But I’m not in the mood.

See, yesterday was one of those days.

It started out OK, I dropped the daughter off at school, which is always a good thing. I treasure the little time we spend together in the car, and it always brightens my day.

And of course everyone is a nimrod. Nobody can drive, I get behind a VW doing ten miles an hour on DRY PAVEMENT.

But I’m headed to the office so it’s not a big deal. See, Monday, my first day back from the show, I called to try to firm up some appointments, and nobody returned any calls, it turns out because everyone has the day off BUT ME.

No biggie, I think. I arrange with a co worker to get a little additional training on some other equipment, and she won’t be available until nine, so it will all work out.

Until about eight thirty when one of the appointments I tried to arrange Monday calls in a panic. Can I get there right now? right this very second? because all is lost and everyone is going to fucking DIE!! RIGHT!!!! NOW!!!!

So I run to the office to pick up some things I might need and I go to the customer to discover he needs a component reset (1 minute) and a light bulb replaced (5 minutes of wandering around in the crib finding a light bulb) but before that I have to be lectured for a half an hour standing out in the freezing cold because I didn’t take my badge off and hang my coat on the upper hook after soccer practice unless I have a younger brother who is going to be playing cricket before five PM. Or something. One way or another I had run afoul of some ludicrous rule and I was GOING! TO! BE! INFORMED! OF! THE! ERROR! OF! MY! WAYS!.

The overwhelming urge to just walk the fuck out of there was astounding, but I stayed. And once had fixed the HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE problems that they had (In six minutes) I had to listen to another lecture about how they could not tolerate a piece of equipment that just seemed to need resetting at random, and I didn’t have the heart to RIP OFF HIS HEAD AND SHIT DOWN HS NECK WHILE EXPLAINING THAT WE USED THIS SUBSTANDARD PIECE OF SHIT AT HIS REQUEST AND OH BY THE WAY IF YOU HAD DONE WHAT WE TOLD YOU TO DO NONE OF THIS WOULD BE AN ISSUE.

So after hanging my coat on the lower hook, handing my permission slip to matron, and turning on the lavatory light in the second stall on the left I was allowed to leave (With another subsequent lecture on proper behavior in the freezing cold) not wanting to tell them to TAKE THEIR BADGE AND THEIR PROCEDURES AND SHOVE THEM UP THEIR ASS THANK YOU VERY MUCH BECAUSE IF I COULD CHOOSE I WOULD NEVER DARKEN THEIR DOOR AGAIN.

So I went home and cleared eight or more inches of snow off the driveway nearly giving my fingers frostbite in the process because of the yummy winds, and came inside to wait for the wife to come home, which she did after picking up the Oglet, and came in the office to tell me her car had the brake pedal go all the way to the floor and could I top off the fluid please?

Of course the fluid never goes away unless it has somewhere to go so based on the lateness of the hour I run out to get some fluid and discover the brake line is spraying fluid everywhere. I come in to check availability and drive to the Lansing store to pick up the part because they have one in stock to arrive at 8:55 and find the doors already locked and the staff closing down for the night. Of course I would have been there a half hour earlier if ANYONE IN NORTHWESTERN INDIANA OR NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS HAD ANY IDEA HOW TO FUCKING DRIVE. I’m sorry I cannot go into any more detail, my head will simply explode.

I have to say, the snowblower started. And the wife will drive the daughter’s car to work in the morning because thankfully we have another car to drive. And this all could have happened last week when I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. So I am thankful for all those things, but it did make for a difficult day.

Now I’m gonna go someplace and be surly. If you see me, stay back a dozen feet or so.