This Damn Laptop and Other Stuff

11/12/2006

I am sitting in the lobby of a Starbucks in Bridgeport, WV, which in itself seems so out of place in an area with lots of farms and coal mines, and I am confounded by this damn laptop.  My purpose for coming here at 6:05am was solely to check my e-mail.  The Nancy and I are staying at my “wish-she-was-my-daughter” and our son-in-law’s home for a short “see-the-grandkids” visit.  I was not able to log on yesterday afternoon or evening after we arrived, so I thought I would come here this morning and git-er-done. 

That’s what I thought, and that ain’t what is happening.  I couldn’t log on to my e-mail for some inexplicable reason.  Being the technological giant that I am, which in benign terms means I don’t have a clue as to why I cannot log on, I decided to write this post for the website.

I am not so good these days, even with all my Millennium experience, to be free of some frustration.  This daggone contraption ticks me off at least once an hour.  Especially when it seemingly locks up tight and won’t get unstuck until I manually shut it down and reboot it.  Because of all the firewall crap my company has in place that alone can take five to ten minutes.  I truly believe this Dell got a virus and never recovered.  It may also be terminal, and if it doesn’t get better soon I am going to put it out of its misery – and mine.

Now that I have myself started on this subject I may as well spit it out.  Another thing that just frosts my cajones is people who are so miserable they want to ensnare me in their crap.  You know them, they’re the ones who can find a molecule shit in a sea joy and seemingly take great pleasure – in a miserable sort of way – in bringing it to everyone’s attention.  They love to suck the joy out of the moment.

I have (had) a friend in Richmond, Virginia, who I have not seen or spoken to in a couple of years, whose life just literally sucks and none of it is his fault.  He could fall into a vat of honey and come out smelling like you-know-what.  I bet he has had fifty or more jobs in his lifetime.  His resume could probably be bound like a book, perhaps as thick as a novel.  With all of his jobs, within a short period time, he would tell me his boss is incompetent and that he could do the job better or the company should be doing this or that.  It’s almost like clockwork.  I don’t believe he has ever held a job more than a year or two, some just months or weeks.  It is very sad, and he takes no responsibility for the events affecting his life.  I wonder where he is now.  Even with him being as weird as he is, I have always liked him.  He has redeeming qualities if would he just accept he is what he is and he alone is the cause of his conditions.  I pray for him to be happy.

How about people who drive in the fast lane and wouldn’t move over if Jesus was behind them?  Or, the ones who drive in the fast lane and match the speed of a vehicle in the right lane and just stay there oblivious to the world around them.  I get very anxious when I am driving and another driver gets up so closely that I cannot see the headlights of the car in my rearview mirror, and I am already exceeding the posted limit.  Now that bugs me.  I think other drivers frustrate me more than anything in this world.  If they are going faster than me they are jerks, and if slower, idiots.  Make sense?

What about people who make statements without any basis of fact to back up what they are saying?  As an example, we have heard it said the some shop owners in Beautiful Downtown Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, population 711 deal drugs.  Otherwise they couldn’t make enough money to remain in business or meet their monthly nut.  Why do people do that stuff?

What about those people who love to butt in line?  You’ve seen them, they sort of sneak up, or believe they are sneaking up, and slip into a line very nonchalantly.  I‘ve seen this happen countless times, so many I suppose that I am now kind of numb to it. 

I don’t say anything to these people, that would prove fruitless for me, and I don’t allow things that bug me to bug me for long.  To labor in frustration or dwell on some minor issue is wacky, wasteful and downright dumb.  I will have to say at times when one of these silly little things gets to me, I tend to give it the mental finger and move on.  It doesn’t make any sense to ruminate over little things – don’t sweat the small stuff.

Something I once mentioned in one of these postings was a time I went to a McDonalds and was standing in a line of maybe eight or ten people.  Over to one side were a man and a woman who were both very obviously upset.  The man had a red face with arms crossed over his chest, and his wife had the same look.  They stood in front of the counter grumbling.  A man, I assumed to be the manager, came over to them a couple of times to apologize for the time it was taking to put their order together.  The more he said the more the couple grumbled.  Finally, after about three or four minutes, they got their food and turned to leave, but were still grumbling about how long it took to get their food and how inept this McDonalds was at filling simple orders.  I think the ordeal ruined their day and I had to laugh.  Here were people getting upset about a breakfast order at a McDonalds while people in some places in the world had nothing to eat.  It was at this time people in New Orleans where battling to preserve their homes and burying their dead.  Amazing!

Ah! Boy!  Don’t get me started.  I think this is all I have to say about that…for now.