IT'S OK! I'M A WATER TREATMENT CONSULTANT!!!!
Nobody can say that my job is boring. Today was a classic example of some of the bizarre stuff that happens in the everyday life of a Water Treatment Consultant.
Last week I made an appointment over the phone with a lady named Priscilla for an on-site water analysis. I do this daily, nothing weird a'tall. So today at 1pm, like scheduled, I arrive at their home where I was to meet her husband, Bill. She explained to me that Bill worked late hours, so we had to meet later in the afternoon. I ring the doorbell with my test kit and notebook under my arm and wait... ring the bell again. Knock on the door and wait for about five minutes before ringing again. At this point I call Priscilla who tells me that she reminded her husband twice about our meeting and asks me to be patient, she'll call his cell phone and get right back to me. A couple minutes later I hear the house phone ring, twice unanswered. At this point of the afternoon, it was nice outside so I didn't really mind sitting on their front porch, looking at the mountains and watching a black-front roll in from the South. My phone rings and Priscilla sounds more than worried. This isn't like him, he should have answered either phone.
She asks me to walk around through the back gate, there's no dogs and nothing to worry about. So I wade through the wet grass and get up on the porch where she asks me to look through the windows. I knock on the living room and kitchen window, peer through and see nothing but cats and bird cages. (I'm already dreading going in this house as I don't care for either.) Now she's really worried. Priscialla directs me to where the "hidden" key is... really hun, that's not hidden at all, as I noticed it whilst sitting waiting for her call-back. Now I'm ringing the doorbell feverishly, hoping that he'll be out of the shower, awake or whatever before I come barging through his door.
Wearily I tell her that I'm unlocking the door... I slowly push it open and yell out "Hello?! It's Lara with Pure Water!" and keep repeating myself as I walk inside, instantly noticing the full gun cabinet and murmer a kindly "shit" under my breath. The wife directs me to the garage where I inform her there's an Explorer. That's his car. With a shaking voice she asks me to go to their bedroom. At this point, there's at least three birds shrieking their heads off and I swear one of them was repeating my name (which is highly likely as I was yelling it) and two cats prowling after me.
I go down to the second door on the left where I can hear an alarm clock blaring from inside, tell her that the door is shut and an alarm is going off. She asks me to open the door. I pound on the door, yet again calling out my arrival. My hands are starting to shake a bit as I ease open the door and am realived to see a made bed and I tell her so. She asks me to go inside and not to let the cat out of the room. Now she wants me to check the bathroom... still calling out my arrival I knock on the master bathroom door and push it open with a sigh... it's empty and the shower curtain is pushed open. For some reason, I have a fear of things/people behind shower curtains and always, always check behind them.
So at this point I'm ready to get the hell out of their house and grab a sample from an outside spigot... when she asks me to check the master closet. Again, I announce myself and push open the closet door to just a messy, empty closet. She tells me she's leaving work (40 minutes away) as I'm pulling doors shut behind myself.
I open the front door to leave and there's a man standing RIGHT there... in full jogging gear. I hold the phone out towards him and quickly say "I'm Lara, your wife is on the phone!! She asked me to go inside!" At this point he takes the phone out of my hand, gets a quick ass-reaming while I'm puting back their hide-a-key and grabbing my gear.
After a clammy handshake from both he and I, he explains to me that he had gone for a run (yeah, the knee braces, sweatband, fanny pack and wee little shorts kinda gave that away) and didn't think that he would be 20 minutes late. I made sure to tell him that his wife was really worried about him and had instructed me to go inside.
We go over his water quality concerns, he's concerned about the nastiness growing in his toilet tank and we go back to the master bath so he can show me the growth there (and also, shut off the blaring alarm clock). Informs me not to let the cat out after I have already pulled the door shut behind me (Yeah, yeah... heard it before). The cat inside runs up and starts rubbing on me while he's in the middle of telling me how the cat is extremely afraid of strangers and that I must have a good auroa and proceeds to formally introduce me to his cat.
I did a routine test on his water and pulled a Bacteria test to submit while the parrots are squaking above my explination of the results... then got the fawk out of there.
Moral of the story... I felt kinda like Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber"... "It's OK, I'm a limo driver!"
I'm a Water Treatment Consultant... of course I'll clear your house! After leaving, there has been a couple different situations that have played through my head, especially after first seeing a gun cabinent. Which is far from uncommon where I live (we have more firearms than residents in the great state of Montana). What the hell would I have done if I would have found him unnconsicous in bed? Drowned in the shower? Hanging in the closet? (And why did she have me check the closet in the first place?) What if I had awoken him by walking into his bedroom and he instinctivly reached for his side-arm? There's soo many what-if's in this scenario.
I'm by nature a trusting person and for some reason, I still believe in the good of man. I hope that is never tried more than it has been. It also helps that I live/work in the area that I do. But when does my ignorance and wanting to help out (in this case, a wife who is worried about her husbands well being) get in the way of my personal security?
Also, what killed me was that he's obviously a guy that goes for runs on a regular basis. It wasn't just a completely out of the blue, random ordeal that he went for a jog. C'mon, lady!
