Need advice from women stripers

Thank you guys for the input, it was greatly appreciated. I have to say, tonight we were on a job and a man pulled up and began visiting with us..asking lots of questions and giving us great compliments on our job. He then told us that he was the President of a very large condominium association that was right down the street and low and behold it needed to be striped. He said he was very impressed to see two women doing this job and our lot looked better than most he had seen and a lot better than his last striper. So I have a meeting with him on Wednesday to bid the job. Yeah for our team. Kinda the boost I needed after dealing with some of the people I have in the past week. We were feeling pretty good at that point, then finished the job and began clean up and our gun caught fire. Litterally...I tell you, sometimes if it wasn't for bad luck, we wouldn't have any. This man stopped and had a fire extinguisher and put it out. In all the years my dad painted, then my uncle also painted...never did this happen. Has it happened to any of you??? We had a strong wind tonight and evidentally the fumes from the mineral spirits got a little too close to the muffler and ignited. If we would've had a video camera, you would've seen us on America's Funniest Home videos, because we both freaked out. But we survived with some melted hoses and a big hole burnt in our tarp. Another crazy striping adventure...so if any of you newbies out there...this does happen so be careful. Well thanks again for the input, it was greatly appreciated!

GLCOKC, I am sorry to hear about your exploding striper, but happy to hear about your potential jobs with the condo assoc. President. His reaction to women working in construction is what I run into most of the time. People, mostly contractors and other construction workers don't look down on me as a woman in "their world", they admire me if I can get the job done. Once they get used to seeing you and your sister out there job after job without your dad or uncle present, they will come around, I think. Be patient and like Wend said, be confident.

The fire was more likely started from a static spark when the gun touched a "ground". Ask RandyV.... he know first hand (or should I say, first face). (That's the reason for the chain hanging down under an airless striper....to ground static charges generated by paint flowing through the lines.)