Scenario 1: The YP's school bus showed up 25 minutes late yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, I am once again heading down the street to pick him up -- five minutes before the 10 minutes she already shows up early -- and am in plain sight of the bus driver when she pulls to a stop -- especially since she passes our block and turns around in the cul de sac and lets the kids off on her second pass. And I hear her say "Tell your mom mjrmrmbhjm."
The YP comes close enough and I say "What'd she want?" He says, "She said you have to be AT the bus stop, or she can't let me off."
Commence seething. I'm of half a mind to tell her off completely this afternoon, especially if she drags that thing around so much as one second before or after her usual 10 minutes early. I mean, really. This is absurd. The only kid out there that needs a parent to get off the bus is mine -- nevermind that five other kids get off the bus with him and they all know where each other live and for chrissakes the fifth-grader is probably equipped to babysit him for hours on end at this point, never mind walk him the half-block home from the bus if he REALLY freaks out and can't find his way on his own (Which he totally could. DUH.)
This is almost enough for me to push again to get the kid in first grade, just so I can tell that beeyotch that she won't be seeing me again any time soon and by the way she owes me about an hour of my life back.
So, what would you say when the bus pulls up?
Scenario 2: After this little episode, I am on the phone with our water softener company. The softener has been doing this weird thing where it backwashes and backwashes and never turns off. I tell the woman this and say I would like someone to come out and look at it. She takes my phone number and says, "You know you bought this in 1993?" Well, no, because we didn't buy it, it came with the house. But OK. And she says, "Well, even if we can fix it, we'll have to order the part. So it will be $150 just for the diagnostic visit and then we'll need to come out again when we have the part."
"Will that be another $150 for the second visit?"
"No, just parts and labor. But we can't promise about the part until we see the equipment."
"OK, that's fine. Let's do it."
"Really? You want to fix it from 1993?"
"Yeeeeessss, is there a problem?"
The woman SIGHS. And tells me to wait. Then she says, "We can come out next Tuesday." I say, "Tuesday is not good for me, let's skip ahead and do it Oct. 10?"
The woman SIGHS AGAIN.
I say, "Excuse me, did you REALLY just sigh at me because I want a different appointment?"
Long pause. "No."
"I bet. So do you have anything on the 10th or not?"
"Yes, in the morning."
"That will be fine. Thank you."
And she hangs up on me.
Seriously. Seething. For a good hour afterward. I'm half tempted to call some other plumber to look at the water softener and then just not be home on the 10th, or say "I didn't schedule an appointment, it must be a prank," or something else along those lines. Except, of course, it's not the poor repair guy's fault that the receptionist needs a boot to the head. Sigh.
GAH! I am absorbing the stress from reading this post. What the HELL?!
Posted by: Mary | September 25, 2008 at 02:59 PM
You probably handled it better than me.
Posted by: Lori | September 28, 2008 at 11:17 AM