A few interesting things have happened to me over the past few days. I'm going to list three of those things because each of them have their own different unique twist in which you can see different examples of bad behavior.
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- The bad detour.
On the way to work yesterday I came across a group of workmen that had blocked the middle of the only street that leads to my restaurant. If I don't take this street then I have to make a very wide turn that takes an extra 15 minutes or so.
Well this street appeared to be completely blocked off, but the workmen were pointing people towards a side street and calling it a detour.
Great, a detour....that's going to save me some time at the very least from having to go all the way back around to the beginning I thought. So I followed this winding path to the end of the detour and came out in the middle of the construction zone in front of a large sign that also said road closed.
A young woman was trying to figure out where to go because she too had been pointed in this direction that did not go anywhere.
She ended up removing the road closed sign and then simply taking a right because it was nearly impossible to back track down the incredibly narrow road that we were both on.
I followed her and we both wound up in a place that was full of tar and also different road blocks. She picked up a couple of roadblocks, and I picked up a couple of roadblocks, and then we drove through this area that was clearly not meant for people to drive through.
However, I have to assume that the workmen just weren't giving a damn and maybe they thought the detour was funny.
Eventually I got to work, but I was frustrated about the experience. I did end up with tar all over my tires and all over the inside of my car since I had to get out of it a couple of times.
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- The driver that followed me to work.
That detour had some different side effects. For instance, this morning I knew that I was not going to be able to take that side road, so I had to go the long way. I remembered that there's actually a short way that is not very convenient but is better than the long way. It involves getting on a stretch of highway.
I got on the highway and started heading towards work. There was a Nissan sports car that had originally been a nice car zooming around the highway all over the place.
It was a very dirty car that was putting out tons of smelly exhaust. It nearly ran into several cars, and it was zooming left to right like crazy. This is one of those cars that looks like it was probably about $50,000 when it was first purchased.
However, the current owner doesn't appear to care about it at all.
At one point when this driver had cut me off the road I pointed at him and yelled out that he needs to get his car fixed because it is stinking up the road. My windows were rolled up so I didn't think that he could hear me.
However, he must have seen me point at him because he slammed on his brakes on the highway, swerved over to the side of the road, and started to get out of his car. I kept going....so he followed me off the highway, cut me off again, pulled in front of me, and started slapping the side of his car and motioning for me to get out of mine.
Well I didn't have time for this nonsense so I just zoomed around him and kept going to work. He followed me to my job, got out of the car, and stayed in the parking lot for about 30 minutes waiting for me.
I wasn't scared or anything. These types of guys don't bother me much. I'm a fairly big guy myself but I don't have time for nonsense like this. Here's a guy that cut me off, almost caused like five different car accidents, has a car that shouldn't be on the highway, then gets so mad because someone suggests that he should get his muffler looked at that he decides to follow me all the way to my job.
I guess maybe he was just crazy or on some kind of drugs or something. I really didn't think he could see me point at him after all.
There are all kinds of people out there though. Lots of crazies I guess. Fortunately he left and I'm hoping he won't be back.
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- The extremely rude grocery store manager.
A few minutes ago I was hoping to make a cup of tea but I noticed to that I did not have any bottled water. The water that comes out of our faucet gives you a sore throat, so I usually don't drink that unless I want to get sick....which is never.
Therefore, I walked up to the closest grocery store. Fortunately there is a Mexican grocery store that is within walking distance. I picked up a few different vegetables that I'm going to with my dinner tonight, and grabbed the cheapest bottle of water that I could find.
It was called Life water and it was $1.25 for a 33 ounce bottle.
When I got to the register it rang up at $1.69.
I think that this water is $1.25 is what I said to the grocery store clerk. The guy behind me in line was pretty mad. Just pay the $1.69 he said.
It's the principle of the thing.
The manager came over grabbed the water and then headed towards the water aisle.
When she came back she told me it was $1.69. She then showed me a picture on her phone with the tag of $1.69. I scrolled to the right of that and showed her the tag that said $1.25 next to the Life water.
She told me that the UPC was different.
I asked her if she could show me the Life water that is $1.25 because there was only one kind of Life water over there, and the ticket says $1.25 for a 33 ounce Life water, which is exactly what I had.
She told me no and walked away.
The guy behind me in line told me he would just pay for it if I didn't have the money. I was frustrated by the entire experience.... and then I left. Why did the manager tell me no?
Why did the manager not go out of her way to make sure I was happy?
I certainly wasn't trying to scam her. There is clearly a 33 ounce Life water at the store that is $1.25. If there isn't then they are scamming people with that ticket, because all of the Life water behind the $1.25 sign is stacked up neatly, and I grabbed the first one that was directly behind the sign.
It wasn't like there was a different size or a different anything that I could see.
So I paid $1.69 for a 33 ounce bottle of water, which is completely ridiculous, grabbed my vegetables, and left.
I'm still feeling really frustrated by this young lady's attitude.
I can't believe that I did anything to upset her. I was simply asking for a price check.
I don't know if there are different designs or something like that. I do believe Life water has different designs, but if there is a different design she could have grabbed the one that is $1.25 and handed it to me.
That's exactly what she should have done.
However, when I asked her if she could explain what was going on she simply said no and walked away.
I have to admit I was pretty pissed.
You might think at this point that I'm a pretty pissed off person, but I'm usually not.
I'm a Buddhist. I meditate everyday. I'm a writer that is usually focused on my stories. I just feel like the world is very self centered these days.
How do you get to be a manager without having any customer service skills?
I can relate to the guy behind me in line too though. He was ready to go drink his beers and he didn't want to deal with someone that needed a price check on a bottle of water.
Still, I walked out with this expensive bottle of stupid water and now I'm about to drink a cup of tea with it. I should have just gone to Starbucks and bought a pre-made green tea.
That's how things are going lately though. I can't seem to figure anything out and a lot of it has to do with the fact that I can't seem to interact with people in a positive way.
Maybe it's something that I'm doing.
I don't think the past few days though I've done anything but be pleasant and positive with anyone though.
Maybe it's just something in the water.