Patience is a virtue, they say.

I like to think I have a little patience, but in reality Iprobably have very little. My husband probably has even less.

I guess it all boils down to time and how much you think yourtime is worth. For me, some days my time is worth more than others.Dennis, his time is always at a premium, which is why I’m so gladwhen he’s off work that he chooses to allot some of his time tome.

Dennis usually has all of his off-work time planned out. He getsup, he fixes a quick breakfast and he’s off to do garden work, oryard work, or if he’s had time to think about it, a house projectthat he’s been scheming about.

Right now his mind is focused on getting his garden ready. Everyweek on his days off he’s been plotting like he’s taking over theworld, when in reality it’s just the back yard and a small plot ofland near our home. He’s mowed, he’s tilled and he’s rowed up histwo pieces of ground. He’s lined up his string and drawn a map ofwhere everything is to be planted.

He’s put the plants in the ground in the garden in the backyard, not patient enough to wait until Good Friday. He even fencedit off – at my request – to keep the dogs from running in and outof the house with muddy, dirty paws. He did all of this within acouple of days. His time is precious.

My time is precious, too. My time at work is spent busy with onetask or another, but when I’m home, my time is spent doing what Iwant to do. Unlike Dennis, it isn’t spent doing garden or yardwork. I’d rather spend my time catching up on my favorite magazine,book, television show or surfing the Internet to see the latest andgreatest whatever. I call it “me” time.

Dennis on the other hand has other ideas. He doesn’t quite get”me” time, but that’s OK.

When it comes to patience with other things, especiallycomputers, Dennis, has very little. His expectations and our oldcomputer’s capabilities are not one in the same.

When Dennis clicks, he expects something to happen – now. Not inone or two minutes – now. If something doesn’t happen at the momenthe clicks, he clicks again and then again and again. Often to thepoint that when the clicks catch up he’s reached the point of noreturn and the computer has to be turned off because it’s nowconfused, too. His excuse, it’s a computer and it should work superfast.

Among the things that I like to do with Dennis is to groceryshop, mainly because he always says I never get anything he likesto eat. Dennis has no patience for shopping.

Getting Dennis to go shopping, especially grocery shopping, is afeat upon itself. He tells me he spends all of his days in a retailenvironment and has no desire to go there on his days off. So whenI do get him to go, I count myself lucky.

He usually wants us to pre-plan our mission and get whateveritems we’re after and get out – quick, like bandits. I like tolook, which is probably why he doesn’t want to shop.

I see his mind reeling when we pull into the parking lot. He’sthinking “which door should we use, so we can get in and outquick?” He also wants to find the quickest checkout lane.

I’m content when I’m in a grocery line to browse throughmagazines and see the latest gossip headlines. My husband Dennislooks like a periscope, his head bobbing up and down looking to seewhich registers are open and how long each line is.

Then we play the checkers game, where we stand in one line for acouple of minutes and jump two or three registers over to one thatmight look like it’s moving quicker.

It never fails, we change lanes and the cashier’s light willmagically start flashing notifying all that the Brewers haveswitched lanes and therefore it needs to slow down and possiblywait for a while. Did you know there is an actual term for changinglines? It’s called jockeying.

Patience. It’s all a state of mind.

And how was your week?

Graphics and Systems Director Tammie Brewer can be reached atThe DAILY LEADER at (601) 833-6961 ext. 144, by e-mail attbrewer@dailyleader.com or you can write to her at P.O. Box 551,Brookhaven MS 39602.