I was thinking back on an install (after dealing with a blind customer the other day)...


Years ago I sold a receiver, EQ, Tape Deck, Record Player, Speakers to a nice blind guy...

I volunteered to deliver it to his place later that evening... I approach his neighborhood, and it was in the nastiest most dangerous part of town. Graffitti everywhere, all the shops and houses had bars on the doors and widows, sketchy people everywhere, crappy looking dogs running free...Garbage everywhere, broken furniture and BBQ's lying around... babies screaming in the background...Police sirens and ambulance sirens every minute or so... There was a 7-11 I went in to ask directions and it had a 2 inch thick bullet proof plastic or glass booth for the cashier... He didn't speak very good english so I said screw it and left.


I find this guy's apartment in this crack-head looking building... I hear people fighting and arguing in the building, and I'm totally paranoind unloading the gear by myself, afraid I'm gonna get ripped off, or they are going to break into my car.

...So I knock on his door, and it took like a couple of minutes for him to answer... I heard what sounded like the poor guy was tripping over stuff and banging into walls and crap. He opens the door, and from what I could see i the pitch black room --- looked like he was a total hoarder!!! I had to assembel one of those cheap equipment cabinets too... So I was chatting the guy up while I'm stumbling over piles of clothes and stuff with armfuls of gear...

I casually started feeling along the (dirty-filthy) wall, tripping over sh*t in the dark, for a light switch because I couldn't see sh*t. I found a switch and flipped it on... NOTHING!!! (Damn) so I didn't want to make the guy feel bad, I now was a little frantic looking for a lamp or another lightswitch -(why would he need working lights)?

Long story short, I excused myself and looked through my car for a damn flashlight---no luck. I finally found a fresh book of matches and went back and proceeded to assemble the cabinet and hook up the gear by .... matchlight!

A very awkward experience... THEN of course trying to educate the guy on how to turn the system on and off, play a record (from a blind person's perspective---whoa) and teach him where the various buttons were located was a stressful experience.
It took about 3 hours longer than I had expected, and I go out to my car to discover my Mercedes emblems and hood ornament missing, antennae busted off and trunk was "keyed" and gas cap flap opened with a missing gas cap! Not sure if someone had tried siphoning gas, or if they put something in the gas!

It was 1:30 A.M. and I just wanted to get the hell out of there alive.

What we do for a living sometimes!

The amazing thing was, that I NEVER heard back from the guy. Hope it all worked out for him.