I was just doing what I usually do, minding my own business, when there was a knock at the door. **Who could that *be, I thought—and as I wasn’t dressed for the world, I called out for the person to wait while I quick got a robe.

“It’s Jerry,” the person on the other side of the door told me when I asked, and I recognized him as the one who mounted my flat-screen TV on the wall. **What could he *want, I wondered as I opened the door. “Your neighbor’s sink is clogged,” he told me, “so yours likely is as well. I’m going to have to check your kitchen sink.” So I let him in, and he poured down drain cleaner.

When I got my TV put up, I remember the building administrator being impressed with how good it looked—until I told her who had done the work. “It hasn’t fallen down—yet.” (That was a year ago, and it’s still there.)

Of our two main maintenance guys—Tom and Jerry—Jerry’s the one I respect. He doesn’t just act like he works hard. Neither does he merely supervise.

I used to think another maintenance worker, Royce, was just as competent—but now I have my doubts. To give one example, let’s use the drain: after the day my sink overflowed after rinsing dishes, I called down to have someone look at the drain. Royce concluded that the drain was open, and he left.

He’s one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet—but he does a rush job so that he can move on to the next thing.

So, although I don’t see Jerry often, I’m always happy to see him. I know he’ll do the job right—the first time.

When he was here, Jerry noticed something—probably the handle—was loose, but he didn’t say anything to me about it. I learned when Sue, the administrator, and I were talking a few days later. Seems to me he could have been more clear—and comm.unicated to me that there was a problem. Sue did put in a work order, though, and Royce is coming up later to look at it.

Well, that certainly wasn’t a quick job. First, Royce determined that the handle was, indeed loose. So he had to go down for a screwdriver. Then he had to go down for a flashlight because he couldn’t see what he was doing. Then he had to go down to get someone to come up with him—so Sue came up for the second time today.

End result? They need to come back another day in order to replace **the entire *faucet. “Right now it’s working like it used to—but the handle’s very loose.”