My water spigot on the side of the well house was leaking ever so slightly. Naturally, i called the culligan customer service number and they scheduled the same two technicians that had been with me since day one to come out the very next business day. They had the spigot replaced and wrapped in insulation and electric tape and even the pressure adjusted in less than fifteen minutes. They deposited four new bags of salt chips in my tool shed. They were about ready to go when one of them noticed the exposed metal piping to my air conditioner unit. He mentioned that the sun was hitting the metal piping and warming it up, causing the unit to work extra hard, and i would do well to insulate the pipes to take the stress off the unit. I made a mental note of the materials i would need to replace the insulated tubing that had deteriorated the year before and fallen off into mush in the grass. I told them i could maybe make a run to home depot on wednesday after work. The man walked to his van and produced two pieces of insulated tubing. He also left me with a number of my favorite things in the world; zip ties. I had electrical tape in the shed but chances were, as the summer temperatures melded the insulated tubing together it would shrink a bit, at which point i could tighten the zip ties…if i left the tails long enough to grasp. They had saved me a trip to home depot and the humiliation and guilt that came along with being a healthcare worker in a public place. I will never get tired of the running theme with hill country repair men; they don’t just give advice on the thing they make their living doing but they pay attention to and give advice on all running machines and structures found on the property during their stay. As soon as i’d locked the gate behind them i took my knife, the tubing, and the zip ties over to the a/c unit and covered the exposed metal pipes, hiding them from the relentless summer sun. As i zip tied the last tube in place i heard the motor relax. It sounded less like a dying one-engine airplane and more like a quiet modern dishwasher. It worked; almost instantly. I called and left a message with the phone operator who assured me he would get my comments to the crew that had been to the property earlier that morning. I told him they had given me advice on the a/c unit while they were at the property, i decided to take it, and it was running better already. I asked him to thank them for me. I was being purposely cryptic about the supplies given, as i didn’t want to get them in trouble for using supplies on non-water-related issues. However, their small act of kindness in giving me the supplies to fix my problem on the homestead would ensure that i would be an avid and loyal customer for life. Happy customers were the kind of people that could be trusted to recommend the service highly to all their friends and coworkers. So, i figured they would make back the little cash spent on the supplies ten-fold in new customers and long-term business from me. I felt this way but i wasn’t sure the phone operator would agree, so i kept the message cryptic and moved on with my day.