getting old and maybe too opinionated...

I had my birthday yesterday and plowing into the 50s a ways. Fatter and more gray hair.

I was in bedroom town getting my glasses tightened and leaving the store where I have to walk across the main run into the big parking lot that holds a grocery store and some other little places like the glasses place sort of in a strip mall. A teenage guy zooms into the parking lot and doesn't slow down as I approach from the store. Even though I think cars have to stop for pedestrians (at least crossing a real street), I would have settled for him to slow down a bit instead of going past the ends of the first 2-3 parking lanes pushing 20 mph. He whips around a blind corner of a row and finds a spot.

As he gets out of the car and heads wherever he's going, I ask, "Been driving long? Maybe you should slow it down in a parking lot."

He gets about 60 feet away and cocks off as walking away.

"Maybe you should mind your own business" I didn't think about it fast enough but it was my business because I had to stop for him to zip past walking to my car.

Instead, my hackles go up and my human side comes out and I say, "You're a smarta@@ kid. I hope you have a nice accident." No other words were spoken.

To be honest, I don't know how I would have replied at age 16 or 17 and maybe would have been mouthy as well. But then again, I don't think I look like Elmer Milktoast and have more hair in my stash than many teenage guys have on their body, so I don't think I look like a push over either and maybe my 16 or 17-year old self would have kept quiet. Certainly, I wasn't acting very Christian by wishing him an accident but then again Jesus wasn't a shy guy and probably would have spoken up when he saw wrong but in a more loving way.

I wonder if this kid has ever had any John Q public call him out on something? Maybe not. I hope he thinks a bit about the situation and his actions and not just my last words. Maybe he will, maybe not. Maybe I'm just too old and opinionated...

Rog,

I had a situation somewhat similar to this where I couldn't control my mouth. Didn't think this girl or her friend (who I didn't see) would hear my comments. I used some pretty good expletives to indicate what I thought about this girl (more about what she just did, cause I don't know her). She had walked into the store and there was the person she screwed and someone else there. I made my comment and all of a sudden her friend came around the corner and said "don't talk about my girl like that." I was back pedaling, wondering if she was going to pull out a piece or call someone that would. I have since learned that I need to control my mouth. Unfortunately, we never now who's packing these days.

Rog - Happy Birthday (belated) I hope the day was better then the parking lot incident.

As I have gotten older, I have learned to "TRY" an use my mind before my mouth. Still have problems with my mouth, at times it works faster than my mind. I know how I would have handled it in my younger days, not a pretty picture. What I learned the hard way, my knuckles pay the price when the mouth does all of "THINKING". As I'm not getting any younger, my body not what it was, my mind needs to be used more often.

When we were young (like the "kid" in parking lot), we learned a lot of things "the hard way" and the wrong way! The best part about being 50+ is we can say "been there and done that".

<gentle laughter & smiles >

We're all going through the changes from cradle to grave. It's all about the testosterone levels in your body. It peaks at 19 and then steadily drops off till you're in your 70s.

Scrappah at 20 yrs old: Walking out of a peeler bar one night and a couple of bike type guys with their colors on were walking in. I just couldn't resist making a crack about leather being for fags as they were passing by. LMAO ..... bad idea !
-or-
Passing the cops doing 95 mph in my truck and then trying to outrun them. Duh ... there were only two roads out of town. They were just sitting there patiently waiting for me when i went to make my great escape. I gently pulled over cause i just had to respect that i had been outsmarted by the older guys.

They were really cool about it. A few nights later one of the older guys stopped by work and had a talk with me. He explained that someone would get hurt if i kept doing things that way. That's all it took. When i got to court they even offered to take care of the speeding ticket but i figured that i deserved it. Lesson learned.

Scrappah at 56 years old: Now it's my turn. It's on me to be patient, loving, and tolerant of the younger hands and never forget that i used to be like that too. It's up to me to be at my best .... when they're at their worst.

If i ever live to be 70: It will be my turn to be the cranky old fart whose seed is all dried up. I'll grumble about the state of the world and long for the old days when things made more sense.

I raised my share of hell back in the mid to late '80s. I remember a lady yelling at me SLOW DOWN!, as her kids were playing out in the yard by the street. Another guy threatened to call the cops on me, and he did. Got a DUI outta that one. I remember driving home from an AC/DC concert in Bismarck, and waking up sliding sideways in the ditch between the two lanes on the Interstate. Nothing ever sunk in. Just laughed it off with my buddies the next day.

