The Phone or What's Left of It

My husband has ALWAYS been the patient one whereas I tend to be a little teensy bit impatient and have been known to fly off the handle at a moments notice. It is something I am working on but there was a time in my life where I simply reacted to situations instead of thinking them through. Hubby was always laughing at my antics telling me how I needed to stop throwing my mini tantrums because the only one who suffered was me. I took his words to heart and, over the years, I believe that I have grown in the patience department.

Yesterday, the twins and I had some errands to run in town, so we were gone most of the afternoon. When I got home, hubby walked to the house from the office and told me I needed to order a new cell phone for our oldest son. Now, this kid (okay he's 25) and I have had some go arounds over his cell phones. He is so rough on them and is constantly having trouble with them because he doesn't take care of them. He has to have a cell phone for our business but it drives me nuts how reckless he is with them. Anyway, hubby let me carry on about how I was going to start deducting the cost from his paychecks and how he needed to have, yet another conversation with him about taking care of his phone. He listened to me very patiently and then told me the following story. Please keep in mind that my husband is patient to a fault and never over reacts to situations.

Our oldest son sometimes has a problem with not letting things go. He will talk about things we discuss in private concerning his finances with everyone in the office. Hubby has gotten on to him time and time again to keep those things to himself because, what we do for him, is no one else's business. Apparently, yesterday was one of those days. Son was talking about his cell phone and how it wouldn't keep a charge. Everytime he talked on it, it would die. Hubby told him that they would talk about it later because they were busy and needed to work. Son couldn't let it go so he started talking to the other 2 people in the office about his phone. This led to hubby being the only one working. He kept telling our son to knock it off and that they would talk about it later and for everyone to get back to work. Apparently, this went on for about an hour. Remember, I told you hubby is VERY patient. Finally, son was still bellyaching about his phone so hubby asked to see his phone. Son handed it to him and hubby proceeded to beat it to death with a stapler. He then handed it back to our son and said simply "Problem solved".

It pained him greatly to have to tell me this story because, like I said, he would tell me to not throw tantrums. I held back the laughing for as long as I could because the look on his face was so serious. Then I let loose. I thought I was going to vapor lock from laughing so hard. All the while, hubby just stared at me and patiently waited for me to stop. All those memories of me sweeping my arms across my desk and throwing everything on the floor because I couldn't find some little piece of paper that I desperately needed came flooding back. All those "honey, did that make you feel better?" comments that hubby would say to me afterwards came rushing back. I asked him if that "made him feel better" and he simply replied "Immensely. Now order him a phone." I was a bit worried that hubby was going to let our son use his phone which is an iPhone but he said that the other phone could still be used but the top had to be held together when you talk on it (it's a flip phone). Son had a smartphone once but after wracking up heavy duty data package overuse bills, he now sports a plain jane flip phone. Well, now it's a plain jane carefully-hold-it-together phone. He called us last night to let us know that the phone was now in 2 pieces and can't be used. Guess who has to talk to Verizon today?????