Good Morning to You Too

It snowed again this morning.  Not a lot.  But enough to make people testy.

Howie was bringing me to work.  We were on the street leading to the parking lot.  He had his turn signal on and was about to turn.  A full-sized pickup truck was coming towards us.  There should have been plenty of time for us to turn safely.  However the S.O.B. driving the truck sped up and blocked the entrance.

He proceeded to gesture at me.  When I didn’t react as he wanted, he put down his window and screamed at me to back up and let him by.  He insisted I had to see him coming and should have already gotten out of his way.  Yes, that is the cleaned up version of it.

I stared for a moment, during which he became more abusive and obscene.  If I saw him then surely he saw Howie as well.  Which brings the question to mind why he sped up instead of pausing?

I had several responses in mind but bit my tongue.  He had a child with him and none of them would have been appropriate for her to hear.  I doubt I made an impression but I attempted to show that not everyone is a bullying prick. 

Howie backed up and let him pass.  As I choose to see it, that indicates that we have class whereas he does not.

More snow over the weekend.  I think we’ll stay in and leave the idiots to themselves.

Some People

Strawberry season is winding down in my yard. I must admit that as much as I dislike picking them, mainly because I get all bitten up by very nasty, itch-making invisible bugs, I am going to hate not having ultra fresh, organic fruit in an instant even more.

I shared about twenty quarts this season and have eaten that many and then some, probably double that.  The other day an individual I haven’t shared any with made a special point to comment on how small the berries were that I had given to someone else. Hey, it was over ninety several days last week and these plants have been bearing hard for a month.  Yes, many of the berries now are on the small side.  She repeated the comment three times in different ways, saying how she could tell they were not purchased, due to the size and how much extra effort it would take to prepare them.

Hmm.  No, it won’t. Not for her it won’t because I won’t be offering any to her. Not this season, not ever. I certainly could have tomorrow as I harvested over two quarts this afternoon. Instead, I’m going to enjoy all those little berries on my own.  Does that make me selfish? I don’t think so because I have shared plenty of the previous pickings with many other people. In fact, I think not giving her any qualifies me as kind since I’m not causing her any undue strain by expending the extra effort to clean and slice such teeny, tiny nuisance strawberries.

So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and get back to it. I want berries for dessert tonight as well as breakfast tomorrow.

Angry!

I was happily working away today, doing what I do, when the phone rang.  It was an Indian-sounding man asking for a former employee.  I started with my standard, “I’m sorry. You have the wrong number.” that I always spout.  Only today it did no good.  He called back.

After the eighth time of repeating myself, I grew tired of being called a liar and transferred him to an empty office.  That usually makes annoying people go away.  Not this guy.  He had an auto-dialer that tied up all the lines for half an hour. 

Several other people spoke with him, confirming that the individual he wanted was no longer employed but he wouldn’t stop.  He was rude and harassing to all of us.  Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

And, since it’s a business, I couldn’t really just pull the plug on the phone.  In the midst of all this the odd legitimate call did manage to get through, though I have no idea how.

I tried the call trace code because I would very happily turn him in but it seems to be no longer functional.  We all tried asking for a supervisor.  We tried giving him the number to the employment verification service the company utilizes but nothing got through to him.  He was on a roll, being rude and hateful.  We even tried saying we were the individual he wanted but by then that only made him nastier.

He finally quit calling here. I suspect he moved on to attacking someone else for the moment but I’m sure he’ll be back.  I really hope I’m not at my desk when he starts up again.  He seriously disrupted my Zen. 

I need chocolate.

How Rude!

I had to go to the post office this morning. Always an adventure. Today’s entertainment was supplied by the gentleman, yes, using that term very loosely, in front of me.

While standing in line, he placed a call to an establishment where he had apparently completed an application for employment. True, there’s nothing wrong with a follow-up call. Sometimes that can even be beneficial. I wouldn’t, however, recommend this guy’s technique.

To begin with he never bothered to greet the individual who answered the call in anyway. I’m not suggesting getting all chummy but a polite hello wouldn’t have killed him. Instead he began by asking what’s up with his application. From his half of the conversation, I could tell he didn’t get the response he wanted. After a huge, dramatic sigh, he spit out his name. Again, not the desired reply because he turned downright surly and just plain rude.

Now I know the person who answers the telephone in most any business isn’t also the same one responsible for doing the hiring. But often they are the ones who accept applications. And they are always the ones who people within the company speak with. See where I’m going here?

With unemployment levels still hovering around nine percent there are many more applicants than there are positions available. It might be advisable to make at least a minimal attempt with everyone you come in contact with. A good impression is never a bad thing. And yeah, you can believe if I was that receptionist I would have made it known what a total jerk that guy was

Oh after he ended the call, again not bothering with a simple goodbye, he swore very loudly about the woman he spoke to and also berated the company overall for not hiring him instantly. His tirade lasted eight minutes. Yes, I timed it. It’s been an entire month since he applied and I gather he’s tired of waiting. Hmm, my guess is that he really shouldn’t hold his breath at this point. I’m willing to bet that whatever it was that is one job he will never get.