Patience by the Balloonatic

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Patience by the Balloonatic

My sister-in-law used to tell us about how she struggled after her first son was born. She was having trouble keeping up with everything, and so she began to pray for patience. When her son was 14 months old she gave birth to twins. The moral of the story is that when your pray for patience, God sends you something to teach you patience.

As a “crafty” person, who likes to work on things like cross-stitch or home-made blankets, and major home renovations, I often have people comment on how much patience I have. I laugh and tell them that it’s not patience, but impatience. If I had patience, I would be taking my time. Instead, I am impatient and work hard to get it done because I want to finish this project so that I can move on to the next. One of my theme songs is definitely Queen’s “I Want it All.” I want it all, and I want it now. I don’t want to have to wait. I don’t want to be patient. This is one reason I didn’t like being a manager at  work. It’s hard to take the time to show someone how to do the job correctly and so much easier and quicker just to do it yourself.

And yet now, as a parent, I see the need for patience. As my son struggles with his homework, is it really going to help him if I get impatient that he doesn’t understand and just give him the answer? What does he end up learning that way? Isn’t it better to slow down and break up a problem into steps and guide him into finding the answer himself? I had one of my proudest moments this year when I was asking him if he was done his homework yet, and instead of asking me for help, he said no, he was trying to find a way to expand his answer and it was going to take a bit longer. And then after years of trying to show him how to change from a one sentence answer with all the facts to get it over and done with to  instead breaking up his points into multiple sentences to give a complete answer, he finally got it and did it on his own. He came home and told me that his teacher said that she was going to use his assignment as an example for future classes.

And yes, while I tend to think of myself as an impatient person, someone who doesn’t easily put up with stupidity, and someone who tends to speed because I want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, that really isn’t the full picture. This is the time of year where I slow down to admire the beauty of the fall weather and the gorgeous panoply of green, yellow, orange and red in the trees that line the highways. And when I’m working on my house, I don’t rush and do a sloppy job just to get it done. I actually have learned to take my time to do it right because I really don’t want to have to do it over again.

Patience isn’t something that comes easily to most people. I’m sure I’m not alone in my struggles with it. We look at the world around us and we wonder how long do we need to wait before things improve? How long can we put up with the craziness around us? Patience isn’t easy to come by, and yet it is necessary. How many times has there been something in the news where people jumped to immediate conclusions instead of following the 48 hour rule? Often, after those two days the media narrative falls apart. Sometimes, as with recent events, we find that it is even worse than we had imagined it would be. There are those in this world, however, who want us to jump to conclusions and to actions without patience, without taking the time to consider the consequences and to look at all of the possibilities. They want us to be hasty and make foolish mistakes instead of careful consideration and planning for what we need to do and what can go wrong.

It’s like working on a home renovation project. If you just start working on something and rushing through to get it done, you will likely have to do it over again in the future. And what could have been a quick and simple job if you had taken the time to plan and prepare ends up taking a lot longer with multiple trips to the hardware store to get that tool you needed or that missing part that you didn’t find ahead of time. It would have been better to be a little patient and remember the 6 P’s: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Perfomance. Right now, when it feels like the world is falling apart around us and we need to take action, any action, just to be doing something, let’s stop instead and be patient. Let’s think, let’s plan, let’s get all the facts and be prepared. This time, let’s do it right.

79 thoughts on “Patience by the Balloonatic”

  2. I learned patience by waiting for renders in the early 90s in a dos programs called vivid and povray.

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  3. Suddenly, Mike and Paul found themselves to each be the parents of quintuplets. It was a real Biblical moment, since Mike’s wife was, like Sarah, wife of Abraham, well past child-bearing age. Needless to say, Mike’s wife was less than pleased about it. As for Paul, well, who knows what dragons do with unexpected clutches of eggs?

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  4. Had so little patience this weekend, I became a patient. Tooth broke and was causing pain. 2 hrs at the dentist and $109 later, I’m still in pain. but it is from the extraction. (Appointment was a full scan, x-rays , and full inspection by the hygienist and dentist, with a full quote for fixing the trainwreck that is my mouth). Sleep, well restful sleep, would be nice. Last night and Saturday night required medication to assist the sleep by taking my Oxycodone but last night it just made for dreams of me dealing with the pain. I did get the washer and dehumidifier drains run Saturday, but that was about all I had patience for.

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      1. our insurence is a $20/$25 deductable and $2500/$2000 max (In network/out of network) and I use Aspen who just fell out of out network as their two dentists left, so they’ve been borrowing them. Looking at $9,000 worth of fixing right now, unless two he wants a surgical ortho to look at would need Root Canals. Joy.

