Anger Management Problems

Flew off my rocker too many times today.

The day started off with me using a really bad analogy when trying to help my girlfriend. I was trying to help, but what I said was insulting and wrong. I quickly realized my mistake, but the damage was done. I left the house pretty frustrated with myself.

I rode a couple hundred yards from my house and then stopped at a light. There were two lanes in the road. One is a right turn only lane and one lane is either for going straight or for turning left. I was in the left lane planning to go straight. This guys pulls up next to me half in the right hand lane half in my lane. I try to get his attention, but he pulls up further so we can't make eye contact. So I pull up further and get right in his driver side window. At first he won't roll his window down. He is talking on the phone and pretending not to notice me. So I start waving my hands and yelling at him.

Finally he rolls his window down. He says "What".

I say "What are you doing?" in a very annoyed and confrontational tone.

He says "What do you mean?"

I say "Are you turning left?" (again in a very smart ass way)

He says "I was planning to."

I say "Do you normally pull up on the right hand side of a car in a right hand turn only lane and turn left in front of other cars?"

He gives me a look like fuck you and rolls his window back up.

The light turns green and we both take off but I beat him into the intersection. I cut in front of him and glare at him. Then pedal on my way.

I am proud I stood up for myself, but I wish I could have been less confrontational about it. He is probably just waiting to run over some poor roadie now.

After I got to work, I sent off some shit-o-grams to the customer service people at batteryspace.com.

I ordered some rechargeable batteries from them a couple weeks ago for my commuter lights. The day I got them I tried to charge four of the AAA batteries in the charger I got from them. After about an hour or so the light went from red to green so I went to take the batteries out of the charger. They were much hotter than I would have expected. I would expect that they would be a little warm but they were very hot. I thought this was weird but I assumed since they were brand new it must be okay. I double checked the polarity of the batteries in the charger and tried another set. Again in about an hour or so they light changed and I took the batteries off. The batteries were not quite as hot but i thought a felt some kind of slick liquid on the batteries. I had just finished dinner so I thought maybe my fingers were just greasy. I put a third set of batteries in the charger. When the light went green on the third set the batteries were cold and covered in liquid. There was also liquid in the charger. I was pretty sure this was not normal so I sent an email that day to battery space people.

They wrote back pointing me to their warranty/return page. After reading the page I got a really bad feeling like I wasn't getting any money back. So I wrote them back and told them I would be sending the stuff I bought back.

The guy wrote me back and said he would refund the AAA batteries, but he would charge a 20% restocking fee for the charger and AA batteries I ordered. Also I would have to ship him the defective batteries at my own expense.

I basically sent him a nasty email telling him I thought what he was doing was not fair. I have no safe way of knowing if the AA batteries or the charger are not defective. I also asked if he knew the AAA batteries were defective then why did he ship them to me?

I think paying $7 in shipping to return a $10 set of batteries is not fair.

Anyways I am sure as a customer service person he has to take shit all day so what I did doesn't help anyone. I guess I have too high a level of expectations for customer service from a discount online store. If I want customer service I would be better off buying from a local store and paying full price.

maintenance

unload the bike from rack
feel something not quite right
grab the wheel give it a spin
hear rubbing on the frame

anger yelling frustration
why must i fix you again
i clean you, i oil you
i keep your tires full of air

i have fixed your broken cable
i have fixed your broken fork
now your gears are no longer indexed
and your brakes are no longer aligned

maintenance is a constant
no purpose anger serves
might as well complain about pedaling
or even breathing in and out

flip the bike over
wiggle the offending wheel
grab an allen key
re-tighten the loose slider

swing a leg over the bike
pedal fast around the car
lean hard in the turns
listen careful for the rub

call it good enough
pray the bolts hold till the ride is over
remember on any future slider adjustments
reapply your blue loc-tite


is everything like bike maintenance
can you choose to not get frustrated
should you just accept the inevitable
or accept the challenge as part of the fun

the ride was worth the challenge
the problems faded away
the time spent with my baby
the joy of a beautiful day