Have I become a curmudgeon?

I've begun to wonder because more and more things seem to bother me.

- 7:15 am:  Drop my kid off at before school care.  We're suppose to escort our

kids into the facility.  I get back to my car and a mom has pulled her minivan

right behind my car while dropping her children off.  Does she escort her kids

in?  Nope, but she can block me in.  Thought occurs to me that if I had a crappy 
car I'd just back into her - "Whoops, sorry 'bout that, but you were suppose to 
park and walk your kids into the building."

- 7:24 am:  Driving to the bus stop.  Guy in front of me puts on his right turn

signal and turns left just missing a panel van.

- 7:30 am:  Standing in line at the bus stop.  There are about 20 of us in line. 

Some guy walks up to the front of the line and just stands there.  As far as I

can tell he isn't handicapped.  Bus pulls up and he climbs on board.  It's all I

can do to not tell him to get his ass to the back of the line.  Luckily some old

lady tears him a new one.

- 7:35 am:  Guy sits next to me on the bus; gets out his cell phone and starts

talking to his girlfriend about how much he enjoyed the wine and romance last

night.  Can't be his wife.  Married couples don't talk like that.  Besides, he's

talking about Thursday night.  Married couples don't do that kind of stuff on a

school night.  We're just too tired.  C'mon guy ...  I'm sitting right there. 

You really don't need to go into graphic details about your turn ons.  It's 7:30

in the morning for goodness sake.

- 7:35 am:  Standing room only on the bus, accept for the one rude old man who

wants an aisle seat and makes no attempt to allow someone to slide in next to

him.  My immediate thought is to throw his ass off the bus and make him walk to

work.

- 7:45 am:   On the metro.  The woman in front of me is eating her breakfast. 

Guess she's blind since she's sitting right under one of the 'don't eat  on the

metro signs'.

- 7:55 am:  Two women in front of me exiting the metro.  Each customer is

suppose to have their own fare card.  They push out under one card.  The metro

station manager is right there when they do it.   One was kind of cute so I

guess he had an excuse for not taking action.

- 7:56 am:  Going up the metro escalator.  Commonly accepted metro escalator

behavior is that you walk if you're on the left side and stand on the right

side.  Guy in front of me is so wide that he blocks the entire escalator.  

Guess that degree of impatience may indicate I have more of an A-type

personality than I thought.

- 8:00 am:  Going up the elevator at work.  Woman pushes the 4th floor button. 

Does she get off on the fourth floor?  Nope. She gets of on 6.  She either

can't read, or forgot where she works.

- In the interest of protecting my working relationships I'll leave out my 08:00

to 16:30 frustrations.

- 12:10 am: Call a local big box store to see if they can replace a pair of dead

keys on my home laptop computer.  After navigating the customer support helpline

which doesn't help me at all, I finally hit zero and ask for the computer repair

group.  Five year old in the guitar and musical instruments department picks up

and tells me I'm in the wrong department (no kidding), but he'll transfer me.  

He does.  He transfers me into oblivion.  4 minutes and 23 second later (my

iPhone clocks the length of calls), I give up and redial, pressing zero

immediately.   Second time is the charm in that computer services picks up. 

I ask 'Do you repair computers?' 

Response 'Yes.'

I ask 'Do you repair Dell computers?'

Response: 'Yes.'

'I have a couple of keys that need to be replaced.  Can you fix them?'

Response: 'Yes.'

'I'll stop at home, grab my Dell laptop and bring it over this evening.'

Response: 'We don't do Dell laptops.'

Give me a break guy ...

- 16:40 pm: Walking to the metro. I'm walking across the street in the pedestrian zebra
stripes. Woman in a Lexus SUV zips right by while chatting on her phone. I can reach out
and touch her she's that close to me ... totally oblivious to the fact she just missed
me and just missed an opportunity for me to sue her for that Lexus and everything else
she owns.

- 16:43 pm: Deja vu here ...   Going down the metro escalator.  Commonly accepted 
metro escalator behavior is that you walk if you're on the left side and stand on the right 
side.  Family in front of me block the entire escalator. They're tourists so I can forgive
them.  Less easy to forgive is their collective decision to stop at the bottom of the escalator.  I literally plow into the dad since he’s standing at the base of the escalator.  He gives me a dirty look.  I step around him as other people pile into the rest of the family.

- 16:45 pm:  Waiting for metro.  Just missed one by a minute (thanks to the tourist family on the escalator).  As a common courtesy I stand away from the edge of the platform and leave people a path to come and go.  Cant be more than twenty people on the entire platform.  Naturally a woman stops right in front of me and waits.  The platform is easily the length of a football field ...  she tops right in front of me.

- 16:47 pm:  Metro comes.  Doors open.  Guy standing in the door doesn’t move, forcing people to scrunch past him to get out.  People also have to scrunch by him to get in.  Get out of the way dummy !!!

- 17:00 pm: Two guys playing sax and trumpet for tips at West Falls Church. I admire people that can play instruments.  Unfortunately even though these guys are standing next to each other, it sounds like they’re playing totally different tunes.  One seems to be playing ‘When the Saints Come Marching In’ while the other guy sounds like he’s playing a Christmas carol.  I turn up the volume of my iPhone and stride right by them.  No tip.

- 17:05 pm: On the bus.  What is with people and their cell phones?  Don’t they realize the rest of us can hear them?   I really don’t care that you think your co-workers are worthless.  I suspect they feel the same way about you.  I certainly feel that way.  If I knew your co-workers I’d tell them that you’re a lousy co-worker who bad-mouths them.  I did note that you had a Department of Transportation badge on.

- 17:10 pm: Decide to play SongPop to avoid phone guy.  Get my butt handed to me on a platter when the person picks contemporary Italian pop songs, or something similar where I can't even begin to guess.  Manage to lose 620 to 19,840 or something equally hideous.

-17:28 pm:  Bus pulls into park and ride and I get off.  Finally something nice to say …   I’ve noticed that around 17:30 there’s often an older gentleman who sits in one of the bus shelters.  He’s accompanied by what I assume is his son – I’m guessing the son is in his early 20s and he's seemingly developmentally challenged.  They’re frequently sharing something to eat, or talking to one another while waiting.  The older man's affection for the son is apparently.   I’m pretty dry and cynical, but I find the pair uplifting.  It always makes me say a prayer of thanks for what I’ve been blessed with.

- 17:40 pm:  Walk into Best Buy to see if they can fix my computer.  15 minutes in line and the 12 year old Geek Squad employee tells me that they will take my computer and replace the keyboard.  They want $35 upfront; I have to give them my computer, and they will call me with the actual costs (can’t even give me a guess on the price, though it will be less than a new computer).  Oh, the other piece of good news?  It’ll only take them 2- 3 weeks.

- 18:00 pm:  Walk out of Best Buy with my computer.

- 18:10 pm:  Walk into Staples.  Interestingly, nobody else is in the store.  Go up to the help desk and the 12 year old clerk tells me they can replace the two sticky keys.  Wants to know if anything else is wrong with the machine.  Tell him no.  He asks me the same question two more times.   He then calls his 14 year old supervisor who tells me they will order the parts and call me when available,  Sounds great.  Where do I sign?  Whoops, not so fast.   Can’t order the parts after 17:00 pm.  Can I come back Saturday?  Nope.  Can't order parts on Saturday.   

- 18:20 pm:  Walk out of Staples with my computer.

- 18:22 pm:  Call my brother to see if he’ll take a look at the computer.  He does this kind of stuff for a living.  He laughs at my repair experiences.

- 16:30 pm:  Home – time for a cold beer.  All told, I realize how lucky I am.   it was a good day.