A couple of people asked some really annoying questions at work in the morning, and I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out the reason for a problem. (I couldn't find the answer, but the problem had a workaround. Those are the worst, because they are then always in the back of your mind, nagging you.)
I was pretty tired, and considered taking a nap. Eventually I resolved to go home and take a nap before the ward Christmas party. (Cheesy potatoes and Ham. I brought oven roasted potatoes and a steak for me.) Before I left, my phone rang, the number was one I didn't recognize. I always answer these, being the Stake Executive secretary. It was Don F. on the line.
{What was going on in my head for the next very long paragraph is in italics.}
Don said hello, said it had been a long time, and we had to get together sometime. I don't know about that. I haven't had a reason to call you all this time, why should I get together with you? Don then went into (nearly immediately. Small talk is dead, not that I was doing anything to maintain the thing) how
his nephew Chris' car had broken down (Chris is Tom's roommate now), Don had talked to Adam, Adam said Chris might be able to borrow the truck for a few days or weeks, and how would they get their hands on the truck? Why is Don calling? Does he think he has more pull with me than Chris just
because I knew him growing up? Chris should be making this call. Or Tom. Or Adam. I'm not sure what I said to this, but I asked something about him talking to Adam. Don started talking, and I stopped listening. Suddenly work was very interesting. Don started in about Adam saying he was going to reimburse me for the repairs to get the thing on the road, but he hadn't gotten me the check yet. Don offered to give me the money and settle with Adam on his own. Why was Adam telling him this? When I talked to Adam, I told him that I was putting the repairs on my credit card, which is in a 0% interest rate for a while, and we didn't necessarily need to pay it off immediately, so he didn't need to rush a check out. I thought that was pretty clear, it was just that the paying back part wasn't in my budget with the new TV in there also... Why does Don think he needs to broker this between Adam and me. Then the fire inside me started burning, and as people know, the thing normally grows because it has to burn itself out. If I'm not being clear, Don ticked me off. That was none of his business. I most certainly didn't want to get mixed up in any money related matter with Don, I didn't want him thinking I owed him any favor, and really, I didn't want him down here at our house. Don's ex-wife is the sister of the people who owned this house before us. I most certainly don't want to get into that with him, and I have no idea his feelings there, and don't want the sight of our house making him crazy. I know he visited here while they were married, I was the home teacher of the people that owned the house. Anyway, at that point I was ticked off. I made sure that every single question got an answer that was shorter than one just before it. (Dave is the king of this. I'm the ruler of the next country over, where we can show anger in those very short answers if we want.) Don asked what they could do to get their hands on the keys that day, I said I didn't know. He was fairly anxious to get the truck, did he have some other motive here? He asked what I was doing with the truck, which at this point, my Mom figures I should have said "It's none of your **** business!", but I was still in the office, and they would have assumed I was talking to the Operations staff and wrestled my phone away from me. Instead, I talked about how I was driving it to work, Missy was in the process of moving, I needed to get a washing machine from Drew, that sort of thing. I don't remember what his next question was, but he got no answer, which I think he took as a hint. He asked if he should just call back the next day (Saturday), I gave him the best "I guess so" I could, making sure it included all the "I'm very upset at you right now and will not be answering any more questions from you today, anyway" into it. End of conversation.
It turns out that Adam left his cell phone on base Friday, so he didn't get my messages until Saturday afternoon. It also turns out that Don didn't actually talk to Adam, Adam had talked to Chris. Tom figures Chris was too scared of me to call. That's fine. Adam told Chris that if he couldn't think of anything else to do, he should call and see if he could borrow the truck. Don was just trying to interject himself in the conversation.
I told Adam I would let Chris borrow the truck if Adam really wanted me to, but I was still leaning towards saying no otherwise. It's one thing for Drew, Tom, or Missy to use it. It's another thing for someone else to use it... For one thing, if Missy is borrowing the truck, and something breaks, I'll take it to get it fixed. It's not like Missy has any money, and she's family. If Chris or Don took the truck and something breaks, suddenly I'm interacting with Don again, and I would have to deal with trying to get one of them to pay to get it fixed, and I just don't want to go there. I didn't know if Don had some other motive there, I would hate to have them take the truck and not be able to get it back, then have Don just send Adam money for the thing. If Adam ends up selling the truck at all, I hope I'm in line first as a potential buyer. I like that truck. I've already become accustomed to it being around. I've been thinking about giving it a name. (I haven't done that since "The Escort", but I've been leaning towards "Phil" or "Big Tony", neither of which really sound right. Maybe I should sponsor a contest.) Missy just got a Saturday job in Salt Lake, she wants to start driving the truck up there on Saturdays for work, which I readily agreed to. (Their little car has problems.)
Anyway, a very long story short, Don had the common sense to not call me back Saturday. I was already prepared to say no outright before Adam called me back, not just because I hadn't talked to Adam, but because I didn't want to let Don borrow the thing for Chris. Had Chris called me back, we might have talked about it for a little bit, and would have definitely talked about how having Don call for him was the opposite of the right thing to do. After I talked to Adam, and found out that Don hadn't actually talked to him, I was actually hoping he would call back so that I could chew him up one side and down the other about it... Like I said, he at least had the sense to not call back, I say that in his favor. He must have properly detected what was behind the tone of voice at that end of the phone call.
I talked to Tom this evening, it turns out that Don and Chris have an Uncle in Salt Lake that has a car dealership, Chris went over there, and picked up a car out of that lot to drive around for a while until his car got fixed. Why wasn't that their first option?
"The Truck" doesn't have the right ring to it. What about "Digger"? Not only is it a homage to that old game we used to play all the time, but it's kind of appropriate if you get stuck in mud at all... Or "Willis"? (As in "What ya talking about Willis?") Or "The Beast"? Anyone? I would go for "The Tick", but the thing is black, not blue...
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