Grumpy

This blog was inspired by my friend Dave and his recent post on the same, being grumpy. I too suffer from this ailment, I guess it come from getting older and having less patients with people. I’ve never suffer fools lightly and I really get upset when people seem to refuse to use that gray matter. I’m used to working with people who are as intelligent as I am or maybe smarter than me but not by much. In most of my business life I’ve worked among equals and we’ve worked together for a common good. I just don’t understand the concepts that don’t require one to think just for a moment and do something right the first time.

I recently took a friend to lunch in a nice restaurant and we were seated out-doors on a wonderful afternoon. The service started out uneven and steadily got worse, the lunch arrived after a interminable wait and lukewarm at best. Our waitress had too many tables in her section to do a good job and should have handed us off to another of the wait-staff but didn’t. I did complain to the manager and told him she had too many tables and he did offer us dessert with his excuses. But the damage was already done to our wonderful afternoon and to his reputation. There was even a mistake in our bill but as it was in our favor we decided to not make an issue out of it.

My other pet peeve is dog owners who don’t have the consideration to restrain their pets. I’ve had to give up my walks through the neighborhood because every two or three blocks I get rush by dogs that are not confined to there yards. Ever since my stroke I’ve suffered from anxiety attacks that come on from out of nowhere when I least expect them. What made me stop walking is when two big dogs I didn’t recognized came from behind a house and would have attacked but I had my walking stick and that stopped them. But they got close enough that I was panicked and thoroughly frighted out of my mind. I just didn’t know what to do and I just watched it happen before me. In my case the dogs have won and I now confine my walks through the parks where it is safer and there are fewer conflicts.

My other big peeve is people who insists on talking loudly on their cell phones. It can ruin a perfectly good day to be forced to listen as people gab on their phones with not a care in the world to stop them. I recently had two women who sat at a table near me and proceeded to take out their cell phones and make call after call instead of talking to each other. Why on earth they went for coffee together and then didn’t talk to each other is beyond me. Or the business man who has other tables to choose from but he has to sit besides me and conduct call after call while I’m trying to enjoy reading my book in peace and quiet. I just can’t figure out the thinking of some people I really can’t.

I’m not sure whether it’s age or the effects of my stroke that lead me to a greater intolerance of the stupidity of some people. I do know I struggle mightily with this problem. Like Dave maybe I should live out in the backwoods where peace and quiet of the forest surround me. Somewhere I can commune with the birds and nature where the stress of life can’t find me. But then whatever would I do without my Starbucks.