Disclaimer: anyone who knows me also knows that I despise "man bashing" (and "woman bashing" of course), and I am in no way suggesting that all guys fit the following description. I was married to two who didn't. Having said that, you may find that you know some guys like this.
I sold off the last suite of office furniture this evening to a guy from Ohio who was opening a new branch office for his business. He arrived at my old office at 6 with a U-Haul trailer, a toolbox and his son. I had some large case pieces that needed to be partially disassembled for moving, and they didn't have much trouble figuring out that part. (The guy who bought my other office furniture had a four-man crew who were like a clown comedy troupe - I actually had to walk out of the office so I wouldn't have a giggle fit watching them trying to figure out what they were doing.)
Anyway, when I met the guy today, I remember thinking that I hoped he had someone to do his marketing and networking for him, because he had all the personality of a wet Kleenex. What a sad sack.
The funny part happened when they were loading the truck. They had three guest chairs, a desk chair on casters, and a conference table left to load, and they had plenty of room left to do it IF they used a little sense. Of course they did not know that I (a) used to put together furniture like that for a living, (b), used to design furniture displays for stores, so I know what can fit where, and (c) have moved so many times that I can pack a truck in my sleep. They were scratching their heads when I suggested that they take off the top of the conference table, wrap it in a packing blanket and put it either beside or atop the desk so it wouldn't slide around, and they'd be able to fit all the chairs with no problem. Mr. Personality apparently didn't like hearing a suggestion from a female, so he grumped a bit and shoved the furniture around inside the truck, trying to get the table to fit. No go.
Finally he did take the top off the base and voila! it fit like magic. The three guest chairs went right in with plenty of room to spare for the desk chair. But here's where the giggles come in: instead of putting the desk chair in and laying it down so it wouldn't roll (or tying it to the wall), he put it in the bed of his spiffy new Z71 truck and tried to jam the hard tonneau cover down on it. It was very obvious that the base of the chair was about a foot too high for the cover to close, and there was no way to get it to work. I was standing there thinking, "If I had suggested putting that chair in there, he would have looked at me like I was kah-razy". His son was practically standing on the tonneau cover trying to get it down far enough to lock. After about ten minutes I couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Ummm...guys...you have tons of space for that chair in the back of the trailer..." He gave me another dirty look and retorted, "But it might roll around!" I said, "Welllll...you can just lie it down like you had it in your truck bed."
He dug it out of the truck bed and sent his son inside the building to pick up their tools while he secured it in the trailer. I locked up the building and went to get in my car. Before I pulled away, I asked him if he knew how to get back to the Turnpike. He said "YES!" - pause - sheepish look - "Ummm....I think so." I told him the easiest way out was to turn right on Freeport Road (right in front of where he was parked), go to the end and turn right again, take the 28 south ramp for Pittsburgh and take the Harmar exit. I could tell by his expression that he thought they were going to just retrace their steps from the way in, which you can't do because of Dallas Avenue being a one-way street - but I couldn't let him get lost on the back streets of the Heights that way.
He reminded me of Leo's friend Mike on our bike trip out West. Mike insisted on being the trip planner/navigator, but he didn't plan too well and kept running us all over creation backtracking to different sites when we could have spent more time seeing things and less time zigzagging all over New Mexico and Arizona. Poor Mike's ego couldn't handle that a woman might actually be a better navigator than he was, until he got all screwed up in Silver City, NM and realized that I was really good at map reading.
Some guys just need to get over themselves and listen to suggestions from women as well as other men.
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