Something unprecedented has happened to me. I actually have an element of Zen in my life. Okay, Zen might be overstating it just a tad, but I do find myself possessing more patience that’s topped with a dollop of c’est la vie.
This sounds like a great thing, right? But it’s a little disconcerting. My entire life I’ve been impatient. This trait has made me the go to person for tackling any situation that requires relentless persistence. Although some people on the receiving end of my “relentless persistent” might use a very different word to describe me.
I’ve gone deep on why I’ve had this personality shift and I think it’s because of Covid. There’s nothing like surviving a worldwide pandemic to teach you that you’re basically in control of nothing. It also shined a megawatt spotlight on the fact that most people are trying to do that best they can in circumstances they never imagined.
Then there’s also the depressing reality that the pandemic has seemed to unearth and supercharge every jerk into a short tempered, fury spewing, rage machine and I don’t want to add to that morass.
This has all led to me being “chill” about situations that two years ago would have had me highly irritated. For instance, this spring I’ve been through a couple of home related snafus that have left me mildly disappointed but not distressed.
At the beginning of the month I experienced the cavalcade of carpet blunders. Because of my aging dogs I decided that I needed a stair runner to ensure that they had significant traction when using the stairs. We’re now on our fourth redo of the carpet runner.
First, it was installed incorrectly. Then to fix the bad install new carpet had to be ordered. Midway through the next install it was discovered the carpet that had been ordered was the wrong color. So new carpet had to be ordered yet again.
Now, while I wait for the this latest batch of carpet to arrive I’m left with two tone stairs. Some of the stairs have the correct carpet and the rest have the wrong carpet. It looks horrible but I’m telling myself it’s a very on trend ombre effect.
The old me would have been livid. The new me told the carpet company that it was fine, stuff happens and it’s not like my house is ever going to be on the tour of homes.
Then a week later my washing machine went on strike refusing to click into the drain and spin cycle. I’ve just completed our third visit from a repair technician. The first repair person said it needed a new part that we had to wait for. Then when the new part and new repair tech arrived the “lid lock” didn’t fix the problem. Another new part was ordered (control panel) and when the third repair person came to install it he had to break the news to me that someone had ordered the wrong park. So now I’m waiting a week for yet another part. Ugh!
I’m not angry at the repair techs because it’s not their fault that appliances aren’t built to last. I know I’ve shared the story about how my parents’ Sears Kenmore washer and dryer outlived them. Those days are o-v-e-r and that is where I have chosen to direct my washer agitation.
I have to admit that I do feel happier being less “relentlessly persistent.” But I worry my relaxed attitude might lead to me getting taken advantage of. This is because I’ve always embraced the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” philosophy.
But then I thought that it’s not that I lost my edge, it’s just that I’m being more judicious in using it. Maybe that’s my new superpower – persistent that lays dormant until called forth to right only the most egregious wrongs which rules out getting angry at repair professionals or carpet installers.
Snarky in the Suburbs 