Tuesday, July 23, 2013

No Tickee -- No gas

The experience I'm about to describe occurs more and more frequently, and every time it occurs it chaps the GG’s wrinkly old rear end. It's this: I pull into a filling station (yes, I still call them that) to gas up. I gas up, replace the nozzle, screw the gas cap back on and then push the “Yes” button on the gas pump when it asks me if I want a receipt. I wait and wait and wait until it finally becomes clear that the spool of paper on which the receipts are printed has run out of paper and the gas jockey inside the station has not bothered to replace it in probably weeks if not months because he probably doesn’t care. If that alone is not enough to ruin my day, sometimes this message will appear: “Your receipt is inside” or “See cashier inside for receipt.” Listen, it’s bad enough for old geezers like me to have to pump my own gas, check my own oil and air up my own tires. I making sure I get a receipt without having to trudge all the way inside too much to ask? Why can’t they bring the receipt out to my car? I can’t think of anywhere else I go to purchase something where I’m not given a receipt on the spot, so why can’t these people at the filling stations do the same thing? That’s the least one could expect in return for the exorbitant price we pay for their gas. I have a standard letter I mail to the Customer Relations department of every gas company I visit that fails to provide me with a receipt at the pump. Most of the answers I get, if I get any at all, say that the station I mentioned is independently owned and they (the big gas company) have no control over its operation. My response is to say that, just like these "independent" stations that sell their gas, I too am independent and that means they have no control over where I buy my gas. As they say in another business: "no tickee, no laundry"
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