Troll’s Hole

I am in Telluride and have gotten the headcold from hell. I am coughing, stuffed up, and my brain is foggy.

This sucks.

Now that I am back to being a worker bee, it appears that I am being forced to work with heroes.

These people are focused on being seen as the most productive and forward moving workers in the whole division. They work hard at getting a lot done in a short amount of time. They really are awesome.

It is just too bad that they are taking shortcuts that leave others having to come back and fix their work.

While I appreciate their intent, I know from experience that not doing a good and complete job will come back and bite us all in the ass. (And that leaves marks!)

And speaking of ass biting……

I was volunteered for parking duty for an event at Mrs. Troll’s work last weekend.
It was not long before I was called ‘The Parking Nazi’ and other colorful names.

The third car in tried to scam me with lies. She wanted preferred parking and was willing to tell me anything to get it. When I was not moved by her excuses she went quietly on her way.

Then the fun began. There were thousands of cars to funnel through a small area in as short an amount of time as possible. There was (in my best guesstimate) ten acres to fill. EVERYONE thought they were entitled to special parking. It was amazing! People with handicapped stickers whined that the handicapped parking was too far away. People with vendor parking passes whined that they could not drive anywhere they wanted. People in running shoes and shorts whined that they were being forced to walk too far.

Some people wanted to park right in front of the entrance. They had plenty of excuses and got mad at me when I would not let them block the only way in.

“But I am just picking someone up.”
“I have to drop off something.”
“I can’t walk very far.”
“My car is overheating.”
“My dog is getting car sick.”

Then it got even better when people decided to leave. They thought they would just go out the entrance. Not with me standing there trying to funnel another few hundred cars in at the same time!

One woman in an expensive car was particularly troublesome. She actually blocked the gate trying to drive out, was stopped by other cars coming in, and then tried to tell me she could not back up. She honestly expected me to hold up all that traffic just for her. Her expectations fell short of my reality. After moments of meaningful dialog, she finally got turned in a better direction, where she stopped again to exchange words. Then on her way out she stopped traffic yet again to tell me what I was doing wrong. I have to admire her ability to ignore what is going on around her. I usually find it difficult to ignore cars coming at me, or people honking their horns, while she has no difficulty at all.

Another lady (And I use this word with tongue in cheek) did not like it when I would not let her in the vendor area (She had no vendor pass) and parked thirty feet away and got on her phone and LOUDLY declared to her friend what an asshole I was and that her friend needed to come straighten me out.

After quite a long wait, (Where I made it a point to let people with passes park where she wanted to park) her friend came to help her carry four rather small packages from her car, and she was forced to park in the public parking area. Her friend never spoke to me or offered any help besides carrying packages. I don’t think I made friends with her.

All in all I had fun. I like it when I actually have a good excuse to point at people and tell them where to go. Some of the yelling was quite nice as well. Come to think of it, I like the yelling best of all. And to the people that turned around in the middle of the busiest and most congested part of the event, I really DO want you to try to turn around in the middle of the freeway and see what happens.

And last but not least……

On the election; “We all get what we deserve.”

He is the President Elect. We are stuck with this. I do not trust altruists or idealists; they do some very bad things with the very best intent. I hope that he has really good advisors and understands history because we are a country in crisis and he begged for the job of running the country. Good luck with that.

I have noticed that the media that supported him is now showing a tendency to make his election a racial thing. “The first black man elected President.” This is a bad thing. He should be seen and judged by what he does and how he behaves when under stress, not by his choice of parents.

He is the first liberal to hold that office since Clinton made a mockery of the position (and his marriage) by accepting oral favors in the oval office. With two wars, an economic crisis, and the ghosts of the Clinton administration hanging overhead, I sincerely hope that he has the strength of character and the wisdom to do the right thing.