“My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.” – Phyllis Diller.
Finally Ends Well
Mallards floating along the Ogden River Parkway taken at an earlier time. I had no time to walk the parkway yesterday. — Photo by Pat Bean
In recent months, my frustration levels seemed to have reached record highs. Computer woes, unreasonable costs for health services including one fraudulent lab bill, a misunderstanding with a good friend, and a lost lens from a new pair of glasses plagued me. I did not react well. I spoke words I later regretted, and I screamed at people who weren’t the cause of my frustration.
The frustrating situations continued during my visit this week to Ogden, the first stop of my upcoming 5,000 mile journey. My Verizon hot spot wasn’t working, and shortly after I had my RV serviced, it began leaking oil.
It was late Saturday when I discovered the oil leak, meaning I couldn’t get it fixed until Monday morning. I decided to put it out of my mind until then and let myself enjoy the barbecue that was given for me to see old friends while I was here in Ogden. Not sure how, but I did just that.
I also found an open Wi-Fi connection, not hard to do in a city the size of Ogden, which temporarily solved my internet connection problem until I could take it into a Verizon place on Monday as well.
But I did get to occasionally glance up at Ogden’s mountain backdrop, which probably helped me stay cool. — Photo by Pat Bean
Monday was yesterday, and I spent the entire day solving these two problems. The RV service center admitted they probably cracked the oil cap putting it back on and said they could get a new one in about two hours.
And so they did. It was the wrong one, however, and it was another three hours before they could get the right one delivered from Salt Lake City. I stayed pleasant this entire time, and was rewarded when Gypsy Lee was finally fixed at no charge to me.
I then tackled my hot spot problem at a small Verizon store with only one employee. He was working on my problem when a man came in with a broken phone. I waited patiently for a half hour while this customer was sold a new phone, his old contacts transferred to it and a dozen other paper-work items taken care of to get it activated.
After another half hour of fooling with my computer and the hot spot, Tyler (we had exchanged names by this time) said the problem was solved.
So I tried it. So it wasn’t solved.
And I did get to go down on Ogden’s 25th Street when an old friend took me to lunch at Karen’s while my RV was waiting for a new oil cap. — Photo by Pat Bean
Tyler finally admitted I had a lemon and that since it was less than a year old I could get a replacement by calling customer service and having them mail me one. Of course that wouldn’t work for my travel plans.
Fortunately I had come prepared with my old air card, which had served me extremely well before I had been talked into upgrading it with the hot spot. Tyler then kindly reinstalled the software so I could use it again. We chatted about Netflix choices while he worked.
When the air card was finally working perfectly again, it was 6 p.m. And I had done nothing except solve two problems.
I felt great, however. I hadn’t spent any money, and I had stayed cool as a frosted glass of lemonade for the entire day. My blood pressure appreciated this fact greatly.
Looking back, I realized nothing would have gone any faster if I had behaved badly, even though I would have been justified in doing so. While I don’t advocate such nicety from everyone, it worked so well for me this day that I might even try it again.
Book Report: I decided to blog first and write this afternoon. So no progress yet today.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: A Rocking Run http://tinyurl.com/9ewvtcq What a great place to be in your head.
Pat Bean's blog 