Patience is ....

over-rated. I need some patience and I need it now! Seriously though, you've probably heard that "patience is a virtue." I guess that's why it can be quite difficult for me to have patience, I'm just not that virtuous some days.

What can really make it hard for me to be patient, is incompetence. It frustrates me to no end when I'm dealing with someone who is just plain old incompetent. It's even worse when you are paying for the privilege of dealing this with this individual. Business and organizations that want me to spend money with them, but then hire people who are incapable of doing the job just drive me crazy.

I recently had way too much fun with the L.A. World Honda dealer. We've been getting our cars serviced there for quite a while. To make a long story short, they really screwed up and wanted me to pay nearly $4000 to fix their mistake. Can you say "forget that"? I told the service rep that their mess up was going to cost them way more than $4000, because I was going to take my three Hondas somewhere else from now on. They'd more than recoup their money if they fixed their mistake and made it right. They didn't want anything to do with it. Maybe my 3 little Hondas just aren't enough to affect them, I don't know. But in any case, I'm done with them.  I found another shop to fix their mistake and it only cost me $2500. (I still think the dealer should have fixed it for free...) But if you need a great transmission shop, I HIGHLY recommend Stu's Transmission on Cherry Ave in Long Beach, CA. Great place. Oh and did I mention that you should avoid L.A. World Honda like it's the plague? But in all the hassle, I had to learn to be patient -- once again. It wasn't easy because I really wanted to choke someone.

Why is it harder to act like a responsible, decent human being, than it is to be a complete jerk? Maybe because we are all a little weird and dysfunctional. Maybe because it's just easier to take the low road instead of the high road. Maybe because we think expressing some of our frustration will make everything better - or at least make us feel better. Neither of which is true in my experience. So I guess I need to continue to work on my patience. Sigh....

What virtue do you need to work on? That's worth pondering about.

Overhaul

Blogger has rolled out a new tool for updating the look and feel of your blog. I was so impressed with their new template designer that I got all inspired and stuff and put a new virtual coat of paint on the place. Their tool is so easy to use, I could update the look every week. Ok, maybe that's not the best idea. But if you have a blog on Blogger, I highly suggest you check it out.

People are......

weird. Yup, that's right people are weird. All people are weird. Some are weirder than others. And what's weird to some, might not be weird to others. But in one way or another, we are a little weird.

Here's a recent example in my little world...

I was going into work one morning and a woman entered using a different entrance about the same time. In this particular building you have to sign in if you arrive before 7am. She looks at me and realizes I'm going to make it to the sign-in book before she is. Apparently this is a big problem for her and she actually starts running to make it to the book before I do. So there she is running across the lobby in her high heels to make to the to sign-in book before the guy with the motorcycle helmet in his hand. Definitely weird, but no biggie - I wasn't in that much of a hurry to get to work. However, when she got to the sign-in book, she wrote her name with... well I don't really know how to describe it, I guess I'll just say with much flair and dignity. I am not sure why, maybe she's recently taken some calligraphy classes at the local adult night school and she wants to get her monies worth. Anyway, it took her like a minute and half to write her name, the time and the company she works for. It took me like 10 seconds. So she ran to get in front of me to write slowly and take her time. The whole thing was just weird.... especially for 6am in the morning.

Obviously, this is not a major event, but it illustrates the point well. We all do weird things. Things that from other people's point of view - make no sense at all. I'm sure that woman had a good reason, at least to her, for her weird behavior - but that reason completely alludes me. It's just weird.

So the next time some disappoints you, or hurts your feelings or is just plain old strange - remember that people are weird. ALL people are weird. And that includes you too.