Busy Week--Part 1

This week, has been a busy week. Thursday it was pouring here in LA. Not only it was cold, but I got a house call in Santa Monica; in Montana Ave. After driving about 1 hour in the rain…well, I wasn’t driving, my partner was the one who did the driving, we finally got to the house.

It was a nice condo, apparently it belonged to the ex wife of my boss’ customer…a guy who has lots of apartment building and is very rich. So we get to the property. Looked for apartment “A”, didn’t find it. Decided to knock on the apartment with no letter: no answer.

Right then I noticed my umbrella had a leak. Great. It was still raining and we went to the back of the property hoping one little room there was apartment “A”. Nope. It turned out to be the laundry room.

I tell my partner to wait while I was going to knock again in the apartment with no letter. This time I hear someone approaching the door. The door opened and it was a very short old lady. About 5’ and about 55 years old. I tell her I’m there to fix the heater. She smiles and tells me to come in. I was about to yell at my partner to come when I noticed he was standing right behind me.

We got in. It was very lavish apartment with lots of fancy shit all over the place. As she was explaining on how I was going to need a latter to get to the attic a guy comes out from one of the rooms and tells me the exact same thing the lady said. He also looks in his late 50’s.

The lady got mad at him for interrupting and tell him to go back to his room. He ignores her. I asked her where the thermostat was. She tells me is in the living room, and again, the guy interrupted her and says the same thing she said.

“Will you shout up? You didn’t know where the thermostat was until last week” She said. My eyes were wide open.

“Will you shout up bitch? You’re a fucking bitch” The guy said.

“Oh, why don’t you go get another one? You’ve been drinking since 7 this morning”

“Ok, I will go get another one”

By then I was looking at the thermostat and I saw the guy leaving the room with a cup in his hand. I though this was over and it was going to just like any other house call. Boy was I wrong.

I took the thermostat cover off and unscrewed the command wires.

“Air comes out of the vents, but it is cold” The lady said.

I bypassed the thermostat and got the heater to work. To this she is very happy. And I’m happy too. I though I was going to leave in 5 minutes. Then as I was doing my routine check up, the fan suddenly stops working. That meant I was going to have to go to the attic to see what was causing this.

Then, from out of one of the rooms, the guy starts yelling, “Hey, what was wrong? Come and tell me”

“They are working. Let them finish” The lady yells at the drunk guy.

“Don’t tell me what to do bitch!” The guy yells back. “You, old man, come here and tell me what is going on”, he said to my partner. He ignores him and the guy starts insulting him too.

That really pissed me off. Then I yelled at him “Watch your language”.

“Oh, you shout up punk”

After insulting me two or more times, I asked my partner in a very low voice “Do I ignore him or insult back?” He laughed and told me to ignore him.

I decided to put the thermostat back together and leave. We took our stuff and headed to the door. I told my partner to wait for me outside while I told the lady what was going on.

“Listen. I can’t work with a guy calling me names”

“I understand” Then the guy interrupts her once more.

“Who is calling you names you idiot?”

I just looked at him and I see him get up his chair and charge at me. While he is an old guy, he is about 6’2” and about 190 lbs. So I’m there in the hallway, but right at the door and I just waited for him to get closer.

I use steel toe boots, so I was thinking on kicking him in one knee. The lady has her back to him, but when she sensed he was getting closer, the just turned around and pushing him back.

It was funny to see how this 5’ old woman pushed this guy. He was really drunk, so he almost felt to the ground. I just smiled and turned away. Went to the truck and headed back to Hollywood.

…To Be Continued.