I never learned my lesson until I faced a real "Hangin' Judge".

He asked me "Is there any reason you can't go to jail today?"

I told him "Yeah, I have a job."

"Where do you work?"

"Dan's Supermarket."

"4 days in jail, $XXX fine. NEXT!"

I spent that 4 days in the Burliegh County Jail, and it turned my life around. If I could remember that judge's name, I would call him and thank him for putting me in the crowbar hotel.

What we need is more "Hangin' Judges", less slaps on the wrist.

*Opinion.

I'm 18 and I have had several tell some people to slow down or pay attention to the road. Most of them older then me and quite a few younger then me to slow down.

I was one day walking back from my friends house and it was only a few blocks away plus on top of that I knew a short cut that was a back road. I thought that I would take the back road to avoid major traffic and big trucks. Someone my own age at the time 16 decides to whip around the corner and fish tail around me as I was walking home. I had to stop in my tracks and actually duck and cover for pieces of tar and rocks on the road came up from the tires.

When they passed me and hit the other corner they waited porously for me to approach the truck when there wasn't any kind of traffic. By the time I got up to the end of the Black Lifted truck they smoked their tires and whipped around the corner and yelled my name and told me to go fluff myself.

I was completely shocked and really pissed off at the same time. I knew the person but I never knew them personally. I confronted the guy in school and he had freaked out at me and swung. Well lets just say I don't like most of the people my age they tend to be really rude and just straight up weird. LOL even though I'm the same age as the kids I kinda get from where are speaking.

The wifey had a good thought that instead of bristling back, maybe I should have told him that I was concerned about his and other people's safety, a more "teachable" approach. Maybe so or maybe this guy would have blown me off any which way I put my concerns.

mthomesdev- Not worried about a teenager pulling a gun on me. My metro of about 200K only has about half a dozen murders a year. I have a state "pistol permit" and about the only time I carry is when I have my .22 around turning the trapping season. I don't think my S&W 40 has ever been in a holster. I stand a much higher chance of getting killed or crippled spinning out in a winter weather pile up than getting shot.

Scrappah & pjost- Don't think this kid is a hell raiser fast car driving type like you guys were in your youth. More likely he's a kid of "privilege" who's never been told no and that kind of situation. Lots of "privileged" kids in bedroom town (i.e. spoiled rotten). Maybe he'll change, maybe not.

And bigburt- I haven't thrown a punch in decades and may never again but who knows. We went into town and pigged out at Red Lobster tonight. Why this is the "premier" (and maybe the only "real") seafood place in my metro is hard to know except that we sit in the middle of frigging North America about as far away from an ocean as say...Bismarck (had to rub it in pjost!!). The place is always packed. I might have to met up with Scrappah sometime and have a real lobster again for less money than want these guys want. I had a pile of their breaded clams (feet). I wonder if our freshwater clams would taste about the same but even after purging them for a few days in clean water, I'd be concerned about the various toxic residues and viruses left in them from our lovely river, although I'll eat an occasional catfish out of this outdoor semi-sewer a few times a year so what's the difference...

But to end on a positive note, what about those Red Lobster biscuits...???:))

I'm also in an area where I'm not too worried about having a gun waved in my face. Parking lots aren't too big of a place for speeding but what always got me was when I'm walking through an intersection at a crosswalk, with the right-of-way, and drivers would make a right hand turn in front of me; oooohhh I would get so upset I would smack the vehicle if I could reach it! Got a couple of soccer mom's attention that way. Only ever had one guy stop and say something about it. I told him I would be happy to hang around and explain to the police how my body had come into contact with his vehicle. He just glared and peeled off.

I dunno ... i raised a couple of sons. If i learned anything during their teen years it was that it's just the nature of the beast to be a PITA at that age. About the only way to keep my sanity was to learn to never take anything they say or do personally.

Reminds me of my favorite scene from the movie Road House. " Three Simple Rules "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aPIXy6PHM

* Warning .... contains adult language & infinite wisdom * ;)

Rog ...we're landing about 15 million pounds of lobster here per year. Never been to Red Lobster before but i can't imagine that it would ever compare to a nice hard shell right off the boat. Same thing with crab meat, clams,and scallops. The quality is pretty good.

I think the average boat price for lobster was running around 3.83 a pound last year ? Must be quite a difference between that and what they're charging at the restaurant.

Probably 8- 10X what you all get for it off the boat. Then again, they have to fly those suckers live here so there is cost involved.