A Pain That I'm Used To

I haven’t been in the best of moods for the past few days. I had a David Banner/Hulk moment the other day. It started innocently enough with a call from the wife as I merged onto the crowded highway. The extra traffic is from the displaced people from Katrina taking residence here. “Can you pick up something for dinner? Somewhere there is a mushroom-bacon burger?” I ponder a minute trying to think of a place along the 20 mile drive and I answer “Sure, I’ll stop at that new Wendy’s.” She then says, “Oh, get Frosties!” After traveling about 4 miles on the interstate doing about 20 mph instead of the posted 70 mph, I make it to the exit. I get to the Wendy’s and place my order. 1 Mushroom Bacon Melt combo with a Frosty, 4 Kids Cheeseburger meals with Frosties, and one #4 with a Dr. Pepper. I get to the first window and give the young lady my debit card to pay. I ask her if she has the receipt. She says, “The next window will give it to you with your order.” I drive to the next window and wait for my order. I get handed several bags and 5 Frosties and my Dr. Pepper. I get back on the interstate and drive the remaining 15 miles or so. So far everything is fine.

I pull into my driveway and 2 of my children are outside in the front yard. They greet me and open the gate for me. As I walk up the path to the front door, I notice that there are two very large craters now in my front yard. The same front yard the wife and I spent weeks cleaning storm debris and reseeding. The grass was just starting to sprout again. My dog decided to dig two 2ft holes in the yard. Saddened and upset I continue inside and give the kids their bags and hand my wife her food. I get the dog and point out that digging = bad and put him outside on his chain far away from the front yard. I return inside and I am informed that the cheeseburger is not in the bag. Not just one, but all 4 of them are missing. So I go to look for the receipt to call the Wendy’s. Hmm, no receipt –she said I would get one at that window. Anger rising. I call information and request the number for this NEW Wendy’s at this location. “I am sorry, I don’t have a listing for it.” the person says. “I can give you these other numbers…” I get 2 other numbers for Wendy’s in the same area hoping one might have the new store’s number. I call both and neither one answer after 20 rings each. Is it getting hot in here?

I decide to drive back the 15 miles or so and see about getting the cheeseburgers since I am unable to get in touch with the Wendy’s. Traffic in the other direction was not any better than before. I get back to the Wendy’s only to be told that they are closed. It is only about 5:37 pm, but because of the Katrina aftermath many businesses are running shortened hours. I get the manager’s attention because they happen to be receiving a delivery. I tell him that I am here to get 4 cheeseburgers I did not get. He looks at me puzzled and says, “We are closed and can’t do it. Where is your receipt? Why didn’t you call?” I explained to him that I was told I would get my receipt at the second window and didn’t realize it wasn’t in the bag and I couldn’t call because I had no receipt and I could not get the number thru information and trying other stores. I am not liking how this is making me feel. I explained to him from where I had come from and he says I could have gone to the wendy’s closest to me to remedy this. I asked how could I if you did not give me a receipt? In my mind the conversation played out at this other Wendy’s with no receipt. The way the conversation was going, I felt like the manager didn’t really care that I didn’t have my food that I paid for. I explained to him that it was also the let down of my children who had been anticipating the complete meal, not just an empty bag with a toy. Me having to drive all the way back here because they also did not provide with me with a receipt. Of course I am now starting to use colorful terms because of the lack of customer service. I am demanding his name and the store number. The manager decides to close his little window and walk off.

?!?!?!!!

The delivery driver is stuck standing outside with me. I am extremely irate now. I do something stupid. A few minutes more pass and I get the manager’s attention and demand my receipt at least. After 15 minutes of him trying he finally gets it to print. (I guess pulling the power meter off the building for about 15 second might have reset something.) They probably just thought it was a recently normal power outage because of Katrina aftermath. He grabs the receipt and walks back somewhere else, then comes back with $10.00 to cover the kids’ meals.

I am still angry after all this. I call my wife and tell her all of this. I tell her to let the kids eat my food and whatever else. Something said on the phone triggers a little more anger. My anger comes home with me.


The past length of peacefulness is destroyed in a few minutes of rage. Sometime words are more harmful than the physical. Physically I broke an inanimate object, inside I broke more.



