The Double Standard

The hypocrite strikes back.

Bright and early at 6:00 AM, I was outside checking the irrigation with Dwayne and Antonio. We ran into a few problems and had to make a few repairs. There were some problems with the plumbing itself, as well as some odd things happening with the system’s programming. During this time, we received an onslaught of jokes and jabs over our radio from our coworker, Payton.

"Maybe you should try turning it on first, Dwayne," was one thing he said. "It's frowned-upon to undress in public, Antonio," was another joke he made while Antonio was removing his jacket.

In the time it took to complete the repairs and start testing the lines again, the jokes went on between our work-related communications on what to turn on, and turn off. Toward the end, the one thing Payton said over the radio that was actually relevant to work was that he saw people sitting in the courtyard where some of our sprinklers were. We assured him that we had already tested those sprinklers, and wouldn't be turning those on again. However, I also threw in a joke of my own, saying, "I mean, it WOULD be funny though."

Approximately ten minutes later, we were finished with what we were doing and switched the programming back to its automatic and scheduled run setting. Upon doing this though, for whatever reason, the sprinklers in the courtyard turned on, and the people were still sitting there.

Payton let us know the sprinklers turned on while we were already in the process of trying to shut them back off. Once they were shut down again, Payton proceeds to rip a strip off of me for making jokes over the radio despite the slew of jokes he made for the full hour and a half beforehand. His excuse was that customers overheard my joke as he was passing them by.

Yes, he was serious.

No, he did not understand why I did not take him seriously.