I went to pick up a piece of rigging equipment I had a local supplier make for me this afternoon. They're a vendor I've used almost exclusively over the years, when I need some piece of wire rope gear fabricated and it's a larger size than I can handle in my own shop.
So I get there, at the time they said to show up, when I called them yesterday, at which time the owner of the small shop said i was all set. The piece wasn't actually done when I got there today, it was still in progress of being made, so I left the location and came back a half hour later. Mildly annoying, given my schedule constraints for the day, but not the kick in the nads referenced above. *That* happened when I returned.
I enter the premises, for the second time, with my mask on as i pretty much do anywhere at the moment, and walk in on the owner and one of his employees having a conversation. It's about COVID. And how the employee just lost a friend of his to it. 44 years old. This isn't the kick in the nads either. It's what comes next. The owner asks the employee if they had any, um, "comobidities". Which he did. OMG, he had asthma, and was a smoker. I guess that rendered him not worthy of consideration. I then watched the entire Trump-MAGA-god-knows-what conspiracy playbook revealed before my ears, as the two of them rail against the new boston vaccine mandates and proclaim the magic of their somehow superior immune systems and "I got it earlier this year but I TOOK IVERMECTIN and then everything was OK" and christ on a stick, you name the MAGA/antivax talking point, they supported themselves in it. But By Golly, this country still lets them have their guns, so at least that will work out for them. I stood there, listening to this exchange, just getting more depressed by the minute, but not engaging in any way. These folk were, in the back room, swaging a piece of life critical equipment i would be using next week. I gave them my credit card, paid for the order, wished them a happy end of the year. and left with my item.
It is the last order they will ever see from me.
I fucking hate people today.
So I get there, at the time they said to show up, when I called them yesterday, at which time the owner of the small shop said i was all set. The piece wasn't actually done when I got there today, it was still in progress of being made, so I left the location and came back a half hour later. Mildly annoying, given my schedule constraints for the day, but not the kick in the nads referenced above. *That* happened when I returned.
I enter the premises, for the second time, with my mask on as i pretty much do anywhere at the moment, and walk in on the owner and one of his employees having a conversation. It's about COVID. And how the employee just lost a friend of his to it. 44 years old. This isn't the kick in the nads either. It's what comes next. The owner asks the employee if they had any, um, "comobidities". Which he did. OMG, he had asthma, and was a smoker. I guess that rendered him not worthy of consideration. I then watched the entire Trump-MAGA-god-knows-what conspiracy playbook revealed before my ears, as the two of them rail against the new boston vaccine mandates and proclaim the magic of their somehow superior immune systems and "I got it earlier this year but I TOOK IVERMECTIN and then everything was OK" and christ on a stick, you name the MAGA/antivax talking point, they supported themselves in it. But By Golly, this country still lets them have their guns, so at least that will work out for them. I stood there, listening to this exchange, just getting more depressed by the minute, but not engaging in any way. These folk were, in the back room, swaging a piece of life critical equipment i would be using next week. I gave them my credit card, paid for the order, wished them a happy end of the year. and left with my item.
It is the last order they will ever see from me.
I fucking hate people today.