Dealing with a bully
This morning after exercising, Mycah and I caught an Uber back in to the hardware store – hopefully for the last time. While we were gone I receive a frantic phone call from Emma saying, “Mom, first of all, no one is hurt, but someone just hit our boat and the person has hit other boats in the marina as well.” Given the smart little detective she is, she had copied down the type of boat and boat name as he raced off without stopping. I called Just Catamarans, whose flag we are docked under, to see how they handle such things, and they said no one was in the office but to go talk to the dock master. I asked Jude and Emma to do this since I was not there, but would be back soon.
Jude called back a little later saying they had walked down to chat with him and he had been extremely rude to them. Belittling them and down playing their information. Throwing around the fact that he was a boat captain and that they didn’t know what they were talking about and making them feel 2 inches tall. This made my blood boil, because I know that the kids went down to him in a respectful manner seeking advice. I called Danny and told him about it, and the protective father bear in him came out and called the guy to put him in his place, and he said he’d prefer it if Danny’s wife had come down to talk with him. Well…for those who know me, you know that I am not intimidated in the least by a bully – regardless of their size. In fact I despise them. We returned to the marina and I walked into the marina office asking the sweet ladies at the front desk where the person was who had been as ass to by kids. She quietly motioned with her thumb over her shoulder and I proceeded to walk in that direction. His door was ajar so I knocked on his door and without looking up from his computer, he simply motioned with his hand for me to enter his man cave and left me standing at his desk in silence while I worked on my ‘count to 10 skills.’ Once again without even glancing my way, he said, good morning, to which I replied that it was one until he made a terrible mistake and was an ass to my daughter. That got his pompous attention and he looked up in total disbelief that anyone would talk to him that way. I thought it my public duty at that point to humble him with an explanation of his personality type and to clarify just where in reality the pedestal he had himself on, really was. By the time I was done with him, he handed me a card with the boat owners name and number with shaky hands, sheepishly mumbled an apology and went to the boat to apologize to Jude. When I left his office I practically had a standing ovation from his staff, who said he constantly belittles them all and no one is brave enough to stand up to him. They thanked me profusely.
Tanda Malaika has a couple marks on it that can be buffed out, and after communicating with the guy that hit us (as well as a multi million dollar yacht in the marina), he promised to take care of the problem.
The creatures and I have continued to work hard. I have a new favorite cleaner to take care of removing all the black grime that constantly settles on the boat from the surrounding marina work zones.
This stuff is heaven sent and gets the ugly black bad stuff off the deck with not much scrubbing.
Aidan spent a bunch of time washing all scuba masks in soap and water.
All the creatures worked hard on giving the dinghy a good cleaning,
and we permanently fixed the molding to the stern. First we had to pull it all off the boat since it was done shrinking to size in the sun. We lay it out on the dock and squirted a line of 5200 down the center of the molding.
Then Jude and Mycah put the molding back on while Aidan pushed it down and taped it back into place and I followed with the drill, pre-drilling holes and then setting screws with finishing washers into place.
It looks pretty spiffy at this point!
I also replaced the latches on some kitchen cabinets and applied the final layer of polyurethane to the map on the table project. Later in the evening I lay my arm on the table and pushed down to get up – forgetting about it, and left an arm print across it! I tried fixing my mess with the brush but it had dried enough that all I did was make a bigger mess, so I’m going to have to take a putty knife to it and remove it all and start over!!! I called Danny and he was so sweet to comfort me in my frustration. I really wanted him to come home to a beautiful job! Dang it.
Ah well, you can’t win them all…but you can win an argument with a bully. (And that’s good enough for me!)
Adventures of a Tribe 