I did not intend to be away so long, but the past few days have been busy. Nothing really outside of the norm that I have already addressed, but it takes me away from posting these stories. Monday of this week was actually a normal day. I did nothing for most of the day. At about 5:30 I got my first call to help someone locked out of a car. By 10 O'clock I had, had seven calls. Six of them were paying calls and one was a call that was canceled as I turned into the Walmart parking lot. But there is a new twist on the baby locked in the car stories. It was the first call of the day, I was called for a baby locked in the car type of job. But this time it was the entire family involved. They were heading to south Florida to visit family, and coming from Michigan. The Dad hit something on the road and blew a tire. Naturally he pulled off of I-75 to change the tire. He, his wife and their son got out of the car to see about getting the tire changed. The one year old daughter, left inside, locked them out of the car. In this case when I told them they owed nothing for the service, I told the father so I didn't wind up wiping lipstick off of my face before returning home.
I have mentioned that I work for a set of partners, so I have two bosses. That's fine. They are actually decent people who are a pleasure to work for. I'm sure many of us have had the other kind of boss to work for. You know, the ones who set something down in front of you, walk to the other end of the room and when they come back they want to know why you aren't finished yet. These guys aren't like that. They actually tell me to let them know when the work load becomes too much and they need to send someone else to handle the overload. But I regret to say that both of them are what I call somewhat technologically challenged. I once had one of them send me an address that told me I was supposed to be in Poland in 25 minutes. That's right Poland, as in eastern Europe.
Uhhh sorry boss. It is an hour from here to the coast, and once the front wheels of this car hit the water forward momentum kind of slows down. MAYBE if I was on the U.S.S, Enterprise I could make it, but not in this car. After playing with the address and talking to the customer it turns out they were actually about ten minutes away. But one of the worst things I have to deal with is when it comes to going to calls on the campus of the University of Florida. Most of the time I am asked to call the customer for their exact location. That involves a great deal of conversation. Most of them are new to the area and have no idea of where they are. About the best I can do is ask them for an intersection that they can identify so I can at least get close and then they guide me to the exact spot I need to be. The vast majority of the time they are understanding and as helpful as they can be. After all, they NEED to get into the car. But sometimes they are not so helpful. There was one time a young "lady" needed to have the lock cut off of her bicycle. She had lost the key for it. She was on the U.F. campus and I was headed her way when I called her back for specific directions.
"I'm on Center Drive."
Center Drive cuts all the way across the campus, and the U.F. campus covers several square miles of land. She could be anywhere.
"Can you give me a cross street so I can find you? If I don't know where you are there is very little I can do to help you."
"I don't know. F**k you dude."
And she hung up on me. I guess some people expect me to be a mind reader. Is it any wonder why I want my bosses to give me exact addresses?
But even when they do, GPS is not my friend. I got a call first thing this morning, halfway across town. G.P.S. Took me the wrong direction. Thankfully I was within two blocks of the correct location. I was able to help the lady. G.P.S. has tried to take me down roads that don't exist. Imagine making a turn expecting to see a one lane road and all you have is a fence with nothing but woods behind it. It often tells me that I have to exit my property by going thought the woods behind my home into the parking lot of the hospital behind my property and then pull out and make a left turn in an area where that isn't possible because of the concrete curb in the middle of the road. G.P.S. has taken me to areas that are miles away from the actual location I need to be at. And with Gainesville having the transient population that it does, sometimes people don't know where they are. There is a great deal of difference between 123 NW 43 St and 123 NW 43 Ave. or Drive, or Way, or whatever. It can get interesting.
Another hazard to the profession is obviously other locksmiths. When people are in a panic, they will call several locksmiths and the first one to arrive is the one to get the job. The problem is that they are so happy I got there, they didn't bother to call the other locksmiths and tell them that I got there first. Most of the time the other locksmith LOUDLY informs the customer that since they called and the locksmith responded, they owe him for a service call at the least. That is followed by an argument, that I stay out of, about;
"Well you didn't do anything and this guy opened my car. I don't owe you anything. You didn't do anything."
Sometimes I'm on the other side. I get to the job and another locksmith is already working. Obviously it is upsetting to me. I've just spent time and gas to get to the location to help someone and it is all for nothing. In all honesty I could get upset and act like the other locksmiths do, and in all honesty I would be justified in my displeasure. I mean the customer could have called and told me the other guy was already there. That's just common courtesy. But if I act like they do, am I any better than them? I think not. Quite often I will stand around and watch them. After all, I don't know all of the tricks. Maybe I can learn something from them. And in truth a few times I have. Maybe I can lend a hand and show them something they don't know. That has happened as well. While it is something of a cut throat business, we are polite to each other and from time to time if we are overloaded or run into something we can't handle, we will recommend another locksmith we believe can take care of the job. And they do the same for us. For example;
One night I was at a house and NOTHING was working. I spent forty-five minutes on a job that should have taken ten at the outside. What can I say except that some of the locks I have to work on look like they were installed about the day after God was born. These locks haven't been made in decades, sometimes longer. I couldn't get the lock to pick. The other locksmith arrived and I turned the job over to him. He DID get the lock to pick, but in the wrong direction. Basically he locked a lock that was already locked. We have a device called a plug spinner for just that reason. The idea is that it is spring loaded and you wind it up in the direction you need the lock to turn. When you push the button it is supposed to spin the keyhole so fast the pins inside don't have a chance to reset. It works about 85% of the time. This guy couldn't get his plug spinner to do the job. Mine was a different type. I asked him to pick the lock one more time in the wrong direction and let me give it a try. He did and my plug spinner worked. I opened the door for the customer and he was happy. The other locksmith WAS the one who picked the lock, so he wrote the bill and the customer paid him. We went to our vehicles and he gave me a percentage of the payment because my plug spinner worked and his didn't. Call it professional courtesy.
The problem with being a Christian locksmith is that sometimes you have to be a Christian first. A couple of years ago I got to the location and the young lady was locked out of her car. It was close to Christmas and she had people already at her house getting ready for some celebrations. BUT her baby was at the house. The child was being taken care of by a friend so there wasn't really a problem there. Her problem was that this was Wednesday night. She was broke and wouldn't get her paycheck until Friday. In the mean time she couldn't pay for our services. Am I going to abandon a mother miles from her child during Christmas because of a lack of money? I think not. I opened the car, wished her a Merry Christmas and spent the five or so miles from the location to my home wiping lipstick off of my face before I got home to my wife. And YES I lied to my boss and told him that she had gotten into the car on her own before I got there. A sin, I know, but one I think The Lord would not be too unhappy about. Maybe Joseph and Mary could afford a room that first Christmas night, but they needed someone to lend a hand. O.K. it was just a stable, but it was something. Someone did something for them, so how could I do less?
More recently, There was a job for me to open a car. Quite often the boss will tell the customer the price of opening the car before I even get sent the job. In those cases I have no problems asking for the money. The customer agreed to the price before I was sent. In this case the location is at a local church. After I open the car, the gentleman tells me that he is unemployed. He has a total of ten dollars to his name and four or five bags of donated groceries sitting on top of his car. What am I supposed to do? Relock the car and walk away? I think not. I took five dollars and a promise to pay the rest when he got a job. As far as I know the rest was never paid, but The Lord knows and He will repay both of us.