Clyde's vent time # 2

[Clyde Hollinger]

Susan,

I know we will not agree on this, and that's okay.  I think the trust level
here is just so much higher than in many places.  It's what some of us are
used to.

One client, after telling me they never lock the house, told me to be sure NOT
to lock on the way out, since they don't even know where there is a key!
Customers who can't be home leave the house unlocked for me, or hide a key, or
tell me where their spare key can always be found,  or tell me their security
codes, and sometimes leave signed blank checks....  Among some of us it's just
a different world.

I try to imagine how I would feel if the roles were reversed.  Suppose I made
an appointment for a plumber to come to my house, then I forgot and went
away.  If he came and did what he was supposed to do, would I get upset?  No;
I'd be grateful.

Susan, your objections simply do not apply.  I am not a strange man, and my
car is well marked with my business name and telephone number.  In
twenty-three years I have never arrived on the wrong day or gone to the wrong
house -- not once.  But I do take reasonable precautions, at least by my
definition, when they are called for.

But now I will tell a story that may keep some of you awake tonight.  Two days
ago I got a call from a female customer whose piano I tuned for the last ten
years.  She had been a high school student of mine for four years when I was a
music teacher.  Nevertheless I embarrassed myself when I didn't recognize her
voice.  She said E4 sounds dead; can I fix it soon?  I agreed to stop today
between 11 and 12.

I arrived as scheduled and knocked three times on the door; no answer.  I
opened the door and called out, "Hello!  Piano tuner is here!"  All was
quiet.  So I went to the piano, cleared it off and diagnosed a broken plastic
damper lever.  I replaced it a wooden one, left the bill and headed out the
door.

I had intended to apologize to her for not recognizing her on the phone, so I
thought I would call from my cell phone and leave a message doing just that.
She answered!  It turned out she was at home all the time, sleeping because
she had worked the night before.  I'm still not sure where she was sleeping,
since I used the bathroom and walked by what I thought was the master bedroom,
and I thought the bed was empty (not that I looked very closely).  My call
woke her up; she had never heard me in the house.  Did she get upset?  Are you
kidding?   (The answer, in case you're wondering, is "no.")

In some places I guess some of us have to live by the philosophy, "Don't trust
anybody."  But I'm not there, yet, and a lot of other people in this area
aren't, either.  And to be honest, I'm sorta proud of us for that!  :-)

Regards,
Clyde

P.S.  It'll be just my luck to get arrested next week.  :-(


Susan Kline wrote:

> At 02:48 PM 3/5/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >After
> >ringing the doorbell three times, I tried it.  It was unlocked.  Since I
> >know these folks, I walked into the house and began to clear off the
> >piano.
>
> I NEVER EVER do this. It doesn't matter how well I know the people.
> I decided awhile back that there's an invisible wall across even an open
> door, until it is dissolved by a live resident or a note asking me to come
> right on in.
>
> Aside from the security system, consider the other possible entanglements:
> wife arrives home and finds me in the house? Or, from your point of view:
> Husband arrives home and finds a strange man in the house? A neighbor
> sees someone they don't know walking in when they know the owners are
> gone: they call the cops. Hapless tuner walks in, starts tuning, but
> on the wrong day -- halfway through the tuning people arrive for a
> wedding reception. You "know the people" but maybe you've mixed up
> the address with one very similar, and a very similar house -- people
> come home, find you inside, and don't know you from Adam ... etc.
>
> Susan