Cranky Old People

Mind games

My son Isaac works part-time as a stock person in a grocery store, and he sometimes talks about "cranky old people". Usually, he's frustrated that they've scolded him about things that are totally outside his control.

At my job today, I met one of Isaac's "cranky old people".  I asked a white-haired fellow if I could help him with anything, and he launched into a passionate complaint about my misleading labels. 

My labels? I was taken aback, but when he paused, I spoke as politely as I could. "I'm sorry it's confusing, sir," I said. "I will pass along your complaint, but the store really has no control over that product's labels. The packages and the information that's printed on them come from the manufacturer."

My words only made him angrier. He spat out a few more paragraphs about "my" labels and "my" sizes and "my" products and "my" store, and I stood there meekly and heard him out. Finally he bought the only thing we had that resembled what he really wanted, and strode away, a thin, stiff, angry, elderly man.

This incident reminded me of my mother-in-law, who is now in her mid-90s. For the past few years (since breaking a hip), Mama N. has lived in an assisted-living home. She doesn't go out to shop anymore, which is probably just as well. The last few times I shopped with her, she had conversations with clerks that were quite similar to the one I had this morning.

Portrait of a Elderly Lady
(Mary Cassatt)

Those unfortunate clerks didn't know that Mama suspected they would cheat an old lady like her, every chance they got.  Mama tried to be extra feisty, to show them that she was no easy mark. That's sort of like my angry man today. He was sure that the labels were intended to trick him.

If I make it through another decade or two, I hope that I don't go paranoid in the process. Being suspicious all the time surely must be exhausting. And it makes a person cranky, which certainly is hard on other folks.

Master of Snooze

Kitties do know how to enjoy a nap!

Naughty or Nice? March Can't Decide!

Volatile spring weather

When I got off work yesterday and headed for home, a black cloud was hanging over Hopkinsville (KY). I turned on the radio and learned that we had a tornado watch and a severe thunderstorm warning. A storm front, capable of 70 mph winds, was passing through eastern Christian County.

The bright sunlight against the dark storm cloud was eerie. I held my camera out of the car window and clicked this photo of Skyline Drive. Its angle is strange, but it expresses the instability of the weather at that moment.

Later, I read on Hopkinsville's weather report that one-inch hail was reported east/southeast of Kelly (a few miles north/northeast of Hopkinsville.)

A lot of people were wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts earlier this week, but today they had on their sweatshirts and jackets again. The low tonight is supposed to be around 30 degrees.

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Update 3/26/11
Today at work, I talked to a fellow who is building a house on the Kelly-Dogwood Road. He said that he was in town when the cloud went through, but when he went out to the construction site later, he found full-size sheets of plywood in the treetops.

The First President I Remember

I liked Ike.

Seen in a flea market in Cave City, KY

Dwight D. Eisenhower is the first U.S. President that I remember. We didn't have television in the 1950s, so I knew him from the radio and from pictures in magazines and newspapers.

President Eisenhower took office when I was one year old and served until I was nine.  I had the deepest respect and greatest awe for him that a little country girl could muster.

I remember telling my brother once that I wished we had television just so I could see the President.

Dwight was five years older than me and more sophisticated. He didn't share my reverence. "What would be so great about that?" he asked. His scorn shocked me!

I don't remember my reply, but I'm sure I didn't explain myself well. Even 50 years later, it's hard to explain the position of high honor that President Eisenhower held in my little heart and mind.

Related: 
I Grew Up In Radio Land

Spring Cleaning of the Blog

A general freshening

I installed a new blog template over the weekend. It is displaying all right with the browsers and operating system that I have on my computer, but if you have any problem with it, please let me know.

Particularly, I would like to know if anything is overlapped, oddly chopped, or not displaying. Also, I'd like to know if there are any dark lines in the header or anywhere else that seem unrelated to the design.

This design is a modification of the new "Simple" template. One advantage of the new Blogger templates is that pages can be added. I've moved a few things that used to be in the sidebar to their own pages, and I'll be evaluating how well that works.

I certainly hope the new blog design works out better than Buster Brown's housecleaning did!