heaters and dirt

Today we had maintenance done on our heater. I was available to be home to let the repairman inside. The repairman came to the door and asked me if Dust was home yet. I told him it was easier for me to be home than Dust. Dust had previously planned on leaving work. He probably thought oh, great I have to explain all of this to a woman. I tried to listen real carefully to everything he told me. He wasn't condescending or anything and didn't make me feel stupid. I got the impression that he wanted me to watch what he was doing. It's hard to know whether standing by a repairman makes them nervous or annoyed. I went back upstairs when he ran the vacuum through the heater. I wrote down everything he told me on a piece of paper so I wouldn't forget to tell Dust.

While we were watching for the heater to kick on, he started cleaning the unit with a rag. I was so embarrassed with how dirty it was. I made a comment about how I needed to clean it better. He said it is hard because the washer and dryer is so close to it. The lint that you find in the lint trap will blow out and cling to the heater. There was a sticker on the unit that was about to fall off and he asked if he could tear it off. Another embarrassing moment. He had to check some numbers or cables or something outside the house and when he came back in he said he didn't want to get the carpet dirty because he had stepped outside. I really didn't care. He stayed on the linoleum entryway and gave me the paperwork. I picked up on the fact that he was a neat freak. I usually don't worry about how clean the house is because I generally think that men, especially repairmen, don't mind dirt. Guess I was wrong this time.