A Little on Edge Are You?

What a great day.  I had a dental appointment and the office staff is so pleasant, good check up.  Then off to get a few thank you gifts for some good people and a baby gift for a friend.  The day went as expected and then I needed to go to the post office to buy stamps...

I headed in at around three fifteen there is NO ONE IN SIGHT AT THIS POST OFFICE.  Then I met the "Grinch."  I decided to trade in my loose change for the stamps as all I can really use is quarters. My local post office knows me and welcomes my change as they are always in need of it, but this is another post office in the next town over. (I get my car serviced there.) So I go in with dimes, nickels, and 14 pennies.

The usual guy I see there is always smiling him. I know his story, I've seen him for many years. Divorced, hard times, he keeps his chin up, "What else can you do?" he says. Agree. Today he looks tired but even though there is a new guy there he steps up to the counter to help me until this other guy, the "Grinch" slowly moseys up to the counter.

He (the new guy) was previously standing in the back doing...nothing.  Leaning, staring out blankly while my friend worked. This man says, "I'll get this." And my friend acts surprised but says, "Thanks" and picks his paperwork back up to continue his work.

I told this guy, "You're in luck I have coins for you today to pay for my three stamps."  He gets the stamps and says, "That'll be $1.47."  I began to count out my dimes slowly to one dollar, put those to the side so he will not need to count those again I thought, then proceeded to count out nickels to 35 cents and the rest in pennies.

Now I hear this guy start to sigh loudly.  I say out loud to him, "This is a great time to count change there is no one in line. "  He shifts his feet and sighs loudly again.  As I count out the last 47 cents, he begins counting the dollar of dimes... "One, two, three...etc."

I'm thinking, "You gotta be kidding me...he has to count these again?"  Ok, whatever...
He gets to the 47 cents and obviously has confusion counting by fives... he counts and recounts 47 cents...I had 52 cents.

He pushes all the pennies back to me, (except two) takes a dime from the change on my side of the counter and makes a grunting sound."  I say, "Wow, he does not like having to count change, no he does not, and he is sighing to let me know it."  I could have pushed the pennies back and taken my dime, that is like me when dealing with an adult with a bad attitude, but I decided to let it go...

This is America, we are free, he has a job, he gets paid for doing the job. Customer service is all he has to do all day with a smile.  Once again, I need only walk out my front door and go through a day to see how thankful I am to be me.  And I'm thankful to know people like the staff at our dental office and the staff at our vet's office...

So I will send white light for a man that was grumpy this afternoon, who sees it a chore to count by fives and help a customer with accepting ten pennies.  And be thankful my guys who work on my car that know me well, appreciate the pizza I bought them for dinner tonight as they rotated my tires with smiles for me. No I did not mention the "Grinch" to anyone else today. (I save that for writing my blog)

So glad the world is full of many more pleasant people than grinches.  Maybe we pleasant ones will eventually rub off on the people who see life as a chore, if they have eyes to see and we have the patience to deal with them. Maybe I should buy that guy a calculator, no? Too much?  Ok.