This one has beat my other stories in the short time that I've been at my company. Well... close to being in a locally well-known church bomb shelter ;)
Last week I made an appointment over the phone with a lady named Priscilla for an on-site water analysis. I do this daily, nothing weird a'tall. So today at 1pm, like scheduled, I arrive at their home where I was to meet her husband, Bill. She explained to me that Bill worked late hours, so we had to meet later in the afternoon. I ring the doorbell with my test kit and notebook under my arm and wait... ring the bell again. Knock on the door and wait for about five minutes before ringing again. At this point I call Priscilla who tells me that she reminded her husband twice about our meeting and asks me to be patient, she'll call his cell phone and get right back to me. A couple minutes later I hear the house phone ring, twice unanswered. At this point of the afternoon, it was nice outside so I didn't really mind sitting on their front porch, looking at the mountains and watching a black-front roll in from the South. My phone rings and Priscilla sounds more than worried. This isn't like him, he should have answered either phone.
She asks me to walk around through the back gate, there's no dogs and nothing to worry about. So I wade through the wet grass and get up on the porch where she asks me to look through the windows. I knock on the living room and kitchen window, peer through and see nothing but cats and bird cages. (I'm already dreading going in this house as I don't care for either.) Now she's really worried. Priscialla directs me to where the "hidden" key is... really hun, that's not hidden at all, as I noticed it whilst sitting waiting for her call-back. Now I'm ringing the doorbell feverishly, hoping that he'll be out of the shower, awake or whatever before I come barging through his door.
Wearily I tell her that I'm unlocking the door... I slowly push it open and yell out "Hello?! It's Lara with Pure Water!" and keep repeating myself as I walk inside, instantly noticing the full gun cabinet and murmer a kindly "shit" under my breath. The wife directs me to the garage where I inform her there's an Explorer. That's his car. With a shaking voice she asks me to go to their bedroom. At this point, there's at least three birds shrieking their heads off and I swear one of them was repeating my name (which is highly likely as I was yelling it) and two cats prowling after me.
I go down to the second door on the left where I can hear an alarm clock blaring from inside, tell her that the door is shut and an alarm is going off. She asks me to open the door. I pound on the door, yet again calling out my arrival. My hands are starting to shake a bit as I ease open the door and am realived to see a made bed and I tell her so. She asks me to go inside and not to let the cat out of the room. Now she wants me to check the bathroom... still calling out my arrival I knock on the master bathroom door and push it open with a sigh... it's empty and the shower curtain is pushed open. For some reason, I have a fear of things/people behind shower curtains and always, always check behind them.
So at this point I'm ready to get the hell out of their house and grab a sample from an outside spigot... when she asks me to check the master closet. Again, I announce myself and push open the closet door to just a messy, empty closet. She tells me she's leaving work (40 minutes away) as I'm pulling doors shut behind myself.
I open the front door to leave and there's a man standing RIGHT there... in full jogging gear. I hold the phone out towards him and quickly say "I'm Lara, your wife is on the phone!! She asked me to go inside!" At this point he takes the phone out of my hand, gets a quick ass-reaming while I'm puting back their hide-a-key and grabbing my gear.
After a clammy handshake from both he and I, he explains to me that he had gone for a run (yeah, the knee braces, sweatband, fanny pack and wee little shorts kinda gave that away) and didn't think that he would be 20 minutes late. I made sure to tell him that his wife was really worried about him and had instructed me to go inside.
We go over his water quality concerns, he's concerned about the nastiness growing in his toilet tank and we go back to the master bath so he can show me the growth there (and also, shut off the blaring alarm clock). Informs me not to let the cat out after I have already pulled the door shut behind me (Yeah, yeah... heard it before). The cat inside runs up and starts rubbing on me while he's in the middle of telling me how the cat is extremely afraid of strangers and that I must have a good auroa and proceeds to formally introduce me to his cat.
I did a routine test on his water and pulled a Bacteria test to submit while the parrots are squaking above my explination of the results... then got the fawk out of there.
Moral of the story... I felt kinda like Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber"... "It's OK, I'm a limo driver!"
I'm a Water Treatment Consultant... of course I'll clear your house! After leaving, there has been a couple different situations that have played through my head, especially after first seeing a gun cabinent. Which is far from uncommon where I live (we have more firearms than residents in the great state of Montana). What the hell would I have done if I would have found him unnconsicous in bed? Drowned in the shower? Hanging in the closet? (And why did she have me check the closet in the first place?) What if I had awoken him by walking into his bedroom and he instinctivly reached for his side-arm? There's soo many what-if's in this scenario.
I'm by nature a trusting person and for some reason, I still believe in the good of man. I hope that is never tried more than it has been. It also helps that I live/work in the area that I do. But when does my ignorance and wanting to help out (in this case, a wife who is worried about her husbands well being) get in the way of my personal security?
Also, what killed me was that he's obviously a guy that goes for runs on a regular basis. It wasn't just a completely out of the blue, random ordeal that he went for a jog. C'mon, lady!
This one has beat my other stories in the short time that I've been at my company. Well... close to being in a locally well-known church bomb shelter ;)