Grumpy Old Man

As I get older or just plain old - probably 76 does qualify as old –- I seem to be getting grumpier.  The question arises – if not begged (I’m still not sure what exactly begging the question is) – am I grumpy because I am getting old – an internal thing - or am I grumpy because the world is imposing a lot of things on me that it shouldn’t?  Now don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to be thankful for – a wonderful wife who is very generous with her advice- particularly when we are driving somewhere; financial security; relatively good health and a great church community we are part of. 

That being said, I find myself becoming annoyed more easily than I used to – at least in my self-assessment.  I find annoyance is right there not too far under the surface and just lurking in wait for an opportunity to show itself.  There seem to be more opportunities for annoyance to raise its ugly head these days as life seems to be more complicated.  I struggle to deal with all the modern conveniences, particularly those which come with complicated ways of operating that don’t seem to make sense to me. 

Here are a few examples to help you understand what I am ranting about this morning.  We finally broke down and got a ‘smart’ phone a few years ago.   Up until then we had an old-fashioned flip phone which was used for emergencies.   We seemed to manage quite well but decided – for some reason I don’t really remember – don’t get me started on my memory challenges – to bite the bullet and get one.  I believe we were in Maisonville Mall in London trying to get a COVID shot and there was a booth nearby – so while we were waiting for our appointment, we decided to take the leap into the wonderful world of ‘smart’ phones.  Well, it has turned out that the phone is definitely smarter than me.  I dread to get a call on it – we don’t usually give out the number – as I find it is a challenge to answer the call – we did get advice on that from someone – I forget who – that we should swipe the phone and not tap it vigorously.  I can hardly wait to try this out, but I haven’t received a call yet.  There are lots of other challenges using this smarty pants device, but I hope this gives you a sense of where I speak. 

Well, let me give you one more example.  We recently had an electronic thermostat installed.  Boy has it been fun figuring it out.  We can control it – you guessed it – on the smarty pants phone.  After some trial and error – emphasis on the error – I have it figured out but the icon on the phone keeps disappearing.  Sometimes it is there and sometimes not.  I think the phone is just trying to remind me who is in charge. 

Another area of annoyance is parking.  I am old enough – see above – to remember when parking lots had attendants who would take your ticket and tell you how much you owed, and you could give them real money to settle up.  Now the attendant has gone the way of the dinosaurs – perhaps that is my fate as well.  We have the wonders of the machines where you get to pay your money by card – if you can figure out the instructions - and hope for the best.  Recently we were in Stratford to see a performance of Macbeth and parked in a municipal lot.  You had to put in vast amounts of information e.g. licence plate number, zone number (whatever that is) and pay for the time you think you will be parking.  Now, Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays but who knows how long we will be parked.   Well, we probably might have managed (with help from bad language) but we/I couldn’t see the screen as it was in bright sunlight.  We gave up and luckily found a spot on the street which- Hallelujah - had an old-fashioned meter which took coins.  Moving on from parking challenges we went to the theater and tried to find our seats.  The row numbers were cleverly hidden for plain sight, and we had to guess where row D was.  It was not the fourth row back as we discovered after we made our way to the seats in the middle – to the inconvenience of others seated.  It was apparently row DD.  We tried again with no more success.  Until we found an attendant – what do you call the people who show you where your seat is – words fail me again.

In any case, I am finding life to me more complicated and my annoyance more accessible as well.  I do feel more like a dinosaur as life becomes more complex.  I realize that my annoyance is partly because I want life to be the way I want it to be, and it is less that way.  There is a self centeredness in my annoyance – why can’t things be done the way they should be - or at least the way I think they should.  I’m afraid it has never been that way and is getting less that way all the time.  It just isn’t fair – but as someone – I don’t remember who – told me many years ago – life isn’t – and they were right.  I guess I will try to be a less grumpy old man – perhaps if I prayed to that Old Man in the sky it would help.