Cranky Old Man

I had to wear a shirt and tie to the office the other day.

No big deal, a little out of the ordinary, but really I kinda like it once in a while.

I guess the only downer was that I had to wear it to class after work. I mean I guess I could have changed, but it just didn’t seem like a good use of my time.

So I sat in class and one of the younger women came in wearing a Nirvana shirt. She looked over at me and kinda crumbled up her face. Now, I cannot know why she crumbled up her face at that moment that we made eye contact. It is completely possible that she had and itch on her nose. It is possible that she saw the old dude in class and scoffed. It’s possible she saw the old dude in class in a shirt and tie and thought, “he is the man holding us down. He is the devil”

Now I will admit, in my own douchey way, when I saw her wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, I remembered that I had actually owned an original of that T-shirt back in 1993. I had gotten it from Nick Riddle in some sort of T-shirt swap, and in fact traded it to my brother for a sweet cobra commander t-shirt some years later. When I noticed, the younger woman crumbling her face up at me, I’ll admit the first thought that sprung to my head was, “nice shirt, where did you get it, hot topic?”

In full disclosure, I bought a led zep shirt last year. I got it at JCPenny , which is pretty much the same thing, maybe worse.

Since I appear to be in cranky old man mode, I have to say that culturally there are few things I find funnier than young children who throw up gang signs in every picture that is taken of them. Take a picture of a group of kids from the richest, most privileged, best school in the country, and I promise you someone will throw up gang signs.  I’m not sure they know what they are doing, but I always find it amusing.

In that same vein, and perhaps more amusing to me is dudes on bikes that cost maybe a mortgage payment or two giving the finger to photographers at bike races.  Look I admit, I race with a bit a angst. My best training efforts come from dark places. That being said, why in the hell would you want to give the finger to a guy, who on his own time has chosen to come out to a bike race and take pictures. Pictures, I might add that make us all look much more pro than we are.  What's the mindset:  “ I hate that I’m on a sweet ass bike, doing something I love, FUCK YOU!” or better yet, 'FUCK YOU I told you to only take pictures head on! No Profiles! You're making me look Fat!" ... Oh wait... Crap that one landed a little close to home.

Fucking Photographer making me look fat.

Yes, I get that you’re suffering and we're all rad but really? And, yes in the interest of full disclosure I have told hecklers to fuck off before. The Rutgers kids only on the cross team to heckle are lame. There should be a rule that you can't heckle if you are in the Cat 4 race. And no I don't care if you are the Cat 4 champion of the world. But I digress... Why would you hate a photographer...

Who knows maybe their mother ran away with a photographer and they have a life time hatred of the guys. Maybe their father was blinded by flash that is too bright. Maybe someone sprayed acid in their faces with a gag camera? I don’t know.

You know, over the years, I have bought a picture or two from these guys and Monk and I have a few up around the house. I wonder if somewhere someone has a picture of them racing their bike, giving the finger to the photographer hung in their kitchen or maybe living room?

maybe it's their kids throwing up gang signs? Fuck, I'm cranky...

Okay, cranky old guy rant over.

I’m going to try and ride a bike tonight. We’ll see if the legs are down with that program. We’ll see if we can’t turn the cranky old dude stuff back to 8 on the cranky meter.

respect

m