What is Your Patience Meter Set at These Days?

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, the Christmas shopping season, bad drivers, instant coffee or the impending fiscal cliff, but I find myself with little or no patience these days.

If my patience meter is on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being absolutely no patience and 10 being the patience of Job, I think I’m about a -1 at the moment!

If you can relate, I have a new game you can play the next time you’re stuck in 5 O’clock traffic at the corner of 57^th and Western, or for that matter any other busy intersection in Sioux Falls.

The game is called “Count the Arrows.” As in how many green arrows you have to sit through before you can actually make a left turn on to Western Avenue and head north.

My new record as of today, six!

I counted six green arrows I had to sit through before it was my turn up to bat. Really? Six arrows!

Would it kill the city to make that green arrow, I don’t know, maybe fifteen seconds longer, so four or five extra cars could get through each time? That of course is providing the woman who just had to give herself a facial at the stop light in rush hour traffic isn't in line.  Then we’re back down to just two cars that will be able to get through before the light turns red again. And people wonder why there’s road rage.

Speaking of patience, or lack thereof, I’d love to know what tries your patience these days. What really winds you up and makes you narky?

Time for me to go home and take my medication.