hide rant.

Friday I had the displeasure of spending hours on the phone with a woman bearing all the fluffy, cuddly attributes of a rattlesnake. This razor-tongued harpy brought even my supremely diplomatic self to points of profound bluntness.

She complained a vendor had said something horrible to her. I told her that was appalling, unacceptable language and I apologized, said she should not have been spoken to in that way. I went on to say that if she had been as abusive to that vendor as she had been to me, well, I completely understood what inspired his rudeness.

Instead of responding to what I said, she just took off in another, ranty direction. It was bizarre, like some wind-up toy that hits a wall, spins on its heels and goes listing off on some other tack, endlessly spooling what is obviously an oft-employed, mindless ranting method.

Later on, she said

"...and who knows if they're going to come tomorrow, and what are you going to do tomorrow when it's 6:00 and they're not there and you're not around, you're not gonna be around tomorrow. Where you gonna be? Are you gonna be available tomorrow 24-7 to address this when this comes up?"

I uttered the unvarnished truth: "Absolutely not."

Seriously. Why should I come to work on my off-day to listen to someone who doesn't want solutions, only wants to abuse?

She ended the call by saying I was going to clock out and not think of her again at 8:00 pm.

Oh, if only.

She obviously gets some big emotional payoff from ranting. I really wonder about people like that. You fix the problem and there's still this endless pool of angst and vitriol, blurting out like water from a hydrant. They never heard the thing about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar, because they never shut up long enough. Fortunately, I don't ever have to deal with her again.