I say that Max was a traveling HVAC repairman, but in truth he only ever fixed the H, never the V or the AC.
Max is in charge of scheduling at work. A long time ago I saw the benefit of getting close with Max. Some of the other techs mock me for it, but I think they are morons – I am buddies with the master of scheduling, so I always get the shifts I want. If the others are jealous of that, good! They should be jealous. Max is 20 years older than the second oldest employee, and is 30 years older than I am. He is a wellspring of interesting anecdotes about the old days of heating and cooling repair. When Max first started in this business he was self taught, and drove from farm to farm offering to fix heating and cooling systems for cash. This blows my mind, because these days if something goes wrong you can just call any number of HVAC companies and usually get your problem fixed that same day. Back then there was no one to call, so you either had to do it yourself, know someone with HVAC skills, or wait for a guy like Max to come around. I say that Max was a traveling HVAC repairman, but in truth he only ever fixed the H, never the V or the AC. Air conditioning simply wasn’t very widely used at that time, in that area, so furnace repairs composed 90% of his work. Max is in charge of the scheduling at work, because he is no longer allowed to make HVAC service calls. All that time in the business, and he had never gotten his official HVAC certification.