Patience Pays????

One of the joys of new home ownership is the thrice-weekly trip to Home Depot. Yes, yes, I know. Home Depot is an evil conglomerate that is ethically vague, disregards safety guidelines and I am sure they commit various, sundry other evil things that go without saying.

They are also exactly one minute, thirty-seven seconds drive from my house. And they guarantee their plants.

On one of the thrice-weekly trips to Home Depot, we happened upon a significantly marked-down patio set. Loveseat, coffee table, two easy chairs with ottomans. Nice! We have been looking, and a 50% markdown is, after all, a 50% markdown. So we called our friend with the pickup truck (for these purposes, I shall call him d'Artagnan – read a book, people) to arrange for pick up (get it?) the following day. D’Artagnan came through, yet again.

This pick up arrangement involved standing in the Service Line to arrange a “Will-Call” ticket.

We were behind quite possibly the most disagreeable man to ever walk the earth. I was pretty sure MANPANTS wanted to kill him. In these situations it is always the job of the other person in the partnership that is not homicidal at that particular moment to appeal to the more rational side of the person about to commit said homicide. I mentioned to MANPANTS that WE did not have to live for even one moment in the head of this creature passing itself off as human. Nor did we have to be married to it -- as I looked meaningfully in the direction of the spousal partner of the aforementioned horrific being.

When this objectionable vertebrate ambled away to make yet another Home Depot employee miserable, we stepped up to the counter. The woman behind the service counter looked ruffled, but had her best customer service poker face in place. She started helping us.

I said, “I’m sorry about your last 20 minutes.”

She said, “I can’t say a thing. Not a thing. But thank you.”

She started to input our information. She then said, “Here’s another 10% off for being understanding.”

Score one for Patience.

Apparently, it does indeed literally PAY to be patient and understanding with our fellow humans. Mom was right. And during a huge recession, who can really argue with Mom on THAT old courtesy lesson?