It was a fairly interesting day. The first flood of phone calls were from solicitors. Of course, a good number of our clients are attorneys, and in England, a solicitor is the equivalent to an attorney, but I am talking about solicitors, who are soliciting my business, by whichever means they can, mostly using a less than honest approach. Kevin was one such solicitor. He enquired as to my well being, and was delighted, in fact I would use the word ecstatic, when I told him I was 'doing fine'. He was so pleased to hear that, and spent the next few sentences telling me so! However, it appeared that my business was not faring so well on the fitness level, because (here we go again) there were many, many things wrong with the way it was portrayed when people wanted to use my services. It was, indeed, a miracle that Kevin knew this, as Kevin had not a clue as to what my business actually was, or what service we provided, but he knew that it was being impacted because there were errors on the internet. "How can you tell?" Poor Kevin. He has a job to do, I know, and honestly, I admired him for putting up with me, and all those like me, who put him through a hard time. It is not Kev's fault that he is made to call people and insinuate that something is fatally wrong with the way they represent themselves regarding their services! Kev needs a job! I get it! However, Kev caught me at rather a bad time. I had a pile of work to enter into the computer, another pile growing that had to have paperwork attached and emailed out, the post had just arrived, I had to take care of the accounting, and there was an email that needed some complicated research to be done in order to create an answer! I was so busy, that I barely had time to answer the call. I told Kev as much! I apologised to him, and told him that he was obviously getting his information from an incorrect source, as I was inundated with work, and really did not have the time to spare to find out what was wrong! I conveyed to him that I hoped he had a wonderful day, and perhaps he should do some more research before calling back. Poor Kevin! What was worse is that it was Monday! He has a whole week ahead of him!
The next call came at just the wrong time! "Is that....? I'm sorry, I wasn't sure, I couldn't understand a word you were saying!" Always a paralegal. Always a female paralegal! When I answer the phone, I am always very clear, and somewhat slow. I make sure that our company name is sounded out with precision. Each word is carefully pronounced so as to give no grounds for misunderstanding. Yet, occasionally, I am told that I am not understood and on every occasion that is that 'occasionally', it is a female paralegal! I have yet to find out why, although being a woman, I have my suspicions. I was not in the mood for game playing, so I told her that I would pass her to the boss, so as not to cause any more confusion. It is funny how after the initial 'put down', they want to explain to me what it is they are wanting! The other strange thing is that quite often, it is a caller who has called several times in the past. One would think that if the same mumbled, incoherent voice answered the number you dialed, each time you called, it would be the same person on the other end of the phone, and therefore the right number. After all, how many wrong numbers can you get all sounding the same! Dana said she was quite pleasant! Of course she was! Interestingly enough, there have been a few that once they have found out my position with the firm, e.g., my relationship to the boss, have been absolutely, overwhelmingly, overbearingly sweet and friendly! However, I digress! The phones were ringing all morning, and each call (not necessarily caller, as some were recordings) had his/her/its own personality!
I was not, perhaps, in the most patient frame of mind, this week. I had managed to overcome my grief regarding my plants, and had prayed that there would be some sort of relief, and was encouraged by the strength of some of the remaining leaves. My most upsetting loss was the the hot pepper plant, which I had bought to enhance the salsa that I was going to make with the abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers and regular peppers. Unfortunately, the glut had not made it, and the cucumbers were not producing as they should and I was cutting up tomatoes for salads rather than storing them. It was all a learning process this year, and my plans for next have been put into place due to the failures of this! The good thing is that I know where I went wrong, and can learn from my mistakes. The bad thing is that I went wrong and made mistakes, and want to run before I can walk! However, such am I! Admittedly, the failures were few, and all but the peppers and cucumbers were still flourishing.
The hot peppers were meant to be a little more mild. I think that someone had put the wrong sticks in the pepper pot. The pepper I bought was meant to have a slight kick, not a 'Jean-Claude Van Damme' footwork kind! I cut one, put my finger on my tongue and could not feel my lips for a long time. Grant took a bite and one side of his mouth was numb for hours! As I said, I think someone put the wrong stick in the pot. Perhaps it was Kev's boss? Perhaps I am laying blame where it should not be? Perhaps? However, I had read, on the Internet, a method for 'de-heating' peppers. Once again, I had acted on impulse, BUT this time I had a little knowledge. "Put cooked, deseeded peppers into a solution of three parts water, one part vinegar". It sounded like a reasonable idea. However, it did not specify how to cook them. I remembered years ago, sitting around the table at my friend Lesley's house, and her mother saying that if you added too much pepper to something, you could add a little brown sugar to take away the spice. I have heard similar reports since, but for some reason that always stuck with me. I remember thinking at the time, when I was about fourteen, and wondering why she would give us this information as we sat around talking about boys, and discos and the like, that it might come in handy one day! Lesley's mum often came out with gems that at the time seemed to be totally irrelevant, but have proved to be priceless! I cooked my peppers in water, and brown sugar. I then drained them and put them in the vinegar solution. Eureka! Just call me Peter Piper! Or maybe just Peter, as I picked them and then picked them, but it worked! Of course, now I had to have hope that my prayers were answered and my plants would survive! Where was I before the digression? Oh yes! Patience! I lacked some this week!
