Tuesday, May 03, 2005

It's the little things that make you want to go postal

I wish I was one of those can't-be-fazed people, but I'm not. And it's always those little irritations that make me mad.

Like the fact that, even though I have a fairly large mailbox designed to hold A4-size envelopes, the postie always manages to deposit my mail half-in, half-out. This wouldn't normally bother me, but it's been raining cats and dogs for the last couple of days and all my mail got soaked.

Or when I take my mother to the chemist to collect her repeat prescriptions. Being old and having the kind of fragile health which afflicts those who're old, she has a million types of medication. Sometimes the doctor omits something essential from his prescription, and other times the pharmacist misses something. So every time she collects her pills and what-not she has to pour all the boxes onto the floor before poring over them, just in to ensure everything is there. And I, the one who can no longer bend with ease, am the one who has to squat down and move those pill boxes around for her. If there's a discrepancy, I get to hear about it for the next hour.

Not to mention being really keen to get home and put my feet up, but being stalled at every controlled intersection. Some traffic lights are unbelievably quick to change, and sometimes it seems that I'm the one doomed to get every yellow light because the driver in front of me didn't know whether he wanted to turn left or go straight.


Whew - I feel a little better now. Thanks for listening.

9 comments:

Amanda said...

It has been a miserable rainy day...but it is cheering (to me) to see for once the correct usage of the word "pore"- I seem to be constantly seeing it spelt pour and this incorrect usage is becoming RATHER ANNOYING.

I do of course realise this is not the worst of the problems facing humanity but as you say...its the little things

Anonymous said...

I hope no important letters were drenched. :)

Watson Woodworth said...

And you know if you say anything to the letter carrier or the pharmacist you would just get lousy attitude to go with the lousy service.

glomgold said...

Those dumb drivers. I've never understood why they wait until they're already at the intersection before trying to decide which way to go.
It's good for you to vent a little!

Kazzer said...

Violet, I know exactly what you mean. These things were sent to try us. I get really wound up by people ambling along Lambton Quay at lunchtime whilst I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. My post was also sodden - they do it deliberately. Every other day it has been put in the box correctly - aaargh!

portuguesa nova said...

I hope tomorrow is a better day, Violet!

The Skirt said...

Sorry you've been having such a crappy time - I completely empathise.

Spent almot 1 1/2 hours in traffic yesterday (freak shows everywhere trying to kill me, I swear!) to make an hour-long visit that was cut very short. Ready to kill someone?? Who me???

Jon said...

Incompetency is rampant- it's a global epidemic. It's especially frightening when pharmicists screw up. I recall once, when my grandmother was still alive, they couldn't fill her heart medication for days, the very medication that meant life or death, (though that's not how she died). Anyway, my mom drove to the pharmacy and royally bitched them out

Violet said...

mtnw: I try to be a stickler with grammer, spelling and suchlike. It's the easy part about writing, so that's what I do.

charlie: just my income tax forms

nigel: exactly. They have so much power, just like waiters.

glomgold: I'm glad you don't mind a bit of a rave from me now and then.

kazzer: perhaps if you gave the postie a present - a handmade poncho or something - she would treat your mail more gently.

portugesa: it was, it was...

the skirt: you're living in Auckland, the traffic snarl-up capital of the Southern Hemisphere. My sympathies are completely with you.

jon: and so she should. Our local pharmacist is generally very good though, and really patient when my mother tries to start a fight with them in Cantonese.