Than fred will need an extend vacation..

 

Speeking of Fred where has he been?

 

he has been busy working on his honeydo list.

 

Tom - your visiting is never a "bother". You should know this by now

SGLaine - Well, since I've been out of work for (cough) three years and counting, I've been scrambling to acquire work even if it is out of my field and temporary in nature, trying to keep my house.

This past monday/tuesday/wednesday and saturday I was slapping down carpet in a large office building nearby for one contractor. Was fine but didn't pay much and my knees are killing me since I forgot my knee pads all four days. Doh!

Thursday I provided "towing service" and hauled a bobcat and trailer to a job site for another contractor. That was a fun experience because bobcat's don't belong on undersized, underrated, flimsy home depot trailers. I wish I had my camera with me - the trailer resembled a pretzel after the 31 mile trip. Another mile or two and the bobcat would have been obstructing traffic on the parkway.

Friday, for the same contractor with the pretzel trailer, I functioned as a ditch-witch operator at a different site and trenched along a red line the contractor painted diagonally across the customer's lawn. Unfortunately the contractor didn't get permits or a property survey so the ditch witch sliced through the customer's water feed from street to house. The contractor determined it was "my fault" and yelled obscenities for 45 minutes at the top of his lungs even though *he* painted the line and I followed it almost perfectly - a feat difficult to do with a ride-on ditch witch with a broken transmission and no forward gears - only reverse. So I drove this thing in reverse, facing the wrong way, leaning over the side trying to follow the line.

Anyway, the police showed up, then the town's inspector, then finally the water company arrived to shut off the lawn geyser.

Today, once I feed my son lunch, I'm going to rip off the water neck off my F350 and install the thermostat gasket I forgot to install earlier in the week. Lesson learned? Never replace a thermostat at 3am while it's snowing with a flashlight wedged between your collarbone and ear and expect to do quality work.

 

I have had those kind of days and it does suck for sure...

 

I just don't suffer fools / morons / idiots well. The bobcat thing was ridiculous but I did it anyway because it was $75 in my pocket and I simply turned the radio up to drown out the creaking and bending behind me.

The ditch witch thing just re-emphasized that this particular contractor is has dog feces for brains. Many homeowners skip the permit process for work they themselves do around their own home. A contractor showing up with machinery like this should do the job correctly - period. AND not blame others for their mistakes.

It takes a lot to make me angry, but for a moment there I was tempted to point the ditch witch at the guy's truck, engage the transmission and the cutting arm and leap off.

Alas, I'm a nice guy and don't need an arrest record even though for 4 minutes I would have thoroughly enjoyed myself

 

Yesterday, I sent my best tech on a service call that was suppose have taken 2 hours and then the customer flipped out on him and to the point where the tech almost had a nerves breakdown..I had 3 other jobs for him to do and now I am a man down and loaded to the butt in work with 6 more jobs pending for tomorrow..

I am working the this afternoon so that I might see a little day light for the week.


Customers of today are not like the ones in the old days..They will not tell you the truth on whats really going on and it gets hectic...Somedays I just want to run away.

 

and then some days i want to just choke the living sugar out of them.

but i don't, cause that would just put me down at their level, and i will not stoop that low.

 

I know what you mean there..... ...It at times is hard to keep your self in order with people like that..I talked with the customer today..And needless to say he piped down..He really likes our work and he does not want to lose our service

 

Or fantasize about putting a bullet in their head once the check clears.

A week and a half ago I installed engineered flooring (pergo) in a residence and the customer provided the flooring, two types of molding and the padding that goes underneath. Large living room, foyer, and hallway to the bedrooms.

Across two days I snapped it all together, mitered and tacked up the molding, and it came out REALLY nice. I asked him where he and his wife wanted the furniture as I was going to put it back for them (they squirrlled it in their family room before I got there to do the work) and he said not to worry about it as they'll be laying the room out differently.

He's happy, he writes me a check, and I deposited it on the way home.

Towards the end of last week I got a notice from my bank that the check didn't clear, I'm being hit for a $30 bounce fee, because the guy stopped payment on it. WTF?

So I call him, and he complains of a "eleven foot gouge" across the living room that he didn't notice when I left. WTF?

The floor was perfect when I left, but I humored him anyway and drove back down there to look at it.

yes, there is an 11' gouge from the family room to one of the legs of the sofa sectional. I flipped that section over, and the felt foot was missing and a nailhead was sticking out of the bottom of the leg.

HOW IS THAT MY PROBLEM?

I gave him the analogy of buying a new car under warranty, and driving it into a telephone pole and expecting the car dealer to replace the car for free. It wasn't sinking into his tiny little brain.

So I pulled out my cell phone and simply said "Fine, we'll let the cops sort it out" and suddenly, he whipped out the cash.

I don't understand how any tradespeople with their own business can survive with some of these idiots. I've been doing work like this on and off for just a month trying to make ends meet, and for whatever reason 3 out of 4 customers are absolute (insert long string of expelatives here).

Back in the late 80's, early 90's I was an electrical contractor with numerous employees, vans, equipment and so forth. Rarely did I have a problem with any of my customers, commercial or residential. Sure things got messed up here and there and we made good on it and they were ultimately satisifed. *ALL* my problems in that business was dealing with the union hall. And a lot of that was my own fault (though not all) - my being a 22 y/o business owner with a huge chip on my shoulder.

 

I hear you fred.Same thing with homeowners when plowing snow.You scratched my driveway(rubber cutting edge)or you ran over my dead plant...They just want a free work..

 

I used to do plowing when I lived in NY just above NJ - very few problems - commercial, residential, didn't matter. Maybe I should go back to that. Even had a zon machine in the truck attached to my cell phone (analog cell phone days).

An free work... yeah. The guy to the left of me dropped off two old hotel bed frames. "Can you weld me a firewood holder out of these?"

Sure, when I have time. I'll pencil it in for August 2009. LMAO.
Later this afternoon I was going to make a run to the recycling center to dump off some cut-up cardboard, and I noticed not only was the two bundles I cut and tied were in the back of my truck, but there was also a heaping, overflowing pile of uncut, untied but flattened boxes reaching above the bedbox.

So now I have to figure out which neighbor to slap. I don't really mind as I was going anyway, but to just assume and dump garbage in my truck is annoying.

Must be time for bed, I'm extra cranky for some reason. Must be due to making a gallon of decaf by accident this morning.

 

I'd be pissed if my neighbors put garbage in my truck. Only thing that winds up in the bed of my truck is when my neighbor has spare stuff he doesn't want. Last time was a few off-road lights and a back up buzzer off some heavy machinery.

 

After plowing for 20 years that is one reason why I gave it up..