10 November 2004 18:32
{gasp} now where did i wander off to?sure, i've been "too busy to write". riiight. i can't say that, because i thoroughly dislike the concept of being "too busy" for most anything.
well?
as usual, this morning's sunrise was gorgeous.
as usual, the sun became annoying after the first five minutes of shining through the windshield.
why did this come to mind? because I'm sure that as usual, the sunset will be gorgeous, but that won't happen yet, and meanwhile the sun is shining through the window into my eyes. not that i'm complaining mind you, becuase sunshine is a good thing for one. and for two, i dasn't complain, i'm too lazy to get up and do something about it, but would rather suffer uncomplainingly than suffer to be called a hypocrite. not that it would be far from the truth :\.
okay fine, so i got up and put a large manilla envelope in the window. i'm not so lazy after all. i should kick back and have a celebratory snack...
culled from today's newspaper:
The call for calm, however, failed to quell the tempers of angry motorists who went on a hunt for petroleum yesterday. "Dem keep on a seh don't panic, everything criss, ship a come. Mi follow dem an only buy $500 [$8.20 US] yesterday, now dat done and mi caan get none fi buy today." [sic]
the contrast in a newspaper article between the writer and the persons quoted can be humorous enough in rural portions of the states. here it is much more noticable. i like the reporting style better in fact, it's more narrative in nature, as opposed to the choppy fact repetitions of the american press.
===
one day i went into town to get some lumber. normally i'd take dad or kyle's pickup into lowes, maybe with the trailer along, surf the store, get what i need, and come home. hour and a half or so, right?
well, we're lacking a company pickup here, so i caught a ride into town with McGregor, who is a whole 'nother story in an of himself. this was soon after ivan, so there was still no light, and the chamber generator had bought the farm. while we were waiting for fedex to get their ducks in a row (normally one would think that a 1-2 day shipment shouldn't take five days), we lost a consignment of flies, which was also interesting in and of itself. let's put it this way, our little peninsula was most decidedly saturated--you shouldn't have to worry about infection there. so with the chamber down, three dispersers were floating around with nothing to do--they elected to tag along. i hopped in the back with andy and we breezed on into town.
we pulled through the lumber yard gates and mosied in. by the end of the venture, i was exceedingly glad to have mcgregor along, it probably cut my time there in half. we walked over to the ordering desk. there were three desks, of course, and none had signs. the ordering desk was being used by a lady in her upper 20's who was decidely not all smiles and bright looks. she had some signs on the column beside her desk, inspirational things like the following by Frank Outlaw:
"Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."
i've found it tho, to be a bad omen when one sees such signs. repeatedly i've seen workstations here with gooey inspirational phrases and dagger-eyed receptionests and desk jockys who would really prefer it if you didn't exist. the people with whom it is a joy to interact with, they don't have such things posted. the only two i've met so far didn't even have personal workspaces, which might explain why they had nothing posted, but i think there still might be a connection.
i hope i never have to work at job where part of my job description is customer interaction, but if i do, i hope i can do it with a smile.
a smile can truly make one's day. i know because i've been smiled at before when things were going to hades on a broomstick, and some how a total stranger's smile brightened everything.
of course, if you don't feel like helping your fellow man, there's the well-worn...
always smile (it makes people wonder what you're up to).
back to our gloomy-eyed billing girl, she was muttering dark curses, glaring darkly at the computer, and being darkly unhelpful. after fifteen minutes of waiting on the guy in front of us, while watching everybody else waiting at the other two counters, sharna and the other girl got tired of standing while waiting and decided to test the lawn chairs. if you ever want to practice waiting, this is the place to do it. i waited 75 minutes yesterday to see an immigration official for 12 minutes. i actually only needed seven, but she was on the phone for five... then i went to wait in another line. fortunately, i was in the short line, another counter was doing something different, they were polling number customer #676 when i left. it's like waiting at the dmv, except the chairs are outside under a tent in teh parking lot.
after mcgregor took his turn, i ordered my spiel. i can still remember it. three sheets of plywood, some 2x4's, screws, paintbrushes, and a gallon of "bluebell" paint. we wanted blue, and that was the only paint with blue in the name, so i went with it. turned out to be an acceptable shade--i was just glad it was actually blue.
then i had the privelege of trying to get the cashier to take a creditcard. they felt like charging in USD, which basically means they can skim an exchange fee off the top. out back i in effect "bought the man a bit of lunch" in mcgregor's words, so he'd cut the 2x4x16's down to 8'. twas the first time i'd heard of "buying a bit of lunch" used as an euphemism for bribery. the next obstacle was the screws.. i ordered a box, right? as in a little 1lb box off the shelves right behind the billing lady's head. instead, they plopped a 23lb monstrosity down on the counter. i wasn' tintersted in either the extra $20 cost, nor in having two thousand screws left over after using fifty of them. trying to tell this to the guy behind the counter was impossible, i had to use mcgregor as an interpretor. that has it's drawbacks, namely, i almost need an interpretor to speak to mcgregor in the first place. eventually he worked out some scheme to give back most of it and keep just five pounds of screws. still four times as many as we needed, but compromise is better than defeat :).
for a refund, i got to visit the manager hisself. this involved air conditioning, so i was hip with it. the contrast between the well dressed and obviously educated managerial team and the workers outside was striking. one thing was obvious to me. and education brings air conditioning, so it must be worth every cent. they were also much more polite than the staff up front, who while not rough like the laborers, were still not very polite atall. that said, i got to visit the cashier again, who grumpily counted out my return in cash. {sigh} now i had a paperwork fiasco when i got back to work...
we were loaded, all was good. we even remembered to pick up our errant dispersers, who were still doing long term slouch studies on the lawn chairs up front. on the way back we stopped for some OJ. i don't think the people at the centre realized it was going to be two hours before the juices they ordered would be back. but they probably didn't care. that's a decided benefit of being easy-going.
i know i'm slacking in the picture department. i'm working on it. i've even taken them. they're just a hassle to upload.
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