Leelanau Whippersnapper

Wow, it’s been a long couple of days.  It’s been quite warm up here but it looks like we’ll be getting snow now this weekend.  I’m finally off for another weekend and boy I need the rest.  I think I’ll be sleeping in late tomorrow unless I happen to fall asleep very early tonight which is quite likely.  It’s been a zoo at work.  I’m always amazed at the human condition, especially in these parts.  People put off their projects until the very last second and then they completely overwhelm themselves with the amount of work they have left to do and hardly any time left in the season to do it.  I’ve sold a TON of exterior paints and stains this past week and I’ve had to make sure that me and all my employees were warning customers about what happens if you use these products when it is too cold or wet.  It won’t stop most of them from trying to get their projects done, the products will fail and they will be back next year to blame me for their inability to follow directions.  That’s the one thing that I’ve become very used to over the years working in retail.  It doesn’t matter how much information and education you give a customer, they STILL will not follow directions and it will STILL be MY fault when the product doesn’t work like they think it should.  Ya, you know we retail slaves own all the manufacturing plants of all the products we sell and are personally out there making this shit….it reminds me of my mom’s stories of her preschool age students when she was teaching, they all thought she lived at the school because she was a teacher there.  Children could not separate the profession from the person…much like the people I deal with daily can’t separate the salesman from the manufacturer.  Not much difference there folks.  Don’t be dweebs.

So all this shit going on at work and guess what happened on Thursday morning as I was on my way out the door 20 minutes before I had to be at work (I love living close to work now).  I HAD A FLAT TIRE!!!  As my car gets older I’m starting to lose my tolerance for some of this shit.  I replaced all 4 tires on my car 2 years ago and I’ve had 3 flat tires in since then.  Lucky for me I learned early in my life how to put on a spare tire and I did actually make it to work on time although screaming down the road at 55mph with a tiny spare tire is not exactly a safe thing to do.  Today, I spent 3 hours sitting in the waiting room at Discount Tire after I got out of work while they fixed my car.  I don’t blame all these tire problems direction on Discount Tire.  They have always treated me well and none of my flat tires have cost me a dime to have fixed (due to warranty).  Most of the issues have to do directly with the types of rims on my car which fuck up the tire and cause them to leak…sometimes very slow, sometimes quite quickly…of course I also work at a place the sells nails and screws which routinely end up in the parking lot…go figure.  What I don’t like however is the fact that going to Discount Tire is NEVER a short in and out trip.  Just like shopping at Meijer, I can always count on an excessive amount of time being spent waiting around.  So anyhow, I also had them fix a recall problem specific to my car, rotate my tires and balance them and get them all working correctly.  I should be good now through the winter.  The next project on that car is to have the brakes done.  That’s the other issue with this car, I’ve had the car about 6 or 7 years and I have had at least 4 brake jobs on it….not just brake pads..the whole dam rotors and everything.  Not cheap, I’m not likely to buy a Chevy Malibu again.

Finally a bit of good news before I sign off for the night.  I found out yesterday that I will get 10 paid days off this next year.  I’ve finally been with my company long enough that they feel I deserve 80 hours of vacation (rather than 40) so I get to take several long weekends this coming year and I am also planning another trip to Las Vegas at some point in the early spring (contingent on all the other bills being paid…yes, that means what I owe to you Mom and Dad).

I realize the election is over but I haven’t posted much in the way of offensive jackassery lately so here you go.

This has been a rough week at work.  This time of year, I always prepare myself for exceptionally busy days, exceptionally rude customers, annoying (and mostly unsupervised) children tearing around the store, and self-professed Do-It-Yourselfers (who should not be doing ANYTHING themselves).  I prep myself each day before work and I tell myself not to take shit personally and for the most part I don’t.  This year is different.  I’ve been up here working in this job now for 4 years.  NEVER in those 4 years have I come across SO many people who are SO oblivious to every single other person around them.  Today alone, I had no fewer than 5 customers storm up to my desk, cut in to conversations I was having with OTHER customers who were there before them and rudely BARK what they wanted.  SO completely oblivious to the fact that there was anyone in front of them in line and so completely unaware that they were doing anything even remotely uncivilized.  This sort of behavior is usually reserved to the rich and privileged who have never worked a day in their pretty little lives but this sort of thing is leaching out of every class of person we see and it’s happening MUCH more frequently than at any other time that I can remember.  Even the day after Thanksgiving is not this full of arrogant assholes.

OK, usually when people are assholes to me, I will step back, and take a look at my OWN behavior.  Maybe I’m the one with the problem here, maybe I have the attitude and my existence is just pissing people off.  Once I determine that I’m in reasonably good spirits I look at the bigger picture, what’s my team doing? Is anyone else having these issues.  When it turns out that EVERYONE is having the same problems with customers then there is something much bigger going on, something beyond my direct control.  That’s where we are folks.  EVERY single person I talked to at work is having the same problems with rude, arrogant, and completely oblivious customers.  A LOT of these customers come in to the store just pissed off at the world and ready to fight with anyone who even DARES ask them how they are doing.

Reason:  Its the economy stupid.

So my rant for today is WAKE UP WORLD.  Your lives are ALL way too short to be so pissed off all the time.  You WILL NOT automatically get your way by being rude and inconsiderate of everyone around you, in fact, you will likely end up quite embarrassed that you were so foolish to believe you were ANY better or more important than the person in front of you.  YOUR behavior is the problem, it’s not my fault that you don’t know what the fuck you are doing, it’s not MY fault that you can’t read directions, it’s not MY fault that you are an impatient bastard.  GROW UP FOLKS, love each other…make love not war…

Fucking bastards.