The Christmas Spirit.

I know that Christmas is just right around the corner. But I'm having a little trouble getting in the spirit of things. I'm generally a pretty happy guy, however I seem to be noticing a large number of people behaving badly during this holiday season. Examples to follow. Keep in mind most of these fractions occur either while driving, or while I am spending some time in that particular hell called the grocery store.

First example: The reality show the Bachelor on ABC. I cannot believe that the network that brings us Grey's Anatomy, also brings us such a supremely unbelievably stupid show like the Bachelor. And then they actually have a repeat Bachelor. Now I though when he was on the first time he was the definitive example of the phrase"cute but stupid" . After seeing that he is going to be on again I decided to google him and maybe give him a chance. My bad, "cute but stupid" still applies.

Number two: We have some type of road construction on every road around our house. EVERYONE!!! The speed limit is 25mph. Which although painfully slow, after living here for 3 years it is completely appropriate. What pisses me off are the people who tailgate you and get their asses all up in the air because you are driving the speed limit. A couple nights ago while on my way to the grocery store I was summarily tailgated by a driver in a Suburban who actually flashed his lights at me halfway through the construction zone. When the speed limit raised back to normal and I sped up and moved over to the right lane, he honked at me and yelled ugly things out his window at me. Imagine just how proud I was to see he had a fire department license plate. Visible proof that the government is an equal opportunity employer.

Three: I have been looking for a job now for quite a while and I have come to a conclusion that does not leave me with a good feeling about employment in the private sector. Some of the Human Resource people that have conducted the interviews haven't been the sharpest knifes in the drawer. One particular HR person from a national chain that I should not name"Home Depot" when talking to me about if I thought I would be good at customer service actually asked me how to spell extrovert. That was one of the words I used to describe myself. The phone interview I had today with a local trucking company was conducted by an individual that could barely speak English. At the rate I'm going I may have to go back to training horses full time.

Four: I thought I might stroke out last night when I was trying to negotiate hells parking lot, the local Fry's grocery store, and a person in a Trailblazer SUV stopped across the pedestrian walkway to wait for a parking space to open up. Now this always pisses me off, just go and find a parking spot. So of course I muttered something ugly to her as I went around her and found an empty space. While walking to the store I notices that she had accomplished her mission and parked in the closest possible space to the door. I also noticed that she was 5'5" tall and weighed somewhere around 350#'s. Obviously she needed more exercise than she is currently getting, I can say that because I do too. The only thing needed to complete the picture would have been if she had been eating a Baby Ruth.

Five: Now a real example of my have the Christmas Spirit actually oozing out of my pores would be not strangling the small child swinging some kind of rubber material in big circles while his non child raising participating mother was unloading her groceries onto the checkout conveyor. When he stood in the middle of the aisle way and whacked people including myself she never even wondered where he was or what he was doing. I suspect his particular offending instrument was something that he carried into the store and she was secretly hoping that somebody kidnapped his obnoxious ass while she shopped.

Six: We live at the end of the street and I haven't even put up our Christmas lights. I am perfectly happy to enjoy the lights put up by neighbors.