I’ve never been more relieved for a week to end

Earlier this week I failed to tie down a 12’ (24’) extension ladder which I was transporting with one end in my 5’ pickup bed and the other end sticking up over the cab. At 65 mph, on Interstate 8, no less, I suddenly hear a bad noise and look in my rearview mirror to see my ladder putting in some impressive hangtime before crashing onto the freeway. Thank God I was in the right lane and the ladder landed near the shoulder, and also there were no vehicles so close behind me that they couldn’t avoid hitting the ladder or being hit by the ladder. Unfortunately by the time I was able to exit the freeway, backtrack, and get back to the place where it happened, someone had helped themselves to a not-inexpensive Werner extension ladder.

So then this morning I was working at a brand-new account, a Denny’s restaurant, very first time. I got one window done inside, stepped backward off the booth seat and kicked over my Ettore 6-gallon bucket. Good news was that at 5:00 a.m. there was only one customer in the place, I only had 3 gallons of water in the bucket, and the one server on duty was very nice and helped mop up as much of the water as she could. Bad news was that it took me at least 20 minutes and half my dry towels to clean up the spill.

Sadly, my downward spiral was not yet complete. The last job of the day was a residence. I recognized the name and knew right where the house was. It was an exterior-only job, the owner was expecting us, and we had that thing done lickety split. I rang the doorbell to let the owner know we were finished. It was one of those new video doorbells that lets the owner see who’s at the door and have a two-way conversation using their smartphone. I told her we were finished cleaning the windows. Dead silence. Finally she said, “I don’t remember us scheduling our windows to be done today.” Right then I knew my bad week had just gotten worse. Sure enough, it was NOT the house I thought it was, we had washed windows at the wrong house! Amazingly, the owner went ahead and paid me even though she had no obligation tto do so. Naturally I had to call the
customer we were SUPPOSED to clean and reschedule, which thankfully they were very understanding and willing to do.

I’m REALLY glad we don’t work on Saturdays!

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Yeah that’s a bad week. Try to hang into a positive? Sounds like you may be a little skimpy in that department but you must have something. Oh yeah, your self employed, no-one can yell at you for your screw ups except you… :roll_eyes:

Sounds like you got a new customer albeit by big mistake. Have a good weekend !

I read that to be a pre-existing customer as he knew where it was, just the wrong one lol.

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Exactly, LOL!

One time I had a gutter job to get done in a neighborhood that I had 2 window jobs in. I went to the right house number but one block off. I was almost done cleaning the gutters and the home owner comes up and asks what am I doing? Huh, We scheduled for gutter cleaning. No. I look at my work order and I am one block off…LOL That person got a free 25 foot gutter clean. LOL

lol

bet you won’t do that again

Pretty safe bet…

Never put your bucket down behind you or anywhere in your path, especially when indoors… always against a wall or something. Learned that the hard way years ago.

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never at the bottom of your ladder either…

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These are the best lessons. The Costly Ones. Yes ! I have made many and learned from many. Hopes for a better next week for you.

Jeff

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