The lady at the post office was most sympathetic. She had called me in response to a call I had made earlier in the week, regarding a package that had been sent. I had spoken to an operator and said that I had a couple of things I wanted to check on. "When you say a couple, how many would that be?" she asked. Did I say I lacked patience. I am sorry, but I am old school. "Two, as in a couple!" She laughed and said, "I wasn't sure, because sometimes it can mean more". I grimaced, silently, and did not go into a grammar lesson. What would be the point! Exclamation mark rather than a question mark! (You only have to read one of my posts to know that although I understand grammar, I do not always apply it!) She was very obliging, and apologetic for the problems I was encountering, and promised to get someone to call. The lady from the post office, that was very sympathetic, was my return call! She looked at the history of the package. Yes, it had got to her station. Yes, she had marked that the addressee was not known, and yes, she had sent it on it's way back to me. "Why did it go to Oklahoma?" she asked. I laughed. "I am not sure, but at this stage I would think it would need its own stamps and postcard!" It was her turn to laugh. I knew it was not her doing, as she had sent it south, and it had gone north! Perhaps it sprouted wings! Perhaps it was my attitude, the attitude that was not unpleasant, and understood that she had done her part, and that I understood that once dispatched it was out of her hands, or perhaps she was just a very nice lady at the post office, but she went above and beyond, took a look at the details she had obviously logged, and gave me some more information, to wit, the reason for the return was that there was no mail receptacle, and I needed a box number, which I could get if I sent in an official form. I did! She seemed to know the laws regarding my business as well as hers! I was most grateful!
As for the law, I had a meeting with an attorney to discuss the latest law that was passed, during the legislative session, regarding homeowner associations. I was not sure who was going to attend from our board, but I thought I would listen in. It was not a personal call, but a video conference. I did not 'video' but sat and listened via my phone. As not everyone was familiar with the legislative process, the attorney tried to brief all on the way it worked. If I had not known the way it worked, after his 'layman' explanation, I would have had less of a clue than I did when I started! I could not make head nor tail of what he was saying, and by the questions posed, nor did many others! It was not my lack of patience this time! Unfortunately, he tried to make it too simple and it did not work! However, eventually he just told it how it was, and all was good! The laws themselves were quite simple, and in my view gave more power back to the homeowners themselves, leaving the associations to do what they were meant to do, and just monitor rather than create rules that are really rather 'heavy handed'. Not much applied to condos, so that was okay. I messaged our chairman at one stage, as there was a blatant contradiction in what we had been told by our managing agency. "Are you listening to this?" I asked. "What?" he said. "The meeting re the new HOA rules", I typed. "What meeting?" he said. "Obviously not listening then", I said! I sent him an email and gave him a synopsis of what was going on. I think our next meeting will be fun! I am going to keep quiet, as usual!
As always, the week came to an end. Samantha dropped me off from shopping on Saturday and stood amazed. "You have new shoots. Look!" Sure enough, my plants were growing again. New leaves were sprouting and some flowers had appeared on the peppers. The cucumbers were also blooming. The tomatoes had never quit! The hot pepper plant looked like it had more life in it, and all was looking very promising. I looked up to the sky and gave a quick "Thank you". I was most grateful! Perhaps there will be salsa after all!
I sat by the pool on Saturday afternoon, and a lady appeared at the gate. She let herself in, skipped down the steps and said hi. I responded and we chatted. I thought I knew her, but she had just moved in. It then occurred to me from where I knew her! When I wrote my little soap opera for our newsletter, she was the chairperson of the board! An exact replica of the person in my mind's eye! I was trying not to laugh as she spoke. She had also moved into the unit that she had lived in when I wrote the fictitious story! It was the most peculiar sensation. I did not mention it at the time, but I will at a later stage! I felt somewhat better than I did at the beginning of the week when I thought everything was dead!
The weather looks slightly threatening so my pool time will be compromised. I cannot say my patience has been restored completely, as I have had not a lot to try it! As I watch for the rain to come, and for the storm to pass through, I am already thinking about next week, and what to write in ......... another story!
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