I really, really try to be patient.
Caller: Can you tell me who my caseworker is?
Me: Sure. looks it up Your worker is Mr. X.
Caller: What’s his number?
Me: 555-2233
Caller: I guess I should write that down. vague noises indicating a search for pencil and paper What was it again?
Me (fantasy): It was BE READY TO WRITE THE DAMN THING DOWN WHEN YOU ASK FOR IT, DAMMIT!
Me (reality): It was 555-2233. Please hold while I transfer you. soul dies a little more
@rockle: Phaser cannon. Do those come in ‘magnum’ sizes or full auto?
I stay far, far away from 422 as much as I can.
sigh
Valid point. 
New! Inconsequential! Rant!
Delmarva Power may bite my nasty gym socks. They just dropped the Talleyville grid, meaning they just killed the server that was compiling my run.
I can’t entirely fault the guy. *You *may be efficient (or, rather, working with an efficient system), but it feels like 99% of the time these days, it takes someone 30 seconds to look up any relevant information that you might feel the need to request, so it’s possible that he was expecting to have the time to grab the pen and paper while you were looking the number up.
Possibly. I still think that if a caller of normal intelligence initiates a request for write-this-down information, they shouldn’t be poleaxed by the idea that the person on the other end of the line will actually give it to them within a 2-3 second span of time.
[pointless tangent]
I am glad you are successful in being patient.
I’m sure I do stuff like this all the time, annoying loads of people.
It seems to be part of human nature: an activity that some people perform frequently, while others engage in it only occasionally: The old hands get annoyed by the newbies.
Example 1: Those subway card machines in the NYC subway system.
Old-hand: Regular commuters know how to use them, know what the different machines are for, know the restrictions, have card/money out already, and do the transaction in seconds.
Newbie: Occasional (once per year) NY commuters like me stand in front of the machine trying to figure it all out with annoyed “regulars” milling about behind (and the user interface is imperfect).
Example 2: Supermarket credit card machines - every one is different.
Old hand: The cashier and all regular customers are extremely familiar with one type of unit.
Newbie: The casual occasional customer sees twenty different types of these machines at different stores, and annoys the regulars because of the slowness in learning how to use the current one.
and…
Example 3: Customer service telephone transactions
Old-hand: Consider a person who has dozens of doctor visits, hospital visits, and insurance issues: this person will be skilled in interacting with people on the phone, with pencil already in hand, probably maintaining a dedicated diary for all of their medical issues.
It goes without saying that the telephone workers themselves fall into the “old hand” category, since they handle these calls all day long. “grumble… why doesn’t she have her claim number available… I have to ask for the claim number in every. single. call. why wouldn’t she have it ready…grumble”
Newbie: A person who has to call the cable company one single time could easily have a brief brain fart where they don’t realize they asked for a phone number prior to being prepared to receive it.
Don’t get me wrong: you are totally justified in being annoyed. It’s nice that you are able to restrain your annoyance.
And the icing on the cake is when the newbies make the same silly joke every other newbie makes.
I remember checking into a hotel in the UK once and laughing and joking about “Oh yeah… I forgot… the first floor is the second floor. That’s a hoot!”, but I’m sure that every other Yank makes the same stupid observation when told their room number. I’m certain that clerk restrained his urge to roll his eyes at me.
[/pointless tangent]
Oh god. Everybody thinks they’re so fucking original and clever. Newsflash, dude: you’re not. You are making the same stupid joke that all of my other customers made, and I’m just forced to laugh along. *So *glad I haven’t had to put up with that in many years, since I was a cashier at a grocery store.
When I was working in inside sales, I developed the habit of asking people if they had a pen AND PAPER handy when I started giving them quotes. I had too many conversations of, “Do you have a pen to write this down?” “Hold on, let me get one…okay, got a pen.” “Okay, the quote is blahblahblahblahblah…” “Hold on, let me get some paper.”
See, I thought it was UNDERSTOOD that you needed pen AND PAPER to write quotes down, but I learned the error of my ways right quick.
My local Safeway just put in self-check machines, and I was using one to buy a double handful of stuff. It turns out every other item I had was a weird thing that needed extensive looking up or help from the attendant. I was very glad that day that there was no one lined up behind me - that would have been brutal for them.
When I was about 25 or so, I resolved to keep a pen and a pad of paper by all phones. And nobody was allowed to abscond with pen or paper, not even for a second. You want pen and paper, you by Og go into the supply box (yes, I have an office supply box in my home) and GET YOUR OWN. And PUT IT BACK when you’re done. I might have traumatized my husband and daughter, but at least I was ready to write down information when I needed to.
Jesus fucking Christ mom, why can’t you just try being supportive?! My wife misses our daughter and is not happy about being up there, but her mother needs her. What she does not need is you calling and trying to convince her to come home and making her feel like a horrible mother. Fuck, why can’t you ever just keep your opinions to yourself? You think your shit don’t stink or something? How my wife and I decide to handle this is none of your fucking business!
This goes double for people who don’t have their credit card ready when they’re making reservations over the phone and people who don’t bring their reading glasses with them when they check in. (You are going to have to SIGN SOMETHING IDIOTS.)
Merry Christmas to us! Tomorrow we’re starting $48,000 of home repairs we had no intention of doing! At 7:00am there are going to be Large Burly Men jack-fucking-hammering our foundation to pieces, and later with it being fucking cold outside tearing out every single window in the entire house. We have to cross our fingers, toes, and vestigial tails that Christmas morning will not find our house sinking into the ground down to Satan or the Hyperborean winds howling through the giant holes in the house where windows should be.
The disruption to the holidays and home, plus the fear of “will this fix our house?” is tying my stomach into knots.
Happy Holidays,
Happy Holidays,
BRRRRRATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!! Hey Frank, ever seen a foundation do that before?
May the calendar keep bringing…
Oh lord, that sucks. Consider my digits crossed. I’d cross my eyes, too, but I’ve always been afraid to after my friend Nancy in 2nd grade convinced me if I crossed my eyes and someone struck me in the back my eyes would stick.
Thank you very much for the support. We didn’t want to be doing this now, but a series of highly unfortunate events led to it which I couldn’t adequately explain if I typed for ten minutes. It needed to be done, at some point, but now is not a great time to do it.
I spoke with Ed about it and he called us crazy for doing this now, and then I reminded him of what he had to go through with the Barn House…
We’re on our second house that is around 40 years old. If you’re doing it now, I’ll assume it needs doing now (funny how things in houses have their own timetables).
Knowing what it is like to live thru just a small remodel, I very much sympathize with you. May Santa bring you a quick finish to this, with no “surprises”!
Our house is more than 50 years old. We said “hey, surely the foundation should have settled to a happy, stable point in the first 50 years…right?”
Ha-ha! Nope, it moved. Sank 2.75 inches in one corner…the middle corner. This means we actually have not one, but two separate foundations to lift.
The windows were an even bigger series of unfortunate circumstances, and are being squeaked in just before the end of the year for the tax credit.
And curlcoat, thank you as well for the wishes.
I just realized my house is closing in on 150 years. Huh.
May I be in as good a shape 150 years in! 
Best of luck Una Persson. That sounds horrible.
::Fingers crossed for Chateau Persson::