Precious
O & S has a deal with a company that develops mobile home parks. They order all their storage buildings from us and we give them a discount. Well, one of the owners has a wife named Judy.
Now, Judy is one of those women that either has way too much money or too much credit. She does as she pleases; she buys outrageously priced, expensive items. She is not satisfied with ordering something normal—she has to have everything custom made.
One of the first times I had the occasion to meet her in person, she had come to the office to order a storage building with lots of extras that was to go in the woods next a pond and be a cabin of sorts. At that time, I wasn’t the best person to talk to about those kinds of things and my boss was out of the office on delivery. By default, the shop foreman, my boss’s brother, was the one that had to deal with her.
After getting all of the specifics from her, the foreman asked her for her name so he could write the order up. “My name is Precious,” she said. “Naw,” he said, “You’re not serious, are you?” “Yes,” she insisted, “You can even ask my mother.” Her mother happened to be in the office with her but was sitting across the office and not paying a whole lot of attention. Not wanting to involve the mother, he asked again, “What is your real name?” “Precious. Come on, you can say it. Say P-r-e-c-i-o-u-s,” she said deliberately and slowly as if she was talking to a two-year-old.
He abandoned the name for a bit and wrote the order out. A short time later, her mother spotted a picture in the office that she wanted Judy to see, so she said, “Judy, look at that.” That was all he needed. He pounced like a starving lion. “What’d she call you!? See I knew your name wasn’t Precious! I think she called you Judy.” Judy still maintained that her name was Precious but by this time he would have nothing of it.
What made me remember this incident was that she called me yesterday morning and greeted me with a “Hello, Beautiful, what are you doing?” Now, I’m not exactly accustomed to being called beautiful, so it had the potential for leaving me speechless, but I recovered nicely and told her exactly what I had been doing, which was picking dead skin from my shin that had been sunburned several weeks ago. She laughed and told me that she needs to speak with “Handsome”, her flattery name for my boss.
My boss will usually humor her by referring to the “Precious” incident each time she calls and she lavishes him with flattering names, hoping that he won’t charge her an arm and a leg for the special order she wants to price. I find it funny in that she has managed to get him to do things for her that he would not normally do for (almost) anyone else, but then he also charges her according to the effort that he must put forth.
It’s a strange relationship that usually ends up with her being happy and him being somewhat disgruntled and declaring that he’ll never do anything like that again…at least not without charging way more for it.
Oh, her request today…She wants a price for a gazebo that is entirely glassed in so she can house birds in it. It’ll probably end up being a $6,000-8,000 job if she goes thru with it. And all for birds!!
Now, Judy is one of those women that either has way too much money or too much credit. She does as she pleases; she buys outrageously priced, expensive items. She is not satisfied with ordering something normal—she has to have everything custom made.
One of the first times I had the occasion to meet her in person, she had come to the office to order a storage building with lots of extras that was to go in the woods next a pond and be a cabin of sorts. At that time, I wasn’t the best person to talk to about those kinds of things and my boss was out of the office on delivery. By default, the shop foreman, my boss’s brother, was the one that had to deal with her.
After getting all of the specifics from her, the foreman asked her for her name so he could write the order up. “My name is Precious,” she said. “Naw,” he said, “You’re not serious, are you?” “Yes,” she insisted, “You can even ask my mother.” Her mother happened to be in the office with her but was sitting across the office and not paying a whole lot of attention. Not wanting to involve the mother, he asked again, “What is your real name?” “Precious. Come on, you can say it. Say P-r-e-c-i-o-u-s,” she said deliberately and slowly as if she was talking to a two-year-old.
He abandoned the name for a bit and wrote the order out. A short time later, her mother spotted a picture in the office that she wanted Judy to see, so she said, “Judy, look at that.” That was all he needed. He pounced like a starving lion. “What’d she call you!? See I knew your name wasn’t Precious! I think she called you Judy.” Judy still maintained that her name was Precious but by this time he would have nothing of it.
What made me remember this incident was that she called me yesterday morning and greeted me with a “Hello, Beautiful, what are you doing?” Now, I’m not exactly accustomed to being called beautiful, so it had the potential for leaving me speechless, but I recovered nicely and told her exactly what I had been doing, which was picking dead skin from my shin that had been sunburned several weeks ago. She laughed and told me that she needs to speak with “Handsome”, her flattery name for my boss.
My boss will usually humor her by referring to the “Precious” incident each time she calls and she lavishes him with flattering names, hoping that he won’t charge her an arm and a leg for the special order she wants to price. I find it funny in that she has managed to get him to do things for her that he would not normally do for (almost) anyone else, but then he also charges her according to the effort that he must put forth.
It’s a strange relationship that usually ends up with her being happy and him being somewhat disgruntled and declaring that he’ll never do anything like that again…at least not without charging way more for it.
Oh, her request today…She wants a price for a gazebo that is entirely glassed in so she can house birds in it. It’ll probably end up being a $6,000-8,000 job if she goes thru with it. And all for birds!!
posted by Sharon @ 9:33 PM
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