Wish I Had One Of These

We've been in Florida since February began. I've learned that I can still slip back into "East Coast" mode when the situation warrants. Case in point: we were just finishing with the nice car rental lady, when a 50-something woman in a neck brace came up behind us. Not waiting in line behind us, as the line was well behind us. The woman wanted to be next, dammit, and wasn't going to wait to be called. (Strike one in my book.) We finished, and were gathering our luggage to head for the car. Neck brace woman walked up to the counter, without being called or even motioned to by the woman who was still putting away our paperwork. (Strike two.) Neck brace woman stopped moving her bulk between us and the only available exit to our rental car. (Strike three. Here comes the venom.) Rudeness makes me angry. When I get angry, I get Tourettes. The following words came out of my mouth: "Yeah, why don't you stand there? If you don't get the f*ck out of my way, you're going to need more than a neck brace."

Neck brace woman backed up.

I was taught to be nice and polite. I'll hold open doors, say "please" and "thank you", respect my elders, all that kind of good stuff. I will not tolerate rude, unthinking behavior. I've seen too much of it, and my tolerance for it is over. If you don't think twice about being an idiot, I won't think twice about knocking you down and rolling my luggage over your face. I'll probably laugh, too. A lot.

In other news, we went on an airboat ride in the Everglades. That's where I took the picture of the nifty alligator. (Plus some other pics, which Deb will probably put up when we get home.) He was only 6 or 7 feet long. I say "only" because that's what the guide said. I think that's big enough, thank you. We learned that the Everglades are not swamp land, but are in fact a river. The slowest-moving river in the world at a whopping 2 MPW. (Miles Per Week) Pretty nifty.

We'll be back in AZ tomorrow. The FL trip has been fine, but we miss our mountains and 0% humidity.

Finally, today marks the oldest I've ever been at a whopping 36. The downward slide to 40 continues unabated.