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        1. Yeah, I have a broken molar that needs to be removed and multiple root canals needed. I’m going to get an FSA through work next year and dump money in it to cover it.

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        2. I haven’t had dental insurance since the Dot-com bust in 2001, but my dental practice is very friendly to cash customers. When I broke a tooth, the interim partial cost about $1500, as did the interim for the upper (cavity where it couldn’t be fixed. Whee.)

          Final partials a year later cost $3600 for the pair, and if one sketchy tooth goes out, the relevant partial can be modified.

          I have horrible roots for various reasons (partly genetics, partly life screwups–never should have taken up smoking a pipe), so more lost teeth are a distinct possibility. OTOH, any more losses and I’ll consider a full denture. Most likely it would be the lower set.

          I considered implants and passed. $1500 a tooth? (Circa 2021. YMMV) Nope. Too many to replace and I’d worry about the jaw.

          When I’m not losing teeth, I think I spend about $500 a year on dental cleaning/checkups.

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      2. Man, you guys REALLY make me appreciate my dental insurance. It is an add on to my regular insurance, so I have been paying on it for MANY years, but the worst bill I ever had was $1200. My wife used to insist on some ‘not covered’ extras, but since switching to MY dental group hasn’t felt the need, anymore. So even allowing for how the premiums have probably added up over the years, the outcome has worked out so that I didn’t get hammered all at once for the couple of years when we needed a LOT of work. My regular insurance would only cover something THEY define as ‘dental surgery’. I haven’t gotten a bill for twice yearly cleanings in quite some time. The premium was a bit much for JUST that, but for various crowns and bridges and extractions, etc. , I’ve got NO complaints!

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    2. Luckily, my journey to fixing the trainwreck known as my mouth began 20 years ago, before things got any worse than one broken molar requiring a root canal and a crown…I wish you well in getting it all taken care of, because there’s nothing worse than a sore mouth.

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      1. I was very happy when the incisor I broke (the weekend before knee surgery–took over 6 weeks before I could drive again) took the nerve with it. Then, when they were doing the precision impressions, the incisor next too it decided to break, also taking the nerve with it. (We had already written off the four lower incisors, and a couple of molars were already long gone.)

        I was very happy that my broken teeth didn’t leave any nerves behind. OTOH, doing the extractions needed considerably more anesthesia than we had expected. Something about that portion of my jaw meant for an interesting experience.

        FWIW, the Tuesday before I wrecked that knee, I had taken my amateur radio tests. I achieved local history by taking and passing all three exams, and managed to do it without any errors. However, because of the long recovery, it took another year to get on the air. God has a sense of humor. Rough one, for sure.

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        1. My worst break was a Bicuspid. Split almost down the center at an angle. Extraction took some time with about 30 minutes of it being the dentist and assistant beating me about the head and shoulders, with breaks to dig more into the gums and grind gripping ledges to the remnant. So 10 or so minutes of beating (well, wrestling), ‘snap” cut grind, get a grip and repeat. 4 times it broke. This latest molar was the loosest in my head, it could move a bit so often while flossing floss would get stuck, or cut. A bit of a pry with a finger, clench the jaw and remove the fibers and I was good to go, so the dentist was able to lift it without “punching me in the face”.

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          1. I’m down four molars; two to inaccessible cavities (actually at the gum/tooth boundary). The molars came out far easier than incisors, I think there’s more tooth to grab. Another was unsupported when the opposing tooth came out, and broke a root. The partials act like a splint, supporting the lone teeth, so I’m slightly less at risk of breaking more teeth. [Waggles hand.]

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    3. Just found out I’m in line for three crowns (replacing old & fracturing fillings, oh joy.

      I swear that most of my mouth is going to be fake at this rate. Oddly enough, I still have all my roots, despite the Horrible Tooth that I lived with being cracked for four months, and which later got abscessed.

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      1. I read the first bit before the parenthetical, and thought “Well, I’m too far down the line. And for Dave to become king of England, it would take an act of G-d and the death of 300 people.”
        And then I realized you didn’t mean that.

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  5. LOL, one of my favorite activities as student was to construct a single grammatically correct with appropriate use of comma, semi-colon and dash answer to test questions designed to require a full paragraph answer.

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  7. There is another even more important thing to NEVER pray for: Humility.

    You will be humbled. I spek from experience.

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      1. He has a wicked sense of humor. He gives us what we need, not what we want, frequently. The strange paradox of free will and predestination.

