A few years ago, I was transporting a brother and sister on my school bus. One was kindergarten and the other third grade.

Each afternoon, their grandmother was waiting at their stop. I'd always say “Hi, how are you today?” Or some other such pleasantry, but grandma was always in a hurry and would only grunt and whisk the kids into the car and take off.

One afternoon as I approached the stop, grandma was standing there, arms folded, foot tapping, and looking at her watch.

I had a feeling this wouldn't be pretty. Turns out I was right.

Grams stormed up to the bus and and said, “Would you explain to me why these kids get out of school at 3 o'clock, but you aren't here until 3:30 or 3:40?”

I gently explained how that all the drivers in our school system first do a middle school-high school run, and then we proceed to our elementary school runs.

“WHAT?” She shrieked, rising to her full height, all 5′2″ or so of her.

“THIS WILL NOT DO!” She yelled. “THE SCHOOL SYSTEM NEEDS TO ALLOCATE MORE FUNDS TO HIRE MORE DRIVERS OR PEOPLE WILL BE LATE TO WORK AND PEOPLE WILL LOSE THEIR JOBS…and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!”

I let her finish and calmly said, “Ma'am, surely you realize that all of that is out of my control?”

She could only muster a “Hmph!” before snatching up the grand-kids and whisking them away.

I didn't see her two grandchildren for a while and figured she was just going ahead and picking them up herself.

Want a job done right, do it yourself. Works for me.

A week or two later, I stopped into McDonald's for a mid-morning coffee. I love McDonald's coffee as it's fairly safe and is probably one of their few menu items that isn't 40 percent melted plastic.

I ordered my coffee and lo and behold, there was the grandma working as McDonald's manager! She saw me and we made eye contact. I smiled and waved. She gave me a kind of half-smile and feebly waved back.

Ha! I had her right where I wanted her.

I would motion her over and say, “Oh, hi. So, you’re the manager here. I have a complaint; “THE SERVICE HERE IS TOO SLOW AND MCDONALD’S NEEDS TO ALLOCATE MORE FUNDS TO HIRE MORE EMPLOYEES OR PEOPLE WILL BE LATE FOR WORK AND LOSE THEIR JOBS…”

But, of course, I said no such thing, because that’s not who I am and I am not that kind of person. However, when Grandma and I made eye contact, and all I did was smile and wave, well, I believe she knew I could have let her have it just like she did to me.

Oh yes. She knew.

Somehow, not taking revenge was sweeter than taking revenge.

When I left, we made eye contact again and I held up my coffee and said, “Hey, great seeing you. Have a nice day.” She again looked a bit bewildered and gave me back that half-smile and feeble wave.

Her grandchildren started riding the school bus a short time later, and she was remarkably more pleasant. In fact, when I would drop off her grandchildren, we’d actually exchange pleasantries and even chat a moment or two.

Sometimes, taking the high road and being the nice guy can be awesome.