I like to think I'm a sunny side up perpetual optimist.

This optimist is married to an unflappable guy who never seems to let anything rattle his calm.If he's stuck in Orlando resort traffic for hours while moving ahead only an inch at a time, he is as unperturbed as if he were relaxing at home in his easy chair.When our problem-plagued boat was taking on water, then caught fire in the engine compartment, he stayed calm and unruffled dealing with the situation while I let out a bloody-blue-murder call for help.Most of the time his calm is contagious. But there are times like my meltdown this week when I want him to share my ire instead of staying so unperturbed and rational.Last week I decided it was time to paint my white house that used to be sage green decades ago but has since faded to no color. I knew it was time to paint after I had the house pressure washed and it still looked just as bad.Wiser folks told me not to try to paint at this time of year when the Florida sun is so intense it melts the tar off the road. Ignoring the advice to wait until it's cooler, my husband and I, along with friend Bob, tackled the job.David worked like a sweltering firefighter putting out a blaze on the one day we had before he had to fly to South Dakota. My goal was to finish the project before he got back a week later.Bob and I had a plan to start the minute the sun came up so we could paint for a few hours before it got too hot to continue. At noon, we abandoned painting and jumped in the pool to cool off.The plan was working - until we used up all 5 gallons of paint and I had to go to pick up another can. It should have been simple.I hurried back with the new can of paint, and Bob and I defied the sweat soaking our clothes while we tried to finish the job.By the end of the day every muscle in my body was screaming, my hip couldn't take any more and my arms, legs and back were bloody from the thorny plants we had to cut down so we could get at the house.All that didn't matter. It felt good just to be finished.Trouble set in when I noticed the small print on the empty paint can said interior paint instead of exterior. How could that be when I handed the clerk a card with all the information on it from the first five cans of exterior paint we bought.I remembered questioning her as to why the new can said Signature paint and the others didn't. She told me the company had upgraded to the new can. What she did was lie. Or, at the very least, just say anything instead of checking.I checked to make sure the color was the same. Never did I imagine she would give me interior paint when I told her it was for the outside of my house.With a thunderstorm raging both weatherwise and inside me, I went back to the store to talk with a manager.He brushed me off with an "I'm sorry but we'll give you another can of paint. That didn't address the money I had to pay to get help painting the house or the time we spent suffering in the sun. Again, he said he was sorry and said he would personally prepare the new can of paint.The next day I was stunned when the new paint was the wrong color. And the trim for the house was also the wrong color. Three attempts. Three mistakes.By then I was so upset at the injustice of it all that I couldn't calm down. When David called from South Dakota he told me to calm down. He would repaint when he came home. That wasn't the point. I rattled on about incompetence and the injustice of it all."Well, there's nothing you can do about it so just calm down and I'll paint again when I get home," he said.I find it hard to handle injustice and incompetence, in addition to getting no customer service, only another mistake.My friend Bob agreed with David."You have to accept the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer," he said. "Pray for courage to change what you can and just accept what you cannot change. You can't change what happened, so just let it go."I know they are right. What happened wasn't fair. And customer service at that box store was worse than deplorable. But that being said, I realize I have to go back to Kenny Rogers' song, "The Gambler.""You gotta know when to hold 'em"Know when to fold 'em"Know when to walk away,"Know when to run."It's time to walk away forever from that store. There are better stores I will use. I am also heeding my own mantra: Don't give any negative situation or any negative person free rent in your head. I'm focusing instead on my blessings, including having a wise husband who shares his calm with me.Contact Pattie Mihalik at

newsgirl@comcast.net.