When I was a child, my parents always were amazed by my patience. While they’d be freaking out about how long a cashier at the grocery store was taking, I was more than content staring at the tabloid covers that often left me confused and then darting my attention to the rows and rows of candy bars… totally oblivious to the cashier who was painstakingly slower than what my parents had hoped for when they hopped into that short line.

As I journey through adulthood, I wonder where that patience went. Generally speaking, I cannot stand waiting. Although, when traveling by myself, I actually enjoy waiting in the airport terminal. Otherwise, I hate waiting.

Recently, my inability to wait has reared its impatient head several times. The bathroom floor went from bad to worse since we’ve lived in the church owned parsonage… and when we got permission to do some updates, I immediately headed to the hardware store and picked up the new flooring. Unfortunately, with my hectic schedule as a youth pastor, it was impossible to begin work until the weekend. Mind you, I picked up the floor on a Monday. I had to wait 3 days to begin working on the bathroom floor. Friday night, Andi & I worked all night putting the new contact laminate-esque floor in. We had to stop when both of us realized that my cuts were getting more and more jaggedly uneven with each minute that past. I fell into bed at 4am, only to wake up at 9am to finish it. I remember my arms were shaking as I was trying to put the floor boards together … I didn’t have anything to eat or drink since lunch on Friday….and with all that work, my body wasn’t too happy! Getting the floor done — waiting for nothing and just doing it — was more important than anything else.

Lately, my treasured ten year old Volvo V70 wagon has started acting up. I brought it into the shop this week to have some work done on what I thought the problem was. I was told that it would take about 2 hours, so I decided to take them up on their offer to shuttle me over to my favorite coffee shop — which happens to be only a few miles away from the shop. Trying to make the most of this two hour wait, I settled in at a corner table with my chicken alfredo linguine, diet Pepsi, and a good book. The two hour wait crawled by. Finally, my cell phone rang vibrated (I’m in a coffeeshop, remember… a ringing cell phone is never good in a coffeeshop.) It was the mechanic — while changing the oil, they noticed some work that needed to be done. They also needed some more time to get the work done that I originally brought it in for. Great… more waiting.

I decided to get up and walk over to the supermarket next door and pick up some grub. I was tired of sitting and waiting. So I went and picked up some chocolate covered raisins & a tropical mix of dried fruit. With snacks in my messenger bag, I returned back to the coffeeshop for part 2 of my day of waiting. After slurping down my 24-ounce frozen mocha (yes, I was stressed…2 caffeinated beverages in a 2 hour period…) and people-watching eavesdropping while pretending to be reading, the shuttle showed up and took me back to the shop …another two hours later.

I got my wagon back, and headed for home. As I was in the turn lane, my turn indicators stopped working. I called the shop, and took it back hoping my mechanic was still there. Sadly, he had left for the day. I would have to wait until the next morning to get it in. The next day was a Thursday, which is the day I deliver papers on the Oregon coast. I had to find a sub.

Thursday morning I woke up early and met my sub at the Weekly headquarters to go over the route list and help her load up the papers into her car. Andi met up with me there, and then followed me to breakfast at Shari’s. After breakfast we dropped the car off at the shop — again — and then I dropped her off at work. A couple hours later, I got a call from the mechanic.

He fixed the indicator lights, but again stressed that our car needed a lot of work.

Not wanting to wait…are you sensing the theme…I called Andi and asked her for her opinion. Fix the car now … put it on a credit card & pay later (plus a bit of interest as we wait a couple months until the money all comes in for our car repair budget) …… or wait until we have the money and then get it fixed. We chose to get it fixed that day.

The car was in the shop all day Thursday and most of the day on Friday. The shop called Friday and said they would send out the shuttle car to meet me at Andi’s place of employment, and that the shuttle driver was leaving right away. I hurriedly got all my stuff together and drove our Chevy to Andi’s work. I waited for over an hour. Apparently, there was a miscommunication among the shopkeeper & shuttle driver. Again, I was left to wait. Did I mention I hate waiting?

As I drove the car back home, I tried turning on the radio. Apparently, when the battery drains on a Volvo, the radio locks up and you need a special code to unlock it. I got on the phone again with my mechanic, and he said he would call me on Monday with the code. He also said that in order to put the code in, you have to leave the car with the key in ignition position 1 to leave the radio on so that it will reset itself. Guess how long that takes? 4-5 hours. During the 4-5 hour wait period, I tried to outsmart the car by pulling the radio fuse. That did no good, and only caused me to have to start the 4-5 hour wait all over again.

So, now, it is Sunday. My waiting is about to pay off, as tomorrow I will be able to put the radio code in and once again start jamming to my favorite tunes.

After a new engine mount, sway bar, transmission fluid flush, power steering fluid flush, coolant flush, new thermostat, new timing belt, new serpentine belt, new air filter, new cabin/pollen air filter, new switch for hazard light/blinkers, and about 36 hours (and counting) of waiting…….. my Volvo runs almost like new. Thankfully, I won’t have to do this stuff again for at least 7 years.

Though I had to wait, wait, and wait some more… I am totally pleased with my experience with the shop. After they did all the work, they showed me all of the parts that they replaced. They were certainly in need of repair — I saw just how bad of shape those things were.

Did I mention that the parts were more expensive than the labor?? A true sign of a trusty mechanic. Definitely worth the wait… even though I hate waiting.