It`s funny how things always seem to happen in bunches. My lils always have spurts where they are really hurting themselves in fluke ways, I bump into people in bunches at places that I have never bumped into people know, the animals that inhabit my back yard all seem to be doing crazy things all at once… I usually crop these experiences up to normal causes, like growth spurts or a change in my routine that makes me notice them. Lately I have noticed that I am surrounded by grumpy old men. Lots of grumpy old men.
One of these was the man who turned left at a traffic light, but turned into the right most lane (the roads were both two lanes wide). He almost drove right into a car that was coming from the opposite direction, and legitimately turning into the lane. The driver of the second car stopped in time, avoiding the accident, but the older man decided to block traffic so he could yell and gesture wildy at the guy who had just avoided the accident. This despite the fact that he was completely in the wrong.
That same night, we attended a scrimmage at the Sens development camp. It was jam packed, so people were basically sitting on top of each other (literally in our case – the lils were on our laps, to let people sit on the steps in front of us). Amazingly, despite the fact that it was loud, past bedtime, and that they had no room, the lils were really well behaved and not interfering with any of those around us. When the time came for the ice to be Zamboni`d, the lils got up and watched at the glass. As the Zamboni finished up, we started to settle, but there were people in front and to the right. The guy to the left was still standing, so Willy popped Goose on the bench so he could sit down and then put her on his lap. The guy looked down at her then at me, so I made a joke about not sitting without looking, to which he rolled his eyes. A guy that was well into his 60`s rolled his eyes at me because a little girl had to stand in his spot for 30 seconds…
Sadly the grumpiness has followed us on vacation too. We decided to head to a local park on the water one night to catch their “Jazz by the Bay”. We arrived as it was beginning and spread out a blanket for the lils to sit on. A few minutes later, a group of people came close to us, led by an older man who set up his chair right at the edge of our blanket; despite the fact that there was about twenty feet of open grass behind us where he could have sat. I looked at him wondering what was up, but he just starred at me. A few minutes later, I wandered off after a lil, only to return and note that he had moved the blanket so that he could stretch out his feet. I guess we were in “his spot”.
My absolute favourite has to be the dad at the local park who tried to tell me not to be too hard on Woo when he and I were having a discussion about how to share the pool toys at the park, and which belonged to the pool and which needed permission for use. I brushed this off, as we were just talking, no one was being hard on anyone. Woo wandered off and the same dad told me that Woo`s hair was cut too short! Taken aback, I politely explained that Woo had asked to be shaved bald, and that he loved his hair cut. He then asked me if it had been an accident, if I had forgotten to put the guide on before starting to cut the hair!
Not all of these men were all that old, they just acted it. I`ve decided that the heat has to be to blame for these incidents, so I hope it lets up soon. If it doesn`t, I might start getting grumpy myself.