Thursday, July 19, 2018

No Patience. No Peace Love And Understanding, Either


That is the only halfway decent picture I got today which didn't have a naked child in it.
Oh. Wait. That doll child is naked. But her modesty is preserved by the way Maggie put her in the car seat.
I do have one perfectly darling picture of Magnolia in which although she is naked, nothing really shows that a diaper would hide but I feel that's it's disrespectful to my grandchild to post it since she has no say in the matter so I won't but trust me- she is beautiful.

It's been a frustrating day with the continuing saga of the headphones and also with other technological blah-blah but I'm trying to keep it all in perspective and not get overly riled although I will tell you what did overly rile me today. I was in the parking lot of Costco, getting out of my car when an elderly man with a cane and a fucking bright red MAGA cap perched on his head approached me to brag about what great gas milage he gets in his Prius. I am currently driving a Prius too and when he asked me what my milage was, I told him I had no idea. Which I don't. But mostly I didn't want to talk to the self-entitled, smug-looking old man or his damn perky wife either who joined us to say that she, too, had a Prius. They had TWO Priuses! And now they're spending the money at Costco on what they've saved on gas! How cool!
And here's the part that's troubling- I not only did not want to talk to them, I sincerely wanted to punch the guy in the face and watch that evil piece of shit hat fall off his head and if he fell down after I punched him, that would have been fine too.
That's how far this whole thing has gone with me. And I am not a violent person. I have never punched anyone in my life. I've barely hit anyone in my life. But the image of me punching that guy would not leave me. I had no desire to engage him in any conversation to try and learn something about him and why he might be a Trump supporter. None.
Just the fact that he was bragging with that hat that he WAS a Trump supporter made me feel in my gut that not only did we have nothing in common, even if we both drive a Prius, but that everything I believe in is something he disdains and everything the hat that he was wearing symbolized to me is what I abhor.
No common ground.
Not one millimeter of common ground.
And that's scary as fucking hell because if I can feel this way, if I, the pacifist, hippie, tree-hugging grandmother, has an almost overwhelming urge to commit violence upon the elderly, then we've reached a point in our society that I never thought I'd see.

So I've been thinking about that a lot today and I don't feel good about it at all. I wasn't rude to the man or to his wife but disengaged conversation as quickly as possible and made my way into the store where I did not see them again.
Thank goodness.

While I was there I bought yet another headset because the one I bought yesterday sounded as if I was listening through tin cans and it kept dropping connection.
I probably could have adjusted to the sound eventually but the connection dropping was a deal-breaker. So I got a set of Beats today and their sound is fine and they seem to have excellent connection but they are earbuds without the over-ear loop thing and they will not stay in my ears and that is that. My ears are not made for earbuds.
Period. The end.
I tried all the different sizes that came with them and also the little wing-things that nestle up in your ear and it didn't matter; nothing worked.
So.

Tomorrow's to-do list: Return TWO sets of wireless earphones.
Earbuds. Whatever.
Part of the problem is that I was so very, very happy with the first set I bought. The sound was good, the little things stayed in my ears with the over-the-ear loop, the controls were easy, the battery lasted for eight hours, the strap that held them together was soft and just the right length, and I loved the voice that told me, "Power on. Headset connected. Listening time, eight hours."
She was so pleasant.
But. They fucking fell apart after three months use and the second pair I bought came out of the box with one defective side. This is not good quality.
But I'm thinking I'm going to just go for another pair of them anyway.

This is all so ridiculous.

So Owen and Gibson and Maggie came over this afternoon and I set aside my stupid silly problems for awhile and although we didn't do much, it was pleasant. I will admit that I didn't have much patience and did actually yell at Gibson once when he and Maggie were in the bathtub (recreational water play) and he splashed me and I asked him not to splash me again and then he splashed me again immediately.
I apologized. And told all the kids that they needed to be nice to me today because I didn't have much patience. I've so rarely raised my voice to them that they were probably shocked but they need to remember that I'm human too, I guess.

I don't know.

I don't know shit.

Owen was sweet and let me show him some sixty-four year old Rolling Stones videos on the TV Youtube and a video from a concert of theirs last month, too.
"How does he make his legs do that?" he asked when he saw a young Mick doing the crazy-leg that he no doubt stole from James Brown. He was impressed while watching the new video that they were still doing it and still looking pretty good, especially when I told him that Mick Jagger was a great-grandfather and that he also has a two-year old child.
As well he should be.
But he was most impressed when I figured out (with Boppy's help via telephone) how to activate the Wii.
To be honest, I was pretty impressed with myself too.

So that's that. Maggie ate four Popsicles because she figured out how to get them herself out of the freezer and did so every time my back was turned. She played with her babies and with other toys and made me some macaroni which again involved a Fisher Price truck in a saucepan. She and I also had a nice time on the porch swing, swinging back and forth and making a little breeze which ruffled her curls, and singing songs together.

