Month: July 2006

Crankypantsing, Ladybusiness

Patriarchy Blaming at the Grocery Store

Shelly

I went into town this morning to run some errands. Stopping at the grocery store was at the top of the list. It’s Babbs’ 75th anniversary, and the place was packed. It was worth dealing with the wall-to-wall crowd, though, because their produce is really nice (e.g. beautiful green peppers that were grown locally for 50¢ each–mmmmmm).

There were long lines at each of the check-outs, so I had a bit of a wait. The old guy in front of me was chatting with a friend about how it sucked to be 80 years old. He just can’t do the things he could when he was 70. They commiserated for awhile, then, when the old guy’s turn came, he started bantering with the cashier, who must’ve been 16 but looked more like 13. The old guy hassled her about this and that, but she didn’t take any shit from him. Good for her! As he was loading up his things and she began checking my items, she told me to feel free to run over him with my cart. I said I was seriously considering it. He turned around and said, “God gave women such beautiful bodies, with pretty hair and eyes and all those curves. And then he had to go and ruin it by putting a mouth on you.” Hivemindy! I was thinking just the same thing about offensive, dirty old men!

Yaknow, I don’t know which is worse, men who think they have a God-given right to leer at women (or, worse, under-age girls!) or men who exert their white male privilege in order to put uppity girls in their places. Lucky me, I didn’t have to choose, because this asshole was a two-fer!

Photography

Panorama

Shelly

It wouldn’t be Friday without some photoblogging. It rained all morning, but the sky cleared up and a whole army of puffy white clouds popped up. This was created from four photos I took on my way home from work. I love the greeness of the soybeans against the blue of the sky and the play of shadows along the rolling field.

Panorama
Corner of Starnes Road and Ratliff Road, Monroe County Indiana, looking northeast

Crankypantsing, Photography

It’s Non-sequitur Friday!

Shelly
  • Seen at the gas station this ayem: old Pontiac Sunbird with a large steel hasp and padlock securing the hood. It was not entirely unlike this. The car’s back end was plastered with surfer-tattoo-heavy metal type bumper stickers. Duuuude!
  • You’ve heard the ridiculous “The internet is a series of tubes” story? Well, now you can get the shirt! I really want one. They’re hand screened and numbered, and well worth the $20. Proceeds go to benefit community radio, so it’s for a very good cause.
  • I’ve seen three red foxes this week–one on my road and two in Bloomington. I think, to see foxes, you need to be out and about at about a half hour before sunrise. They seem to be heading home at about that time.
  • There was a Watchtower tucked inside my storm door when I came home the other day. So now I’m on the look-out for Jehovah’s Witnesses. I didn’t know we had them in our neck of the woods!
  • Misogynistic t-shirt sighting, on frat boy: [University of Chicago:] If it were easy, it’d be your mom.
  • It’s always allergy season for me, but ragweed is fixin’ to bloom soon, and that’s when the real fun starts. My eyes are getting itchy, my head’s congested, and I’ve got a sore throat. I suppose it could be a cold, but I don’t think it is.
  • I saw the BoD’s Eeevil-ganger again yesterday, pulling into Casey’s convenience store. I kinda feel like Mr. Bean hunting down the little blue car Reliant. Only with more self-restraint.

    Perhaps the, um, liberal application of more bumper stickers is called for?

  • I have to mow this weekend. There’s no way I can avoid it. The grass is so long that it’s hiding bunnies right under Miss Brown’s nose. You have not seen a pissed off Boxer until you’ve seen Harriet realize that she let one get away. I think her ears melted a little bit from the steam shooting out of them.
  • Metallica has finally sold out completely. And I thought they already had!

And, now, some happy sunshine reflecting on water, courtesy of my neighbor’s pond. Petsitting has its perks, you see. I’m going to be doing more of the same this weekend, so I’m likely to take more pictures. I’m hoping to get some close-ups of the bitty eraser-sized toadlets that occasionally hop across the driveway. They are ridiculously small and cute and precious. Of course, I only ever see them when I do not have my camera with me.

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Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Server Not Found

Shelly

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It’s hot in here (or maybe it’s that I just chugged a huge cup of coffee?), the server is down system-wide, I overslept, and I’m tired and cranky.

I put $20 worth of gas in my car this morning, and the tank wasn’t even half full. There was a long line at the gas station because some jackass was buying lotto tickets–one of each kind, no less. Why, oh why, do people need to buy dozens of scratch-off tickets at 5am? I think maybe there should be separate gas stations for people who–wait for it!–actually want to purchase gas. And, if lotto tickets weren’t enough of an aggravation, they’ve installed a hot food kiosk in the center of the main aisle for breakfast sandwiches, hot dogs, and some sort of hamburger-y monstrosity. With “fix-ins” bar. O ick. Who in their right mind buys shriveled up hot dogs from a gas station? I suspect, whoever they are, they’ve got a death wish.

On the other hand, gas in Spencer was 17¢ cheaper than in E-ville or B-ton, so it could’ve been worse. And, at the Spencer Bigfoot, you aren’t subjected to hipster music. I win!

Speaking of cars, I looked at my pay stub yesterday, to see how much my pitiful raise actually amounts to in take-home dollars. I’m still being charged for an A tag, even though I down-graded to a C. An A tag is about 3x as much as a C, so the difference is substantial.

Photo: Harriet Brown blowing drooly spit bubbles while staring at french fries

Crankypantsing, Photography

Pod People

Shelly

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Spiderwort with Bee-thing

Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like everyone around you has been abducted by aliens and replaced with pod people? And then, you realize that it must be you who is off kilter, because no matter how much you enjoy a good conspiracy theory, the Horns of Disbelief won’t quite stand up to the possibility of a mass pod people infestation.

I’m having one of those days, and about the best I can manage is a baffled “WTF?”