As promised here is my homicidal thought moment from our winter 2009 trip. It is one of my favorite moments and occurred on our trip from Dallas when we stopped at a truck stop in Prescott Arkansas for dinner. As we were getting out of the truck I asked if we could get a walk in before heading down the road. Since we sit a lot in the truck I like for us to get walks in every chance we can. Vince said we could get a “quick” one in after dinner. So I decided to hide my purse behind/under my seat so that we could walk right after dinner.
During dinner Vince shared with me that he also wanted to grease my seat before we left because it was making a squeaking sound that was driving him crazy. I have found that sounds in our home drive me crazy and don’t bother Vince at all. While sounds in the truck drive Vince nuts and I don’t even notice them. I was a little annoyed with him that he didn’t seem to want to get the walk in but he had time to get the grease gun out.
After dinner we got a few laps in and then I sent Vince back to the truck to mess with the seat while I went to the bathroom. Mess being a word that so fit the events that followed. As I returned to the truck I found Vince at the passenger side working on the seat. I asked him if he moved my purse and he stated it wasn’t necessary for where he was working.
Shortly after I arrived at the truck my phone started to ring and as you may recall, I had hid my purse which had my phone clipped to the outside of it, under my seat. From the ring we could tell it was Elizabeth so Vince asked me if I wanted my phone. Now he is standing there with latex gloves on that have grease on them and a grease gun in his hand, did he really think I wanted him touching my phone? I told him no I would call her back.
So Vince went back to work and we talked as he worked. Everything was going fine all the way up to when Vince checked his work. At that moment he began swearing, yes as the joke would go like a truck driver. I thought he must have got grease on the floor of the truck, which I knew would upset him because he keeps the truck very clean. I asked him what was wrong and he told me there was grease on my purse and phone. To which I replied very loudly “you better be kidding”, to which he replied just as loudly “no I’m not”.
When he pulled my purse out so I could see it, I went from calm to livid in seconds because there was and I am not exaggerating a ball of grease, between the size of golf ball and a baseball sitting across my phone and purse. I asked him what I should do and he told me to get in on the driver’s side, grab paper towels and wipe it off. All the way around the truck I kept thinking why didn’t he move the purse if he knew he was working right by it, all while emitting a string of cuss words, that in the spirit of the season greatly resembled Ralphie’s dad in the Christmas story. I climbed in the truck and grabbed the towels to start wiping the phone and purse. The phone cover and purse reeked of grease and again I was thinking how hard would it have been to just move the purse? However, I must say the leather cover over the phone, slide off way easier than any other time I had removed it.
As you might imagine there was a great deal of tension between us at that moment. So Vince finished up actually greasing the seat while I cleaned the phone and purse in silence. After he finished he just got into the truck and we just belted in to head up the road. As we were leaving the truck stop I decided to return Elizabeth’s call since there wasn’t going to be any conversation in the truck.
Although I was really mad at Vince, I didn’t let on to Elizabeth that anything was wrong. As Elizabeth and I talked I recalled our conversation from the previous night. Elizabeth was upset about something that had happened at work and I reminded her of advice I had gotten from a co-worker many years ago. My co-worker had asked me when I got upset about something if anyone had died. Of course in my case and in Elizabeth’s no one had and like me, Elizabeth calmed down. I have found that this question always puts things into perspective and reminds me that I need to not get upset about little things. I immediately realized that no one had died because grease got on my phone and purse and that actually no real damage had occurred either. I needed to not be upset with Vince and to just move on. However, I must confess that I did laugh, on the inside of course, when as we pulled out of the truck stop Vince had a mini fit of cussing and hitting the steering wheel because, my seat was still squeaking.
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