Monday, January 23, 2012

What key do I press to delete cookies?

The gg has been on a semblance of a diet since January 1. I do it every year and it usually lasts about a month, but this year I had made an honest vow to stay on it until I lost at least 20 pounds. I was well on my way until the doorbell at the gg's home rang last Saturday. I opened the door and standing there was the cutest and most beautiful female I had ever seen. She must have been all of 8 years old, standing there on the porch trembling and holding onto her mother's hand. After the mother introduced themselves, the precious little thing looked up shyly and stammered "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?" Cookies, I immediately thought--those are anathema to my diet. The gg's typical reaction would have been to send the interloper on his or her way, but this precious little girl had already pierced the veneer of my personal security system with her big blue eyes and curly hair. After learning that her favorite subject in school was math, I answered "three" when she finally asked me how many boxes I wanted to buy. I chose 2peanut butter and one shortbread, just as I do every year. I gave her a $10 bill and after I told her to keep the 50 cents in change, I watched her little face turn into the biggest grin I'd ever seen. She thanked me, then turned and skipped away,still holding onto her mother's hand, unaware that she had ruined the new year's diet of yet one more grouchy geezer. I think I have about one and a half boxes left; the rest are floating around somewhere in my veins and arteries waiting to burrow their way into the tissue surrounding my mid-section where they will join up with the Girl Scout cookies I bought and ate last year. The gg would favor a constitutional amendment if that's what it takes to ban the sale of Girl Scout cookies.
Welcome, fellow grouches. Come in, put on a frown and make yourselves at home. According to my family and friends, I've been a grouch for quite some time. I turned 65 a couple of years ago so now not only am I a grouch but an official geezer to boot. A Grouchy Geezer! (But truth be known, I'm a grouch only on days ending in a "Y").

My purpose here is to share some of the things I've observed and experienced over the course of my life that have peeved, annoyed and irritated the crap out of me. Things that helped make me into The Grouchy Geezer. As fellow grouches, I feel sure you, too, have encountered similar things in your lives that have peeved, annoyed and irritated the crap out of you as well. If so, you'll have the chance to share them on this site.

The format is simple. From time to time I will post a pet peeve based on a particular life experience or observation or something currently in the news or in the culture that makes me grouchy.

This will be a free and open board and anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment on my peeve or relate one of your own. Any topic is fair game as long as it is something that makes you grouchy. The only requirement is that you use good taste and refrain from personal attacks. Use of profanity will make me even grouchier and bar you from further access to the site. That means you will have to grouch to your wife, not on here.

None of this is to say that uplifting banter is not encouraged. By all means, if you have something to say that is inspiring or that might force other readers to have to suppress a smile, let us hear it. But don't overdo it; after all, it's our grouchiness that defines and unites us and makes this blog possible.

GG