It's not all luxury homes and condos that need window tinting.
Every so often we get calls from folks living in trailers and double-wides.
I'll be politically correct here by saying that they are all very nice people and usually long in years. (That's how I'd like to be described rather than that A-Hole, but I digress)
So I headed out to a double wide in Lakeland.
Lakeland is the no man's land situated between Orlando and Tampa.
It's best seen from a car window zipping by at 75 MPH.
So there I am knocking on the door of the double wide. Their trailer singled out with a spinning wind mill stuck in a rock pile gravel front yard.
A dog or two starts barking and in a few seconds the door swings open and a husky gent greets me.
I'm overpowered with the smell of dog crap and something else which I am confident isn't a bowl of Gardenias.
The lady of the house is sitting in their TV room and makes no movement to welcome me. I do detect some eye movement as she watches a quiz show on a Hi Def TV twice as big as anything in my house.
Detecting her interest I follow suit and notice that it's a game show where the contestants all seem very young (like teenagers) and they are answering tough questions.
I wonder for a moment whether not knowing anything makes her feel stupid when she watches this stuff or is she somehow proud of these kids for knowing so much??
The husband (I assume that's who he is or he'd have run away years ago!) details their need.
He wants something that will stop the heat and give them privacy. I immediately imagine all their neighbors dying to see what these two are eating to maintain their weight.
He wants to do the room that gets most hot and even though the other room is only separated by hanging beads; I get the message and show them the darkest shiniest window tinting known to man or beast.
The wife suddenly turns away from the TV and asks me how much this magical cure will cost her?
I tell them I have to measure to figure out the amount of glass we will cover.
She tells me to "watch my step" because their dogs don't go out to crap and in fact the other room in their double-wide is designated for where their mutts do their business!
Seriously.
So I tell them it might just be easier to measure from the outside of the trailer.
I give them a price and they tell me that two more window tint companies are coming to give estimates after me.
I tell them they should choose whomever they think is giving them the best value and that my guys will wear booties when they install which we usually wear to protect the client's carpets, etc. but this time we would to protect my installers shoes!
I waved goodbye and left.
They went with another window tint company who sold them a dark shiny film twice as expensive as my quote.
When I asked why they told me that the other fella told them the shiny film wasn't shiny and they believed him.
Watch your step. . .