Everyday was an adventure for me as a contractor. You never knew what would come your way. This is a true story about one interesting job.
I was called to look at removing the lower windows near the ground at a mobil home park office and closing the areas up with stucco. There were no structural changes needed. the glass was old and not shatter proof.
The manager of the park was a lovely woman who had already talked with the building department about the need for a permit. The city inspector informed her that one wasn’t necessary. The repaired are was less than 10 square yards and there was no structural changes taking place.
So I gave her my bid and left. A few days later she called me to do the job. That was the beginning of this interesting adventure.
When I arrived at the park to start my work we had a conversation.
“You will be filmed by a man who’s wife owns half of this park. We are in litigation about their offer to purchase this park from the other partners. I will cover the windows with butcher paper so he can’t see what you are doing. We have a restraining order against him so that he cannot enter this area around the clubhouse where you will be working.”
Hum, that hadn’t been mentioned before.
“Alright. I’ll do my thing and we’ll see what happens.”
So, I started my work and in a short time a fellow arrives in a hard hat with “inspector” written on the front of it and a video camera in his hands.
He starts to yell at me through the iron fence and tells me that I need a permit and need to leave. I ignored him of course and continued my work. This job was done in three stages over there days with a few days drying time in between.
So while I’m away working on other jobs, these two are going after each other everyday.
I returned on the second day and ran up against the same nut. I worked while he filmed my truck license plate, truck and myself. He was yelling at me the entire time.
“This is fun,” I thought.
I did my work and left.
I returned a few days later to finish up and discovered that the two folks had had another argument and that the man had reached through the fence and touched the park manager. She responded in kind and the police were called. After some discussion, the park manager was taken to spend the night in jail.
A quick note here. I love women and find them intriguing and interesting. However one must be careful when within reach of them. And when putting one in jail, make sure they have a meal or you will have hell to pay. The park manager was booked after dinner and was not happy about that and her mood only got worse as the night passed. Enough said here, I suppose.
The next day I returned to finish up. As I was preparing to leave, the man and the police arrived. I think he called them to look me over.
I had to sit and wait as the police officer talked with the two parties of this situation for some time.
In most cities in Southern Ca. the police can check if a repair man has a local and state license.
I had just finished my class in contracting school which prepares you to take the needed tests. I had passed the test on my first try by the way. A large fete as I had been recovering from a ruptured appendix and had just spent 17 days in the hospital before I took on this rather large job.
The policeman came up to me after some time and asked a few random questions as he ran my vehicle license through the system. Then he asked me to produce my contractors license card. I had it for only a month or so, but I did have it.
He looked at it and handed it back to me.
“Fine, you’re free to leave,” he said and walked back to his car.
When I got home I gave my wife a big hug and kiss as it was she of course who had been pushing me to get my license.
As always, there is usually a woman behind every successful man.
Don’t forget that my book of sort stories, “Sunrise, Sunset is now available on Audible.