Catalyst Castle

Allow me to explain.

I wash windows for a living. One of the accounts I do every month is a hair salon located near Altamonte Springs. I wash the windows on the storefront and I come inside to wash all of their mirrors. The hair stylists and the clientele are all older women, for the most part. Every time I work in there, it seems that someone always has some kind of remark to make about the work I'm doing. These comments fall, almost universally, into one of two categories. Either, (1) you would think that I was there performing brain surgery by the way these women are just in awe of my ability ("No, really ma'am, this isn't as hard as it looks." -me), or (2) you would think they had earned their doctorate in window cleaning by the way they can critique my work and point out the various things I could be doing better ("Yes ma'am, of course Windex and newspapers would do a better job, but I only do this for a living." -me).

On the other hand, one time I overheard a very nice old lady ask her stylist: "Do you think that young man would mind if I pointed out to him that he missed a spot?" Of course, I want my customers to be happy with the quality of my work, so if I miss something I'm happy to have someone point it out to me. I thought it was nice that this woman was considerate about it though. It also occured to me that she may have been aprehensive, because some young guys wouldn't take kindly to being called on the carpet, and may take up a retalitory attitude. That makes me sad.

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Window-Washer