“Ring-ring.”
“Hello?”
“Get the camera and get over to Mitch’s condo as fast as you can.” The voice on the other end of the phone was my husband’s. I thought I had trained him not to scare me like he just had, but apparently, I was wrong. Before I could ask “why” my mind quickly filled with all sorts of possibilities that might explain the panic in his voice. Let’s face it. When a condo owner is only 22, a lot can go wrong from lack of experience or lack of responsibility.
As I searched our bedroom drawer for the camera, my husband explained the situation. Mitch’s heating and air unit had not been working properly so Pat called the “fix it” man and met him at the condo. What they discovered was surprising.
The elderly man that lives below our son was having trouble with his unit, too. For weeks, his heating and air man worked to fix his unit—but without success. The reason the worker was unsuccessful is because he was trying to fix a unit that wasn’t broken. Oh, the old man’s unit was broken alright right. But the heating and air guy wasn’t trying to fix his unit. He was trying to fix our son’s!
I understand that people make mistakes. I certainly make my share. It wasn’t that the so called professional didn’t know what unit went with whose condo, but in three weeks time he never once caught on that he was working on the wrong unit! In the south there is only one response to this type of situation. We say…“Well…bless his heart.” Which translated means, “somebody should have gotten him professional help as a child because his light may be on, but nobody is home!”
The worker cut the wires to Mitch’s unit, and then, rewired and connected them to the old man’s thermostat inside of his condo. The old man now had control of Mitch’s unit which led to his complaint. “Dad, I can’t turn my air off! It just keeps running and running.”
The old man continually ran what he thought was his unit but the temperature in his condo never cooled. Hummmm??? However, you could hang meat in Mitch’s condo. The damage was estimated between 700-1000 dollars! That’s why my husband asked me to bring the camera. We wanted our guy to fix our son’s unit but we needed evidence that the responsibility belonged to the old man’s fix-it guy. Thankfully, he agreed to pay the bill.
I don’t mean to be too hard on this poor guy. I often get my wires crossed too. And my friends and family respond with, “Bless your heart.” But the truth is I haven’t met one single person yet who didn’t have a few loose wires. I guess it’s what makes us interesting. It’s definitely what makes us human–right?
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