Keeping your Word

 Didja ever wonder what happens around here when we are not writing posts for this blog?  Probably about the same things that happen at your house. 

We are both retired, so work doesn’t get in the way of anything anymore. Not that it ever did for me. I never did let work get in the way of what I wanted to do. I did love my job though. Seems like not that many people do. They complain about work and drudge their ways through 8 or so hours of what they hate. Then they realize that they have years before they can stop watching the clock. And they hope they will live until after retirement so they can then do what they have always wanted to do, but never did. 

One of the other things we do is wait for people to show up and work.  I have no idea why, but so many people will swear they are coming tomorrow morning first thing, to fix the…..??? And they do not show up. They do not call or show up.  In a town like this one, there’s often only one person who offers the service they offer, so here we are, their hostages. Two weeks ago, I called the local RV repair company. They promised me that they would arrive ‘first part of next week.’ That would have been this week. It’s Friday now. Has anyone been here?  What do you think?  I called them Wednesday and was promised by the owner that he would be here yesterday, first thing.  Right.  Never showed up, never called.  I got a call this morning from an employee saying they would be here when this morning’s rain stopped.  It’s supposed to rain through the weekend.  

Why?  I suppose they hate their jobs so much, they will do anything to not do them. I rather pity them that anyone would have to live like that. They are hated by their customers, cannot be trusted even to show up.  How very sad.  I could not stand it if that had happened to me.

I owned a service business until retirement, as you know.  I built and maintained garden ponds, designed landscapes and loved what I did. I am sure other companies built ponds or designed landscapes as well as I did, but why did they fail and I didn’t. I am positive it’s because I showed up when I said I was going to. Often, I would arrive on a job site, knock on the front door to let the homeowners know I was there and going to get started.  The homeowner would answer the door, wiping the sleep from her eyes or wrapped in a towel just from the shower and have such a questioning look on her face, I would have to explain who I was and why I was there.  I would answer, “I said I would be here at 8:00 today and here I am.” I would hear in reply, “But I never expected you would be.”

What does that say about us as service people and for that matter, us as human beings who keep their word and do what they said they were going to do, when they were going to do it.

I will never believe the owner of the RV repair place again. No matter what he says. About anything.

He showed up mid afternoon yesterday with no explanation at all about why he was a no-show Thursday.