I'm on the second string and that's okay.

"At first he seemed glad it was me he was talking to, that changed after a few minutes..."

That was the War Department relating a conversation she had with the customer "service advisor" who called today with an update on the repairs to our car.

Almost a month ago a guy with a trailer on the back of his truck backed into me at a stop light. It wasn't a "fender bender" where both parties get out, look at the dings and agree not to get the insurance companies involved. 'Nuff said on that, since then we've had the vehicle in the shop.

Up till last week we quietly went along, waiting for them to finish. After another in a series of delays I told this guy I wasn't confident with their work, as someone who'd been a mechanical supervisor the steady stream of delays and excuses had sent up a red flag in me and I was unhappy. He got upset, stayed civil but hung up as soon as he could. That was Thursday, till that point we'd been getting a verbal massage from him every other day, first thing in the morning. The Thursday conversation was initiated by myself, he'd called the day before when the whole family was out. Left a message on the machine with the latest excuse. So if he'd followed his regular schedule we'd have gotten a call Friday morning.

I should mention I'd told him to call in the mornings when I first dropped off the car, this is because I sleep during the day. I feel that might be the reason he waited till almost noon to call today (Monday). He got the WD instead of me and, going by her comment that I started this post with, probably figured he was dealing with a creampuff. The WD has a girlish voice, everyone knows she's much younger than I so there's the stereotype of the "sheltered little girl" and let's face it, a lot of women don't stand up to guys in his position. They're too easily flummoxed by the hype and razzle dazzle.

But there's always the exception, isn't there?

The WD never turns into the SheHulk, she'll just let you run on till she can verbally cut you three ways; deep, wide, and continuous. All the time she's doing it, it's in that "butter won't melt in my mouth" voice. It's like having Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms smile and flutter her eyelashes while she rips your nuts off without the benefit of anesthesia. Believe me, been there, done that, got the tee-shirt!

So in the past nine years I've seen my status go from "Fearless Defender of Hearth and Home" to "Cleanup Detail" whenever she gets rolling. Gotta say that she might have started out a bit naive but she sure took on a steep learning curve. Real steep.

Right now I kinda feel sorry for that "service advisor". Must hurt to have your lunch handed to you by a girl so early in the week.