Today I started at a house on the south side of one of the parks in town. This particular park is one where me and some friends get together to play a game we call thundersneak. When I answered the door a women answered in her pajamas and mentioned something about channel 16 so I went around back and took of the filter on the line. I went to the front again and some other woman was there we went inside to make sure it was working and i left. I didn't even look around.
The next job was on the north side of the same park. It was an apartment in a high rise. It was a nice old lady who lived here. Her apartment was huge and had a magnificent view over the whole park. The place had a grand piano and tons of art work. I even saw a small Magritte with the pipe, that below it says "This is not a pipe." The problem as I could tell was a loose connection.
The next job was an apartment complex on the west side of the same park. The complex had a little court yard that was not kept up at all. The was a guy there reading a paper and smoking. The customer had completely forgotten about the appointment and kept apologize for the mess but the place didn't seem messy at all. He proceeded to start cleaning the place with ammonia. I kept going around and replacing things to try and fix the problem and until I replaced all I could. In the end I did have it working but I wasn't confidant about it at all. I'm sure it was going to start not working once I left.
the next job was on the exact opposite part of my area. It was in a retirement community near the suburbs. The woman who lived here was a round little russian woman. She was a little brusque at first but warmed up the longer I was there. The problem was another case of missing channel 16. So I went outside and got rid of the filter. Afterwards I found a bathroom ate a couple sandwiches and called my next job.
My next job was home early so I went there. This was one of two high rise apartment buildings that seems to primarily be for retired individuals. This particular woman was rather old and moved very slowly. The whole time I was there she kept managing to talk about the fact that she had a stroke. She would mention how she stays primarily in here bedroom, and how other areas of the place don't see much attention any more. At one point the screen was breaking up or as we call it tiling and she mentioned that when she had the stroke that's what the world looked like. she said she likes to watch the weather channel to know if there are tornados so she can pray for whoever might be in it's path. At another point I was fixing something in another room and she said her mom used to stay in that room until she died. So she doesn't go into that room anymore. All in all even thought he lady was nice the place was depressing. She would talk about enjoying life when your young and able to use your body. She also talked about having to relearn all her motor skills after the stroke. As I was leaving she said for me to tell my parents they raised a good kid.
Afterwards I found another bathroom made a couple phone calls and went to my next. This one was next to another park and not to far from where I live. In fact I used to pass by this building often while walking to friends houses (when I didn't have a car). I even wondered sometimes what the inside must be like. This is one of those buildings where there are a few store fronts and apartments on top. This particular unit is on the ground floor and houses the owners of the building. They were two very large brothers. One of the was putting on a tattered shirt as I showed up. At first there was no light inside it was all shut up and they had no lights on inside. The walls were a weird shade of yellow. The guy told me his grandparents built the place. They showed me exactly what needed to be done which was nice. So I just replaced some damaged cable.
The next job was further north. This house had blue Astroturf all over the porch. The person who lived here was a nice old black lady. She just wanted me to program her VCR for her. I noticed she had some old Blue Note jazz records. She also had a stack of 45's. I was out of there relatively quickly.
I was out of work so I picked up an extra job. This was at a restaurant near a University some of my friends work at. It was an asian food place and boy did it smell good. They had a bit of everything Dim Sum, Pad Thai, etc. I just had to replace the box. I was really hopping they would give me some food. I had this whole fantasy of their having cooked too many fried wantons and them asking me top take some. But like life in general fantasy never reflects reality and I left hungry and craving asian food.