Patience? Virtue? Me?

Before we get into the juicy, meaty (and for those of you who don't eat meat), tofu goodness of today's post, I would be seriously remiss if I didn't touch on a few upcoming events in the life of me.

1) This past weekend marks the 8 year anniversary of my blogging life. I first started blogging on May 24th, 2008 and happily, have never been the same since. Normally I would be going goo-goo/ga-ga over this fact, but for the past few years, blogging has taken a rumble seat to everything else. So this acknowledgment is the best I can do.

2} On Wednesday, I is turning 50, which in of itself is a milestone. In years gone by, this too would be a weeklong celebration on my blog. However, just like in the previous talking point, this too has taken a rumble seat to everything else. So except for the mention in the post of the previous Thursday, this is about all I will say about that.

And now, for something completely different, a glimpse into yet another personal quirk in the life of G.B. Miller.

Last Sunday (5/17) I went to run my usual errands, which was to have lunch and then shop at Ocean State Job Lot (great discount store if you live in New England). Simple, yes?

For those of you who do not know me like the back of your hand (i.e., have to deal with me in the real world on an hourly/daily basis), I am woefully short on patience. Nay, pathetically short on patience. Like the equivalent of 1/8 of a millimeter on a ruler short. Nowhere is this shortage more prevalent than when I'm out patronizing businesses during the course of my day.

As a rule, I do not tolerate mediocre or stupid service. I don't believe in bad service, simply because I have such a wickedly high threshold that you would almost have to phone it in and flip me the bird to get me to call what you did, "bad". Stupid is self explanatory.

So off I went in search of lunch. I normally go to the Berlin Turnpike (US5/CTRT 15) for lunch, before heading out to my shopping. But, dumb-dumb B-i-L told me about a car accident and that I should eat elsewhere. So off I went yet again, this time to the Silas Deane Highway (CTRT 99). Stop #1 was at Burger King (where you really can have it your way). I was 8th in line when one of the shift managers came out and said, "We'll be with you in a minute." Now as you may or may not know, in a minute in restaurant parlance means five to ten minutes. Since I didn't want to wait five to ten minutes (being a diabetic, I have a tendency to keep a semi-rigid schedule when it comes to meals. on the weekends, it gets just a tiny little bent), off I went in search of restaurant #2.

I was about to head back to Newington (keep that point in mind) when I spotted a Subway. So I changed lanes and zipped over to Subway. Walked in, got in line (5th) and much to my horror, someone was about to order 3 foot longs. While at the first restaurant I experienced mediocre service, the second I had stupid service. Why stupid? Out of the three people working there, one was there just to work the register and nothing more. Poor scheduling/training by the owner caused me to walk out the door  to search for yet another restaurant.

So I headed back to Newington (yes, I just love to spend 35 minutes driving from point A to point B back to point A and eventually back to point B) to the one restaurant that I make a point of never eating at: McArnold's (a shout out to the first person who can tell me one can find McArnold's). Food as prepared at McArnold's does not agree with me 99% of the time.

But..as they say, beggars can't be choosers, so I got there and ordered one of the two things that I don't become ill from: the filet-o-fish meal. Got my lunch, went back to the car, listened to sports radio (Fox Sports radio is for people who don't like listening to sports talk radio and who make nursery school students look positively brilliant) while eating my lunch and eventually went on my merry way.

Moral of this tale: sometimes, the businesses we hate the most often has, hands down, the best customer service around.

(c) 2015 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.