getting old and maybe too opinionated...

I had my birthday yesterday and plowing into the 50s a ways. Fatter and more gray hair.

I was in bedroom town getting my glasses tightened and leaving the store where I have to walk across the main run into the big parking lot that holds a grocery store and some other little places like the glasses place sort of in a strip mall. A teenage guy zooms into the parking lot and doesn't slow down as I approach from the store. Even though I think cars have to stop for pedestrians (at least crossing a real street), I would have settled for him to slow down a bit instead of going past the ends of the first 2-3 parking lanes pushing 20 mph. He whips around a blind corner of a row and finds a spot.

As he gets out of the car and heads wherever he's going, I ask, "Been driving long? Maybe you should slow it down in a parking lot."

He gets about 60 feet away and cocks off as walking away.

"Maybe you should mind your own business" I didn't think about it fast enough but it was my business because I had to stop for him to zip past walking to my car.

Instead, my hackles go up and my human side comes out and I say, "You're a smarta@@ kid. I hope you have a nice accident." No other words were spoken.

To be honest, I don't know how I would have replied at age 16 or 17 and maybe would have been mouthy as well. But then again, I don't think I look like Elmer Milktoast and have more hair in my stash than many teenage guys have on their body, so I don't think I look like a push over either and maybe my 16 or 17-year old self would have kept quiet. Certainly, I wasn't acting very Christian by wishing him an accident but then again Jesus wasn't a shy guy and probably would have spoken up when he saw wrong but in a more loving way.

I wonder if this kid has ever had any John Q public call him out on something? Maybe not. I hope he thinks a bit about the situation and his actions and not just my last words. Maybe he will, maybe not. Maybe I'm just too old and opinionated...

Rog,

I had a situation somewhat similar to this where I couldn't control my mouth. Didn't think this girl or her friend (who I didn't see) would hear my comments. I used some pretty good expletives to indicate what I thought about this girl (more about what she just did, cause I don't know her). She had walked into the store and there was the person she screwed and someone else there. I made my comment and all of a sudden her friend came around the corner and said "don't talk about my girl like that." I was back pedaling, wondering if she was going to pull out a piece or call someone that would. I have since learned that I need to control my mouth. Unfortunately, we never now who's packing these days.

Rog - Happy Birthday (belated) I hope the day was better then the parking lot incident.

As I have gotten older, I have learned to "TRY" an use my mind before my mouth. Still have problems with my mouth, at times it works faster than my mind. I know how I would have handled it in my younger days, not a pretty picture. What I learned the hard way, my knuckles pay the price when the mouth does all of "THINKING". As I'm not getting any younger, my body not what it was, my mind needs to be used more often.

When we were young (like the "kid" in parking lot), we learned a lot of things "the hard way" and the wrong way! The best part about being 50+ is we can say "been there and done that".

I'm 18 and I have had several tell some people to slow down or pay attention to the road. Most of them older then me and quite a few younger then me to slow down.

I was one day walking back from my friends house and it was only a few blocks away plus on top of that I knew a short cut that was a back road. I thought that I would take the back road to avoid major traffic and big trucks. Someone my own age at the time 16 decides to whip around the corner and fish tail around me as I was walking home. I had to stop in my tracks and actually duck and cover for pieces of tar and rocks on the road came up from the tires.

When they passed me and hit the other corner they waited porously for me to approach the truck when there wasn't any kind of traffic. By the time I got up to the end of the Black Lifted truck they smoked their tires and whipped around the corner and yelled my name and told me to go fluff myself.

I was completely shocked and really pissed off at the same time. I knew the person but I never knew them personally. I confronted the guy in school and he had freaked out at me and swung. Well lets just say I don't like most of the people my age they tend to be really rude and just straight up weird. LOL even though I'm the same age as the kids I kinda get from where are speaking.

I dunno ... i raised a couple of sons. If i learned anything during their teen years it was that it's just the nature of the beast to be a PITA at that age. About the only way to keep my sanity was to learn to never take anything they say or do personally.

Reminds me of my favorite scene from the movie Road House. " Three Simple Rules "



* Warning .... contains adult language & infinite wisdom *

Rog ...we're landing about 15 million pounds of lobster here per year. Never been to Red Lobster before but i can't imagine that it would ever compare to a nice hard shell right off the boat. Same thing with crab meat, clams,and scallops. The quality is pretty good.

I think the average boat price for lobster was running around 3.83 a pound last year ? Must be quite a difference between that and what they're charging at the restaurant.