Solitaire On The Computer

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on how much of our lives are spent waiting? If they haven’t, then I am willing to wait.

I would bet that men and boys wait more than women and girls, but then my belief is coloured by my sex. I suppose that whether you are waiting or not depends upon what you are doing while you are waiting and what you will be doing after you have been waiting. If you are going to dinner or a show, then the wait isn’t too bad, but if you are going shoe shopping or looking for paint chips, life just really sucks.

We were at the outlet mall in Las Vegas once and Louise was doing some shopping. It seems that she came down with a basically empty suitcase and needed to fill it. I had some shopping to do myself, for some new runners, as the rule of three needed to be kept up. That took about ten minutes and I went back to the bench where I said that I would be. I knew that she would be on the first armload of clothes, so I went and explored the mall. Did you know that the vast majority of stores in malls cater to women? Oh, sometimes there will be about two square feet of men’s clothing in the store, but it is my belief that those areas are there to kind of corral men so that they don’t get into trouble. It is no coincidence that the benches are placed outside of the women’s stores and there never seem to be enough benches for the poor slobs that are holding the bags filled with bras, shoes, tops and whatever else.

This particular time in Vegas, it was really hot so I kept getting up and wandering as the sun moved across the heavens and took the shade with it. I wandered into a jewellery store just to look at the shiny things and do my “Who would spend that much on a watch?” I did see a watch that got my attention; it was a sport type watch that had a stop watch, timer, a tide setting (which comes in handy in Alberta) and it even tells the temperature. The best part was that it was about $20 and I could use a watch that had a built in thermometer. I put the watch on and went back to my bench to wait for Louise. When she came out with her packages and an ear to ear smile, I told her that I had been waiting forty minutes in 42º heat. She said thanks for waiting an off we went. I was kind of hoping for more of a reaction.

Just in case you think it is a good idea to have a built in thermometer in your watch so that you can tell the time and temperature wherever you are, don’t waste your money. It tells the temperature of your wrist, and it rarely changes. Still, I can tell when the tides will be coming in and if I ever have to officiate at a track and field meet, I am set.

Today was a day spent waiting. I have been waiting to hear from my doctor about some results and from the Post Office about part time employment. I have been waiting all week to no avail, but since it is Friday I thought they would like to clear their desks before the weekend. I ended up calling both and found that the doctor had reviewed the tests and there wasn’t anything to report. My sore shoulder will be surprised to find that it really isn’t sore. I managed to leave a voice mail at the Post Office HR and waited for the rest of the day to hear back from them.

Is it just me, or does everyone hate voice mail? It used to be that you would at least get to talk to the receptionist and they would take a message which would be ignored by the party in question. When that message comes on saying that “I am busy on another call and will get back to you if you leave a message”, I just want to reach through the phone lines and choke the shit out of the party in question. Really? You are busy? I guessed that when you didn’t answer your phone. I’m fucking busy too, and have just spent the whole week waiting for you to call me! Ten to one you are sitting at your desk playing solitaire on the computer waiting for quitting time. Well, now I get to wait until Monday to hear from you. Great!