I had to go on an emergency HVAC repair job last week.
I was woken out of a deep sleep and asked if I could be there in half an hour.
The house was less than two blocks from where I lived, and there were two elderly gentlemen who lived there. I rushed into my uniform, told my wife I would be back shortly, and got into the service van, Five minutes later, I was walking up to the door of the house. I flashed my HVAC ID badge and told them who I was. The older of the two gentleman was so grateful that he shook my hand and held it while taking me to the furnace. He said he couldn’t see well enough to know what to look for and the other old coot didn’t hear anything. He yelled this part to let me know he wasn’t lying. The old man heard enough to roll his eyes and stick his tongue out. It took about an hour to fix the furnace, and I went upstairs. I told them they needed to make sure they changed the air filter more often. There was dust and dirt inside the furnace. The air filter was made to get rid of that before it can get inside and do any damage. The noise they were hearing was the dust scraping against the components. The older gentleman grabbed my hand again and shook it vigorously. He said I should stay for a minute and he would pay me. He offered me a tip for fixing the furnace. Before I could so no, the other man told him to quit being an old fool and just give me the pie he baked while waiting.