Tag: general grumbling

My current building has two single stall bathrooms on each floor. (This is not really enough bathrooms for the number of people on our floor, but that is not the point of this post.) Let’s talk about some things I’ve seen in my 2.5 years of sharing single stall bathrooms with many people from many offices.

It is my firm belief that in a single stall situation, the toilet seat should ALWAYS be returned to the down position. This is because 50% of the population always has the seat down, and the other 50% of the population sometimes has the seat down. With the always, plus the sometimes, that means the majority of the time, that seat is down. The 50% of the population that does not lift the seat should not be involved in lowering because someone didn’t return it to its proper position.

This.  Bits of toilet paper sitting next to the toilet. What is this?  I understand that those toilet paper dispensers sometimes only dispense tiny bits of useless toilet paper, but why then is it dropped on the floor? The toilet bowl is right there. The person is probably sitting on it. Also, just out of view of this photo is a large trash can, yet another place to drop tiny pieces of useless toilet paper. The floor is not the receptacle for this item.

What happens is that every time I use the bathroom, I pick up the 1-7 pieces of toilet paper on the ground and drop them in the bowl before doing my business.  And I marvel yet again as to why people think it’s okay to drop the paper on the ground.

The Fred Meyer near me added a big red sign to it’s front door. My first time encountering it, I slowed, confused at its message.

I’m not sure who is in charge of getting such a sign made, but I wish they would have slept on the syntax before approving. Because the door is closed for much of the day. It’s an automatic door that opens when people walk up to it. It won’t just close at 8:00 PM, it will close repeatedly. And open too.

The word I think the person was looking for was “lock” rather than “close.” The message is that you will not be able to use this entrance between eight and eleven p.m. So it’s not just that the door is closed, it’s that it will be locked.

And now that sign bugs me every single time I visit the store.

I went to do my usual Friday morning separation of the Oregonian (front page, A&E, Living, discard the Sports page) and found the Living section was missing.  They have integrated it into the A&E.  And so I go from 3 sections on Friday to two.

Whereas in previous years we’ve gotten a picture of the Rose Festival Princess contenders for each school, now we only get a picture of the winning princess.  

I can’t say I’m a fan.  I liked to see the finalists from each school. Now they are a list of names.

And yes, complicated feminist feelings re: Princesses, but I’m someone who enjoys the Miss America Pageant, so there’s that.  At least with this, it’s not a beauty contest, but is based on accomplishments.  Plus they get scholarships, a mentorship and free clothes.

I walk by the Free People clothing store regularly and look at their displays with a kind of anthropological interest.  These are not clothes designed for me, nor am I meant to wear them.  I find some of them kind of cute (the dress on the left, the skirt on the right) and most of them puzzling.

But today I saw the Van Halen 1984 shirt and stopped short.  Why are they marketing a shirt for a band consisting of members who are too old to be this demographic’s fathers?  Is there some Van Halen resurgence among the young set I don’t know about? (Possibly.)  I suspect they just thought the logo looked cool and made it into a shirt.

I’m waiting for Matt at the gate.  I pick out a good spot where I can see people coming through the gate and where I’m not standing in front of anyone.  I know not to sit in the chairs, because my view will be blocked for sure.  So my place along the wall is working well for me.  A woman comes and stands along the wall next to me.  All is fine.

And then she stands in front of me.  

Not a little bit in front of me.  The kind of in front of me where she blocks my entire view of the gate.  The kind of in front of me where Matt was past me before he noticed me waving.

I’m sure she was excited to see whoever she was waiting for, but so was I.  And I was there first.

(I projectile coughed on her, but the only effect it had was that she put her hair in a pony tail.)

I have no idea how I got on this mailing list, because we are not a match.  C.C. Filson Co. may have got their start outfitting miners, prospectors and lumbermen in Seattle, but they have strayed far from their roots.  $300 for a flannel shirt?  You know where the last few miners, prospectors and lumbermen buy their shirts? Walmart.  Because that’s what they can afford.  You know who buys $300 flannel shirts?  Software engineers who think they are the same ilk as miners, prospectors and lumbermen.  And they aren’t.  So don’t pretend they are.

And every modern outdoorsman needs a bag for his tablet and computer.  Grrrr.

(I liked quite a few of their tablet and computer bags, but again, not my price range.)

I took umbrage to this on several levels.  One.  I think of Baby Boomers as giving birth to Generation X.  They would be too old by the time it came time to procreate the Millennials.  But I did the math and it seems that it’s those younger baby boomers (the ones who were born nearly two decades after WWII ended) who seem to have sired the millennial generation.  I never think of these people as Baby Boomers, having come so lately to the selfish party that is the Baby Boomer generation.

Two.  Really?  Is it one generation versus another?

Three.  Um, is this how it’s gonna be?  Generation X has to listen endlessly to how cool the Boomers are, and then pay for all the things they never got around to fully funding like social security?  And then we don’t even get a mention?  It’s like no one was born between 1964 and 1984.

Four. And now I’m annoyed by how much this whole thing annoys me.  Do we really have to have distinct generations?  Can’t we all just work together?  Answer: no.  Because the stupid Boomers need constant reinforcement as to how cool they are.

Five.  In the relief category, I’m glad I’m in a generation designation that I know how to spell.