That’s Gratitude
May 28, 2008 in Blogs
We had been warned that a particular individual was not very, shall we say, socially adept. It was still a bit disturbing.
You are aware that a dear friend was in an accident a couple weeks back. He does not drive; he was being driven home from work at the time. The vehicle was totalled and the driver has no way of replacing it, and our friend has no way of getting to and from work without it. Thus we have lent him one of our vehicles so that he can have someone drive him to work.
Yes, it is inconvenient, but as I told him fifteen years ago, friendship only matters when it is inconvenient. The Lord has provided some alternate assistance in this regard, as we have been using the disused car of one of our houseguests, and the son who has his own car is home for a couple weeks before going to his summer job. The only real inconvenience is that we are lending the truck, for various reasons, and we need it once a week to take trash to the dump. We missed doing this on Saturday simply because we were too late, but we arranged to pick it up late last night to return it this afternoon. They were not going to need it until five, and as it turns out he was too sick to go to work today anyway so they did not need it then.
Note, for context, that we are lending them this truck, and that we need in one day each week, but that we do not inconvenience them by asking them to drive it to us for us to use on that one day. No, instead of insisting that they make one round trip to let us use our own truck for an hour or so each week, we make one round trip to pick it up and another to return it, paying two bridge tolls in the process where they would only have had to pay one. (For anyone not aware of it, it is a joke in New Jersey that all the bridges have one way tolls–it is free to enter the state, but you have to pay to leave. This covers all the New York bridges, the Delaware bridge, and the Philadelphia area bridges; there are a few northern Delaware River bridges that are free in both directions, and you can of course cross the northern border into New York State at no charge.)
I accept all this. I pretty much agreed to it. So what has me annoyed? Well, after we got home from borrowing our truck, the girl who drives it for him gave us a call to say that we borrowed the truck and she hoped we remembered to put gas in it.
In point of fact, we did put gas in it–about fifty dollars worth of gas in a tank which was three quarters empty. We might have used ten dollars worth of it ourselves, maybe a bit more–but that was before we filled it. I don’t begrudge them the gas. I begrudge them the attitude.
I’m told she is the perhaps a bit spoiled but now cut off daughter of rather wealthy parents, so perhaps she does not understand common courtesy and gratitude. There also may be some bad feeling, as she, let us say, does not really like all of his friends. I will let it pass, and try to have it not influence future decisions and attitudes.
Of course, I’m sure they are not reading this blog, and I trust that none of you are going to repeat this to anyone who might know them. After all, everyone knows that if you have secrets you want to keep secret, the best thing to do is blog them on the Internet. I should probably delete all of this–but then I would have to think of something else to write, and I’m late and it’s tired, so I’m going with what I have. I’ll deal with the repercussions later.
–M. J. Young
Eric said on June 2, 2008
What are some of the evocative details of the places you went too? what are some of the surprising details that create interest be being unusual?
I’m only beginning at this…..but Michigan is ‘one winter is the great snowstorm, and the next winter is the great ice storm. Rinse, repeat and recycle.’ In Chicago, I found to my great surprise that drivers were quite polite to out of staters. One difference between North and South is that in high summer in the North, you have no problem putting your eyes on the horizon. In the South, its bright enough that it hurts your eyes to do that. Sunglasses, squinting, a brimmed hat, or cast down eyes are a must.
In Florida, in winter its brown, brown, brown….and nearly every day there is an afternoon shower. In Tennessee, where I currently live, the colors range from really green to eye-startling green.
In Texas, its commonplace for drivers doing seventy down long straight roads to pull off on the paved shoulder, continue on, and let you pass. In Tennessee, few roads are straight, almost none are legally seventy, and if you pulled off the shoulder and were lucky you’d end up with your car buried in a ditch…otherwise you’d be dropping a hundred feet through several dozen trees.
I wasn’t aware of things that much being a baby, but my parents told me of driving a small car down the Alaska Highway. Looking out the window, one did not see road, one saw cliff. And the small car with its top carrier would get caught by the wind…and lift.
Not to mention a beach of dinosaur bones, and being chased by a bear.
I have seen a bear cub in the wild, but not being completely stupid, I stayed away from it. Deer are more common as I’ve hit two of them in the last seven years. Seeing those antlers spinning in front of the glass windshield made me wonder what driving a Model T would be like if that happened to someone….and that speculation was part of the creation of my Lovecraftian Multiverser world “The Odd Case of Miss Charity Langton”.
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For expanding cities cost rise geometrically, wealth rises exponentially. I’m not sure that precisely true, but it captures the essence of the nature of cities.
Another rule of gov’t thumb…when budget problems arise…cut the library hours, the streetlamps, and the fire service first. Because those are things most everyone loves, and thus the clerks are able to hold hostage these valuable services to protect the less valuable services.
I am not certain the above is what is happening in NJ.
I will say that you know what a hard core conservative I am, and yet, I voted for our Dem governor twice, and would happily enough vote for him as president. And he’s been telling people we need to cut things, and has been cutting things. He’s respected enough that he’s succeeding too.
I wish Phil Bredesen were running for President rather than the Terrible Trio. Ah well. At least I got to be president of the Reunified USA.