experiences I have learned to keep dog treats for just this occasion. Buttttttt, they were in the van which was 100 ft and a very big Mastiff away. So much for that waste of genius. You must show no fear is what I have heard, so I tried to do hand gestures, so the dog wouldn't see my knees knocking together. Maybe getting eye level will work, nope. The dog then tackled me, at least he was friendly.
Well that's about it, off to enjoy the nice weather,
Marc

Knock Knock

Ok, I knock on the door as I usually do. There is a car in the driveway and lights are on. Well I see the door knob turn a few times then it stops, no talking, no unlocking sounds, no nothing. I'm thinking maybe it's a child and the parent is telling them not to open the door till they get there, or they forgot to unlock the door and this is why the handle was moving. But nothing, so I stood there for about 2 minutes then walked back around to my truck. I go to their box that I was checking by the basement doors, when that door opens up and there is an older lady holding a toddler. Now before I knocked on her door I had already talked to her on her cell phone to figure out which house was hers, because no one here puts there house number on their mailbox or their houses!!! And I also kind of walk around the perimeter of the house to see if I could see a  problem. The electric company had replaced an old pole about 300 ft away from her house and this is where her buried line came to. So back to when she opened the door, I said hello and when did they change out that pole over there in your horse field? She just stared at me and said in a weird monotone voice "I don't know." I kinda of looked at her and chuckled, you don't know when the power board came into your yard and put in a new pole? She said again in the same voice "I work weird hours." "Ok then.......................... I will call you when I get it fixed, thanks?!" And yes there was a 15 second pause in between then and I in the last sentence. The problem was at that new pole, but this was something that is not a charge to the customer. So I don't understand the whole play stupid act, it would have just helped me diagnose the trouble that much quicker. And from my last post where the customer tried to get me into trouble I find myself trying to bite my tongue much more. It's not easy but I feel if I set my mind to it...ha ha ha.
Just wanted to share,
Marc