Grasshopper

Do you ever find yourself getting frustrated and irritated with people? I’m not talking about friends and family so much (although I do have some relatives that can be super annoying), I’m mostly referring to strangers and just regular people in general.

Most of the time it’s just little things. Like two days ago I was in a busy grocery store and some lady parks her cart right in the middle of the aisle blocking my way, and she’s completely unaware because she’s on her phone probably gossiping with a friend. Or like when I was leaving the store and trying to back out of a parking spot, some yahoo is stopped behind me waiting for some other car way up ahead to back out, and there’s plenty of room for the yahoo to move forward, but he must be friggin’ blind because he doesn’t notice that my back up lights are on, so I can’t get out. Or like when I was on my way home, I was stopped at a red light. When the light turned green the stupid dufus in the car in front of us (four other cars and me are behind him) is asleep at the wheel and never moves until the light turns yellow, leaving the rest of us still sitting at the same red light. How can people be so darn annoying. It's enough to make you lose faith in your fellow man!

But then sometimes… something will happen that turns your faith back around. Like today I had a fairly large job to do way out in Riverside off of Box Springs Road. I had to inspect 57 Light Poles at a huge “Distribution Center” filled with semi-truck trailers, most of which are parked in front of light poles, making access difficult. But what really made access a problem was that the last three poles were fenced in behind a locked gate. It’s Saturday, so nobody’s around, and when I knock on several doors to the building I get no answer. At that point I’m 200 yards away on the far end of the building when I notice a truck driver opening the gate and driving in. I pack my tools into my truck and drive as fast as possible towards the gate. But as I arrive, the truck driver has already dropped his trailer and is heading back out.

The last thing I want to do is drive all the way back to Riverside on Monday. So I jump out of my truck and wave to the driver. He stops, and I notice he’s this big burly guy with a huge red beard, tons of tattoos all the way up his arm, and what appears to be a perpetual scowl on his face. I hesitated to ask because this guy was pretty intimidating, but then mumbled something to him about needing access to the yard. I swear he growled first, but then he asked me, “How much F*&#king time you need?” I politely replied, “About 15-20 minutes sir.” He thought about it for a moment and then said, “Yeah sure, I’ll wait right here for 20 minutes.” I was kind of shocked, but immediately grabbed my tools and literally ran to the first pole. And when I had finished all three poles (in record time I might add), I ran all the way back to my truck. But as I passed through the gate, I heard the gate motor click and saw the truck driver pulling away. I didn’t even get a chance to thank him for his unselfishness and surprising kindness.

So let’s just say that my faith in humanity was restored quite significantly. And while I’m at it, let me also apologize for…

 Saying that lady in the grocery store was probably a “gossiper”

That the guy in the parking lot was a “friggin blind yahoo”

And that the guy at the red light was a “stupid dufus”

Shame on me for not having more patience… and furthermore I think I’m going to go out today and get myself a full-length arm tattoo that says, Patience, grasshopper!