Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Window Cleaner

“Is that sparkling, or what! There’s nothing like this moment.”

Tim attacks nail salon!
Tim attacks nail salon!

He’s looking at himself in the window mirror. His arms flail around like the Navy guy who guides planes into landings on a carrier. But what he’s actually doing is wiping the final water away from his attack on a once-grimy display window.

“Is that sparkling, or what!” says Timothy. “There’s nothing like this moment.”

I’ve met him here in Palm Plaza, near Otay Valley Regional Park. Tim has a phalanx of Palm Plaza shop windows still to clean today. But he’s happy to have the contract. Windows are his business. “I thought of advertising with the line ‘Your panes are my pleasure,’ but then I thought there’d be a few people saying ‘Is he into sado-masochism?’”

Sponsored
Sponsored
Timothy

You might believe that in his middle-plus stage of life this jolly elf of a man might be becoming sado-masochistic on himself. There’s an awful lot of vertical massaging of windows in the job he has chosen, a lot of climbing ladders, a ton of leaning and kneeling. “Specially in private houses where they have benches in front of windows, kneeling for each of them can be tough. By the time I’ve finished some of them, I can hardly walk. And it’s ‘Why are you going so slow, just from kneeling down?’ I want to say ‘My knees are shot!’ But what can you do?”

What can you do but laugh? And, to his great credit, he does.

Actually Tim has taken to wearing copper compression socks, along with suspenders. “The copper socks really help. My legs feel a lot better.”

And the suspenders? He’s wearing a pair of wide brown ones today. What do they cure? “Plumber’s Butt,” he says. “You’re leaning over a bucket and the nail salon lady’s looking down. Gotta protect the Great Divide.”

Tim used to work in pubs. Until he got fired. “I was working at Hooley’s Irish pub in Rancho San Diego for years. When they fired me, I went to my lawyer friend and said ‘What am I going to do? I’m 67 years old and they fired me!’ He said ‘Bullshit, man. Sue them for your unemployment!’ I did, and I won. He said ‘It’s about money, Tim, the insurance. You cost them more. Your premiums go up when you turn 65.’ ”

He also won an ageism suit. “Walked away with $1500. But no job.”

So he threw himself into setting up a window-cleaning business. “There’s quite a science to it. For instance, surface tension: first you’ve got to wet the glass. You’ve got to squeegee on the top edge. If you don’t wipe it first, take the tension off the water’s surface, the water won’t pull along with the squeegee. Then sometimes there’s something on the blade, and as you pull down, now there’s water behind it, and it makes a little streak line. And I’ll notice a little bead of dried water. And the customer will say, ‘I don’t see it.’ But I see it. Shit. Shit! So then I have to go back and do it the other way. It’s just the way I am.”

He dollops one, two, three, four generous capfuls of EasyGlide glass cleaner into the now-empty bucket, plus one for the bucket. “I always have too much soap in there. Deliberately. A pinch to grow an inch. It’s just the way I am.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Tim attacks nail salon!
Tim attacks nail salon!

He’s looking at himself in the window mirror. His arms flail around like the Navy guy who guides planes into landings on a carrier. But what he’s actually doing is wiping the final water away from his attack on a once-grimy display window.

“Is that sparkling, or what!” says Timothy. “There’s nothing like this moment.”

I’ve met him here in Palm Plaza, near Otay Valley Regional Park. Tim has a phalanx of Palm Plaza shop windows still to clean today. But he’s happy to have the contract. Windows are his business. “I thought of advertising with the line ‘Your panes are my pleasure,’ but then I thought there’d be a few people saying ‘Is he into sado-masochism?’”

Sponsored
Sponsored
Timothy

You might believe that in his middle-plus stage of life this jolly elf of a man might be becoming sado-masochistic on himself. There’s an awful lot of vertical massaging of windows in the job he has chosen, a lot of climbing ladders, a ton of leaning and kneeling. “Specially in private houses where they have benches in front of windows, kneeling for each of them can be tough. By the time I’ve finished some of them, I can hardly walk. And it’s ‘Why are you going so slow, just from kneeling down?’ I want to say ‘My knees are shot!’ But what can you do?”

What can you do but laugh? And, to his great credit, he does.

Actually Tim has taken to wearing copper compression socks, along with suspenders. “The copper socks really help. My legs feel a lot better.”

And the suspenders? He’s wearing a pair of wide brown ones today. What do they cure? “Plumber’s Butt,” he says. “You’re leaning over a bucket and the nail salon lady’s looking down. Gotta protect the Great Divide.”

Tim used to work in pubs. Until he got fired. “I was working at Hooley’s Irish pub in Rancho San Diego for years. When they fired me, I went to my lawyer friend and said ‘What am I going to do? I’m 67 years old and they fired me!’ He said ‘Bullshit, man. Sue them for your unemployment!’ I did, and I won. He said ‘It’s about money, Tim, the insurance. You cost them more. Your premiums go up when you turn 65.’ ”

He also won an ageism suit. “Walked away with $1500. But no job.”

So he threw himself into setting up a window-cleaning business. “There’s quite a science to it. For instance, surface tension: first you’ve got to wet the glass. You’ve got to squeegee on the top edge. If you don’t wipe it first, take the tension off the water’s surface, the water won’t pull along with the squeegee. Then sometimes there’s something on the blade, and as you pull down, now there’s water behind it, and it makes a little streak line. And I’ll notice a little bead of dried water. And the customer will say, ‘I don’t see it.’ But I see it. Shit. Shit! So then I have to go back and do it the other way. It’s just the way I am.”

He dollops one, two, three, four generous capfuls of EasyGlide glass cleaner into the now-empty bucket, plus one for the bucket. “I always have too much soap in there. Deliberately. A pinch to grow an inch. It’s just the way I am.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.