It wasn't my best afternoon as a grandmother but I tried. And I gave them good snacks, the Popsicles included which were, in fact, organic sorbet on a stick so good for me. And good for them.

Mr. Moon is going to go fishing again tomorrow and guess what I'll be doing?
Yeah. Going back to Best Buy. And Costco.
But I tell you what- I'm going to be trying any new headset I buy in the parking lot before I leave so that if there's any major problem, I can just turn right around and go back to Customer Service.
I'm old and have no shame and I've run out of patience, obviously. I'm not so old that I couldn't have punched that old man in the face.
What in hell is wrong with me?
What in hell is wrong with our country?

Again- I do not know.
I don't know shit.

Still...

Love...Ms. Moon








14 comments:

  1. The whole MAGA thing drives me crazy. We're staying in an RV park for the summer, and there are a lot of people our age who are from Idaho or Iowa or one of those states with trump/pence bumper stickers. So far they haven't tried to talk to me, and I really hope they don't because my ability to be polite will be sorely tested.

    ReplyDelete
  2. it's appalling how many people are aiding and abetting and supporting Trump in his destruction of the Western Alliance and handing this country over to Putin. I've been occupied with other problems so I'm not currently dwelling on the horrible stuff he is doing but I have called my senators and basically accused them of being russian agents by continuing to support Trump. blagh! so on a lighter note, you couldn't keep clothes on my grandkids when they were little. they'd get home from wherever and start shedding their clothes though my daughter did make them keep their diapers or underpants on. you'd go over to visit and there'd be four naked little kids running around.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I completely understand how you felt about the couple in the parking lot. I hate how much I despise the idiotic idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think that all children prefer to be naked if given the choice. I know my own kids did. Why not? And they are so beautiful in their own skins, aren't they? When Maggie didn't want to put even her diaper on after the bath I said, "Okay, but don't pee on my floor!" and she said, "Okay!" She did, however, pee on the porch before the afternoon was over. And so what? A little baby pee? Ain't a thing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And that's the problem with Trump, he brings out the worst in everybody.

    And naked kids, they should be naked in the summer. They haven't learned yet to be ashamed of their bodies, which is lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've had to take a break from Facebook because posts that I used to just scroll past now enrage me to the point that I have to correct the dumb asses who post them. I've always spoke my mind, but also respected others speaking theirs, too. But if I hear how he's MAGA one more time I'm gonna punch someone!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That red MAGA hat sets me off too. I kind of think MAGA is the equivalent of the swastika in Trump America. I am in a bit of a bubble in liberal New York, but MAGA is here, too. I can't help but feel so many people have been brainwashed because how could a thinking person support that man. Tells you how much I don't understand.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Naked is best, as long as there are not stickers or nails or ground wasps. My youngest son did not wear clothing except for going into town.
    Manafort's ass got arrested- pops into mind every time I see a MAGA bumper sticker, not many hats up here, hippies just won't have that! Our neighbors two houses down are the only dipshits in this neck of the woods, and though we raised our boys together, soaked in hot tub, shared christmas cheer- I find myself giving their house a wide berth when I walk. I do not want to see them for fear of stabbing them to death.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I had to look up MAGA. I didn’t know it was an acronym now.

    When I go to Tai Chi, it’s a 2 hour class. Halfway through we have tea and Trump always comes up. There is always either belly laughter or disgusted disdain. Every single member hates him but one. I can’t bring myself to like her. How can anyone support him? What gets me the most is she is one of the older members and is from England. She remembers being bombed! I just don’t get it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. i would of told the MAGA dude '72 emails per gallon', tony and i take the same route to work and we both used to see a prius covered in trump stickers. not sure how many more environmentally concious foreign car buying trump supporters are out there....i'm sure it's a pretty small subset tho.

    thanks again for your support on the UC front. it's maddening to be fat.

    xxalainaxx

    ReplyDelete
  11. I sometimes wonder - and I may be totally off here, I am writing this from across a vast ocean etc. - where are the other side's hats, I could think of some nice ones involving wordplay with democracy and dignity, why no rallies like trump, just to fire up the people if anything for the midterms, where do you show your sides apart from protesting his? Maybe we miss all this in our media in Europe?

    ReplyDelete
  12. That hat brings out the worst in me too. I have to mumble to myself "don't engage. Don't engage" for fear of losing my temper. That's not who I want to be, it's getting harder every day.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, Lord. I don't know what I would have said or done if confronted by that man. I probably would have stumbled along and reacted basically the same way you did -- with outward disengagement and inner rage. Perhaps the most annoying thing about that story is his complete confidence in wearing that hat, as if he assumes that anyone he talks to will agree with him.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.