It is December 8 and there are only 17 days until Christmas – 17 days!  Where does the time go?  Thanksgiving was only 10 days ago and now we have less than three weeks until Christmas.  That means that we only have 68 days until Valentine’s Day, so you had better get those flowers ordered.  Today is the birthday of Eli Whitney, Lee J. Cobb and Berry van Aerle.  On this day in 1776 George Washington’s retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey; in 1886 the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed by 26 craft unions and Samuel Gompers was elected AFL president and in 1984 Ringo Starr appeared on Saturday Night Live.

I am becoming more and more annoyed by people lately.  I do not know if it is because I am getting older and less tolerant, or people are becoming more obnoxious or a combination of both.  It’s happening everywhere.  For example, I was in a parking lot recently and watched a woman start to cross the lot without even turning her head.  She stepped out in front of a car and the driver jammed on his brakes and blasted his horn.  She gave him the “social” finger and yelled, “I have the #@&%?!* right of way you know!”  My first issue was that while she had the right of way, she still should have looked before crossing.  I wanted to tell her that she could explain the right of way thing to the doctor in the ER as he was setting her broken bones or her tombstone could read, “Here lies Oblivia De Havilland.  She had the right of way.” 

Another issue that arises from this event is the language.  First understand that I am not a prude or shy about using strong language.  I was in the service and became quite good at it; in fact, given the chance I could, on my own, fill the swear jar for our friend Pat’s grandsons on a weekly basis.  But I digress …

 While I have no problem with swearing, I do not feel the need to share my talent with everyone in a parking lot.  I am even more distressed by people who swear in front of children.  There is nothing that could happen that should make it necessary to drop F bombs in front of little kids.  They will learn the words soon enough.  They do not need to pick up that habit at the age of five.  You also should not want them to think that language like that is okay, because mommy or daddy says it all the time.

This is the time of year when people seem to lose any sense of courtesy.  I went to an outlet store the other day to get some baked goods.  As I was reaching for some packages of English Muffins, a woman pushed in front of me to grab two packages.  Understand that there had to be around 50 boxes stacked up there, so it was not like I was taking the last ones.  From the look of her she could stand to cut back on them anyway.  Her backside was so big … but I digress again.

Drivers seem to be all out of patience, too.  Here is an example of what I mean.  A car is trying to enter a main road from a side street.  Traffic on the main road is steady and it is difficult for the car to make the turn.  Finally, the driver of the car on the side street has decided he or she has waited long enough and the car simply pulls out cutting off a car on the main road, causing that driver to jam on the brakes and blast the horn.  Social fingers are exchanged and off goes the impatient driver. 

This is a two-fold problem.  On the one hand some driver on the main road could have allowed the car to come out of the side street.  We know that wasn’t going to happen because it would cause that driver to be delayed by 10 or 15 seconds and lose a car length in the traffic flow.  The other problem is that the car on the side street needs to get out at some point.  There has to be a better way than simply driving in front of another car.  The driver could have inched out slowly and sort of insinuated itself into traffic.  Of course there would still have been social fingers and horns, but not as much chance for an accident.

Everywhere I go I see people rushing and pushing to get things done.  They act as if they are the only ones who have things to do.  Back to one of my favorite locales, the grocery store.  Just before Thanksgiving, I had to go to the store for a couple last-minute items.  I watched one woman storming through the store, using her cart as a ram and muttering loudly and unkindly about the people who were in her way.  I think she may have set a Guinness record for annoying people in a grocery store.  I watched her run into easily 10 people and I only saw her in two or three aisles. 

This is the Christmas season.  It is a time of peace and joy and love.  Try to enjoy the time of year.  In the words of the noted philosopher, Rodney King, “Why can’t we all just get along?”  When you are out, listen to the wonderful Christmas songs like the “Chipmunks Christmas Song” or enjoy Elvis singing “Blue Christmas” or any one of six hundred versions of “The Christmas Song” and just enjoy the time of the year.  It’s Christmas, people!  Lighten the #@&% up!

This week our fact tells us that 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.  I am not sure what to say about this.  My mind is flush with all sorts of ripe comments, but I am just unable to force them out.   All I can do is wonder what they were doing that would cause them to be injured.  Just another one of those things that makes you go h-m-m-m.