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          1. We provide entertainment in the same way a 3 year old provides entertainment. Look what he did. God has 7 billion 3 year olds.

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            1. Me: “God, please get rid of our moronic cabal of ruling class morons currently ruining Western Civilization.”

              Headline: WW3 on the Horizon?

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              1. With the divine logic displayed already, asking “God, please get rid of our moronic cabal of ruling class morons currently ruining Western Civilization.” we’ll be up to our ears in totalitarian morons.

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              2. With the divine logic displayed already, asking “God, please get rid of our moronic cabal of ruling class morons currently ruining Western Civilization.” we’ll be up to our ears in totalitarian morons.

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      2. See Spider Robinson’s “God is an Iron”. I got that T-shirt. He could have taught Mycroft (from TMiaHM) several “funny once” jokes, many of them survivable. Usually.

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      4. Only if you think He’s some sort of cosmic vending machine. Y’know “Prayers go in, thing comes out”.

        He’s the Father. So like any good father, if you ask for something that takes effort to develop, He gives you the opportunities needed to develop it.

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  8. “And what could have been a quick and simple job if you had taken the time to plan and prepare ends up taking a lot longer with multiple trips to the hardware store to get that tool you needed or that missing part that you didn’t find ahead of time. ”

    That’s just a feature of projects even if you plan and prepare properly.

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    1. True, but still less trips than if you don’t plan and prepare. And less frustrating that way.

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  9. It’s unfortunately not only be wary of what you pray for, but also what you’re curious about. My wife, when she was young, wondered how it was possible for a woman to bleed continuously for 12 years. Nuff said.

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    1. How long did it take for doctors to pay attention to what she was saying, and did you have to be an intermediary for that? (I’ve been pretty lucky with my doctors, but I have a number of friends with Stories.)

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      1. She’d already mostly given up on MDs because of her fibromyalgia. The ones who believed it, had nothing to offer her for it. The others relied on MD excuse #2. “It’s all in your head.” She was a very strong and disciplined woman who was in pain for most of her life, and the bleeding went on for many years at a low level. My job was a weekly trip to the store for pads. When she finally realized it was getting too severe to ignore, she called her mother to get the name of her mother’s gynecologist–you have no idea how hard that was.

        After he took her blood pressure and completed her exam, she tried to get up, and with a whispered, “Uh oh,” she fainted. Luckily I was there to catch her. We took her to the hospital that was fortunately next door and the doctor performed an emergency D&C. She was down 2 pints of blood at that point, and the doctor was astonished that she had been still walking around. Two weeks later after twice daily beet juice smoothies to help build up her blood, and, in case she needed more blood, my donating blood twice (It was the time of AIDs, and I fudged it so they’d take it), it was a hysterectomy to remove the cancerous tumor from her uterus. She didn’t expect to survive the surgery, but fortunately she did, and I had another 25 years with her.

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  10. “I didn’t like being a manager at work. It’s hard to take the time to show someone how to do the job correctly and so much easier and quicker just to do it yourself.”

    I was a programmer and, when promoted to my first position as manager, quickly learned that I could no longer write the required code. Instead, I wrote programs to help my programmers find the complete requirements and be able to search out the data definitions they needed as well as other utilities. Fortunately they trusted me enough to ask about architecture decisions they had to make. I came to realize I was the one who had the luxury to look ahead and see what was going to be needed beyond the current task that my programmers were diligently working on with their heads down.

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    1. I was a manager at a Domino’s years ago. It was either very slow or very fast paced and stressful. Couldn’t justify having another person on the clock when it was slow and it was almost impossible to train someone when we were busy. The owners and upper management were not very supportive. When I did get someone trained and proficient they would steal them for a different location.

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    2. It does NOT help when some Idiot promoted from Advertizing figures if you are pounding a keyboard, you’re goofing off…. rather than thinking about the problem so it gets SOLVED. “Dilbert is a documentary.” indeed.

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        1. Yeah, that guy wouldn’t last long because nothing would actually get done. I once had a manager of our team of 20 actually announce at a meeting:

          “We have to get A, B, and C done in 3 months. Each of those is a full time job for the whole team.”

          “So which has priority then?” your narrator gets up and asks.

          “They all are.”

          “So what you’re telling us is that we each make the decision of which gets done and which doesn’t instead of you making the decisions.”

          I have no idea why management viewed me as a trouble-maker. :)

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          1. In a long-ago factory job, we had the folks who decided to set up priority for jobs as 1, 2, or 3. There were hard criteria. 1 was a big money opportunity, 2 paid rush work, and 3 regular orders. 3 was supposed to be about 80%, 2 20% and 1 no more than 1%.

