A big part of my job is managing agricultural drainage ditches (farmer puts drain tile in their field, it runs into a manmade ditch dug 100 years ago... I'm in charge of maintenance on those ditches). So that portion of the job leads to a lot of in-the-field contacts with landowners. Some of them know quite a bit about the drainage district systems. Some can't find their own ass with both hands, a map, and a flashlight. Probably 80% of the time, when there is a problem with a district tile or ditch, I show up on site, do my review, and leave without ever talking to the landowner. Sometimes the owner requests a phone call before I show up so they can be on site while I'm there, sometimes they DEMAND to be on site while I'm there. And I'm worse than the cable company - I usually don't know that I'm hitting the field for a review day until the day before, and on a long day, I'll hit between 10-12 sites (scattered around 3 counties - a site review day is typically 200+ miles of road time). I never know until I show up how long I'm going to be at any one given site - sometimes I can see the repair from the road, drive right to it, take a couple pictures, set a flag out for the contractor, and be gone in 20 minutes, sometimes I spend an hour searching a 40 acre tract before I find a 2' diameter hole over a tile. So usually, the BEST I can do for any given landowner is "Hey, I'm leaving my last job and heading your way. I'll be there in 20 minutes." On OCCASION, I'll make exceptions if they can only meet at a given time.
Today was one of those times; I needed to talk to the landowner to understand what his problem was. Called him when I left the office (30 miles away)... no answer. So went to my second site for the day... guy finally calls me back two hours later, right before lunch. Since I'm only 15 miles from his place, and need to head his direction to get lunch anyway, I agree to meet him on site at the drainage ditch at 12:45. I show up at 12:30, because I never want a client to have to wait for me.
1:00 rolls around, he still hasn't shown up, and I'm running out of time (I have another site I have to be to, 35 miles away, by 3:00, with two stops to make in between), so I call him. He says "Yeah, I'm here, whenever you show up we can look at it."
Turns out, despite us agreeing to meet at the ditch, "Here" was his shop, 1/2 mile away down the road.
Idjit.