I'm not sure
What I'm looking for anymore
I just know
That I'm harder to console
I don't see who I'm trying to be
Instead of me
But the key
Is a question of control

It's a lot like life - Master and Servant

This weekend we held a belated birthday party for the boys. Normally their party would have been held the 1st week of Sept, but with Katrina/Rita stuff we were set back some. Why bother since it was over a month later? The kids have started a new school this year and we felt it would be in the best social interest for them to have their new friends over. This is not the point of this post.

It has become some kind of sibling tradition between my wife and sister-in-law to spend the night before the party baking and redesigning the cake a few times. During these all-night cake bake they will send me out to the store to gather other last minute supplies. Nothing special so far. But they do tend to chat about recent happenings etc. Part of the topic was how my female cousin (who they are friends with) was making little bondage Christmas ornaments for a mutual friend of theirs. Hearing attractive women talk about bondage goodies sometime makes the male mind wander. As little day dreams dance around in my head, a suddenly eerie thought pops up. In my mind I realize that I started to have little fantasies involving my cousin… No no no, must not do that. Damn southern stereotypes!

Hard to think outside the box when you can't get past the packaging tape.

The pre-regional meetings are being held here at the home office. I am not part of the pre-regional meetings. I have nothing to do with them at all, but somehow I always seem to be the one who has to step in during them and work some type of techno-magic all because the people who do the meetings don’t bother to perform a dry run. You would think that if you were going to use some equipment, you might want to make sure you know how to use it before the presentation.

Fluffy Bunny of DOOM! - kids

It's closing in to being 2 months since Katrina hit my area and many things are still not working. Since the cable infrastructure in my are is down we have no TV broadcast and no internet. The funny thing is I haven't really missed those two. I am fortunate enough to be able to spend a little time on the net from work, but when I get home I haven't had any real urge to use our temporary dial-up connection and I don't miss any TV programs.
My cell phone however is a pain. It cannot receive calls. When you dial it a message plays saying "The number you dialed is not a working number." I can receive text messages and make call, just not get any. The carrier says it is because of repairs to their system that still needs to be done. Oh well.

With the modern distractions unable to distract me, I am able to stay focused on other things around the house and in my life. I just about have the first acre of land cleared of debris from Katrina and Rita. Hopefully soon I will start working on the back 2 acres. I took a day to build our bunny(Pooky) a new outdoor living area with a nesting box inside it. He now has a 15sqft bunny pad with 25 year roofing shingles and 20 year exterior paint. I don't think he will actually live that long. Of course the kids all say they want to live in it.

Things are slowly getting back normal. The greater New Orleans area will still take some time. As for me, I don't think I can remember a better time in my life. With everything else going on in the world and locally, I feel guilty almost because I have a positive outlook right now for me and my family. I am not sure how long this feeling will last. I just needed to record it somewhere to remind me.

Feelgood, INC.

The road almost seemed to disappear under the dried leaves, but I knew it was there. The ruts made in the underlying gravel guided the car thru the turns and over the small bridge. The few houses that line the road were hardly noticeable behind the trees. The distance between the car and it's final destination shortened every second. Music played thru the car's speakers, but it was barely heard above the low pitched grumble of the tires displacing the gravel and leaves. The music didn't matter much as the car turned into the driveway and came to a halt. "Daddy is home!" from the 4 little voices was all that mattered.

Imagination

Over the weekend I did LOTS of clearing and yard work. From 7:00 am till about 11:30 pm on Saturday and 7:00 till about 5:30 pm Sunday (I had to bake my homemade lasagna and stuff myself and the kids so I cut the day short.) Since I was doing tons of work outside and I was picking up my new mower over the weekend, I had borrowed my friend's small pickup. The small pickup is often a usefull tool for carrying objects too large to fit in your sedan or small SUV. It can also be used to entertaining children. All 4 of my kids seem to love it when I borrow this truck. They play in it all day long. It can be a stage, a spaceship, a secret hideout or just about anything they can think of. The truck is it for them. Maybe I should get one just to park so they will get out of the house sometimes.

insert whimsical comment here

Too many things going on to be able to look back and write something funny about them. Maybe when the local chaos is over I can give my spin on things soon.