            Naturally, some managers decided their stuff was more important that the other folks, so priority inflation became a thing. “Well -my- stuff has to meet deadline, so its a 2”. “Well -my- stuff is a 1 because I am above you.”

            Petty. Chickenshit stuff, really. One genius decided anything from his star salesguy was a 1, because buttkiss.

            Pretty soon, 80% were P1. Train wreck.

            Sooooo, geniuses decided we need a “P-zero” for real priority money making opportunities.

            Guess what happened in the first -week-?

            Yup. Buttkiss was defined as zero. (“We knew that!”) in amonth, 80% P0. The bossboss was howling “Why isnt work prioritized on money?” “the other geniuses said “We -do- prioritize all work!”. “OK. Until this is fixed, all work is P-=zero. Push everything until you have the backlog cleared.”

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            2. During WW1 the US Federal government decided that it would be a good idea to help the railroads prioritize their shipments. The idea was to help the war effort and to assure prompt movement/delivery of critical items, including munitions and soldiers to ports.

              The resulting traffic jam of freight and soldiers heading to the big Atlantic Coast cities slowed most delivery times. Ports could not unload fast enough. Government officials had placed so many deliveries at high priority that the railroads became clogged with shipments, filling yards and sidings. There weren’t enough locomotives available to handle the traffic increase. Each loaded freight car parked somewhere was one less car available to pick up a new load.

              Woodrow Wilson’s solution was to attempt to nationalize the railroads. The US Railroad Administration took charge of the railroads on December 28, 1917. This was not actually government ownership of the railroads, it was government telling railroad management what to do. Germany officially surrendered on November 11, 1918. But USRA control continued for over a year and did not cease until March 1, 1920.

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  12. The line between patience and procrastination is a fine one.

    “Make no decision before its time” is one that drives my coworkers crazy. They want everything laid out immediately and for all time. I don’t like making premature decisions because circumstances change. I view every decision deferred as one less opportunity to say “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

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  14. “I am patient! Ben, tell him I’m patient RIGHT NOW!!!” -from some radio parody of Empire Strikes Back

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  15. Biden is flying to Israel. Announced and well publicized.

    Are the Donks hoping the Ham-Asses rid the Donks of their troublesome Dolt?

    Surprised the USSS didn’t mass resign over this boneheaded (bleep) waving.

    Sneak in on a fast-mover, unannounced? Sure. But trying to imagine him climbing out of an F15 defies credulity.

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      1. As if…

        Though apparently DeSantis has announced that Florida will also be flying Americans from other states out of Israel, and also picking up Americans that the State Dept. has already flown to Greece.

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      2. Joe Biden won’t do a thing until he gets his 10%. Besides they’re Jewish or Christian, Biden hates them. Biden is only there for the photo-op and re-election. If he could he would go to Gaza and stand with Hammass. I spit on his festering soul.

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        1. He is there because his presence prevents Israel from striking at Hamas until after he leaves; he is there to threaten Israel into not defending itself by eliminating Hamas. In other words, the purpose is to facilitate throwing Israel under the bus.
          The overarching policy of Team ObamaBiden and its appeasement, financing and facilitation of the mad Mullahs of Iran is to achieve the Iranian regimes proclaimed goal of “wiping Israel off the map”.

          The leftist cabal running things in Biden’s name are all anti-Israel and outright anti-Jewish, which is why so many raving Jew haters have been given key positions in the administration. They genuinely believe that Israel should not exist and that it has no right to exist, and that there would somehow be peace in the Middle-East if only Israel and all the Jews were no longer there. They have bought into the leftist rewrite of history that erases the several millennia old connection between Jews and what is now modern Israel, including the fact that Jerusalem is the City of David built about 1000BC, and that Judea is literally “the land of the Jews” and was one of several Jewish kingdoms in existence before the various conquests by Persians, Romans, etc.

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  16. Moto of every service dog trainer, should be: “Fast is slow. Slow is fast. Name of the game is patience.” Moving too fast can (not will) ruin a dog for service work.

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  17. I had a nightmare a few weeks ago where I got a news alert where Biden died and it felt terrified. And I can remember the rational part of my brain asking “Why should I be afraid of this? He’s senile and incompetent.” And something in my subconscious said “this will cause bad things”, when I woke up the first thing I did was check the news, and obviously he didn’t die, but it stayed with me. Today I read this.

    Remember the Biden!

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