The Dishwasher Repairman

Last Friday I was expecting the dishwasher repairman to come to the house between 1 - 5 p.m. to fix our dishwasher. A repairman had come the week before and needed to order parts because he did not have them on his truck. Every time we request an appliance repair or delivery at the house, we always ask for the repairmen not to call the house but for them to call my department at work instead. That way I have some an idea of when they are expected to be at the house. This allows me to use my lunch hour to run home before they get there. This arrangement is another source of frustration for me because repairmen don't always get the instructions or message to call me at work. The first guy was real good about doing that and it worked out perfectly once my coworkers told me he was on the way. Well, last Friday was different. We have two exchange students from Latvia that attend Maryville College and are part of our church family. Sometimes they stay with us when they are not housesitting or staying in someone else's home. They store most of their belongings in our basement and know that they can come whenever they need to. When I left work on Friday at my normal time, the repairman had not called me at work yet. I figured I had enough time to get home and would not miss him. When I walked in the door, there was a note on the kitchen counter from the Kristines (both of our Latvian students are named Kristine but we call them "Lemon" and "Bear"). I had no idea they were planning to be at the house that day but they needed to get some of their things. At the end of their sweet note it said "Oh, one more thing: Sears called and said something about parts. You need to call them as soon as possible." When I read that, I immediately ran upstairs to make a TTY/TDD call to Sears to see if I could catch the repairman before he was done for the day. I wasn't having much luck but while I was making my relay call on the computer, the phone rang. I could tell by the Caller Id that it was the repairman. I cringed because I knew I needed to answer the phone even though I would not be able to have a decent conversation. I heard a man's voice talking to me as soon as I pressed the speakerphone. When I heard a pause, I basically told the caller that I was "Mrs. Pullins and that I was expecting the dishwasher repairman to come and fix my dishwasher." I also told him that I was at the house waiting for him. He said something about "be there soon" and then hung up. I had no idea how soon but he did show up about 45 minutes later. He was real nice and apologized to me and said he did call me at work after he called the house. My coworkers did give him the message that I had already left the office but I had no way of knowing that. I was glad it all worked out even though he did not get directions to call me at work first. I look forward to the day when I will be able to handle my own telephone calls instead of being dependent on others to make or take my calls for me. It is hard to have conversations on the phone when one doesn't know what is being said on the other end!