Rant #3,593: Wonderful Christmas Time

 'Tis the season ...

Last week, a woman blocked me, and refused to let me into a local gas station, because I had the nerve to try to enter the wrong way--there was no other way to get in at that moment--and she forced me to back into oncoming traffic from both ways as she made her stand.

When she exited the gas station, she gave me the finger.

'Tis the season ...

A driver thought he had enough room to move into my lane as I drove right next to him. He moved into my lane, and the only way that I avoided him was to dart into another lane, so he basically pushed me out of my lane, and thank goodness there was no one on the lane I jumped into.

When he passed me, on the road, he was yelling at me, as if the whole thing was my fault.

'Tis the season...

My son and I went to the barber shop to get our hair cut, and there was an altercation between the usually mild-mannered owner and one of her workers.

My son was told to get his hair cut by this barber, but the barber refused, saying he needed to rest. The owner said he should rest during his break in a room in the back, but he refused to budge. She ripped out all of his electric accessories from the wall at his stand, but he refused to move, and my son went to some other barber.

The owner apologized to me, and I told her not to worry about it.

'Tis the season ...

Evidently for humans to show their most nasty, underhanded, vulgar tendencies.

I don't know what it is, but in seemingly "the most wonderful time of the year," people can sure be inhuman, can't they?

And today is Friday the 13th, so who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men (or women)?

So that being said, how about going into this holly, jolly weekend by reading the next chapter of my novel?

And your opinion matters, so don't hold back, one way or the other.

Just don't flip me the bird, OK?

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

11

Abraham Lincoln Panim and Mrs. Stottle became an exceptional learning team, with the boy speeding ahead from his contemporaries and finishing his public school education at 16 years of age, or two years ahead of his peers.

But Abraham Lincoln Panim was not up to his peers in other areas, such as in social situations. And with no father at home, he had many questions about life, but he felt ill at ease talking about them with Mrs. Stottle or even with his mother.

During one of their late night strolls, Abraham Lincoln Panim asked his mother, “How did you and daddy meet, and how did you end up having me?”

Mrs. Panim stopped in her tracks, and did not know what to say.

“Well, we met … “ she hesitated. “We met on the street one day. It was around holiday time, and we were both rushing around at night, and I guess we didn’t see each other … we bumped into each other, and we both fell onto the pavement. He was so bundled up with his heavy jacket and scarf, and I could barely hear him talk, but we kind of fell in love right then and there.”

“When did you get married?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t for several months later,” Mrs. Panim told her son. “Daddy always told me over the phone that he had to get things done first before he could see me again, and I guess that I just fell in love with his voice, and that he actually paid attention to me. We talked every day on the phone, but he did not want to see me in person just yet.

“He kept on telling me that he had to get things done so I would be proud of him, and then one day, he did what he said. He had done whatever he wanted to do, we met, had a few dates, and finally, we married.”

“And how did you have me, mom?” Alexander Lincoln Panim asked his mother, and again, she hesitated in her reply.

“For the birds and the bees, you did well in biology, so I am sure you know how you came about,” she told her son.

“No, I know all about that, but how did you have ME?” meaning, how did you have a son with a rat face that hated cheese.

It took Mrs. Panim a few moments to come up with an answer, which became her stock answer whenever the subject would be broached. “We had you because we loved each other,” and the subject was ended right then and there until it came up again during one of the mother and son’s night time walks.