Odds And Ends From The Anniversary

So Wednesday, the 28th was the big day, a whole decade and a half. It did not start well. I bought the Missus a nice flower arrangement with a bird of paradise in the middle and several flowers that I don't know the names of, in a blue China vase.

I was parked in front of a store on Post and a truck had me hemmed in. There were two drivers making a delivery of I'm guessing, clothes, since the truck said "Marshall's" on the outside. I said to the truck driver, "hey, um, you have me blocked in." He glared at me, glared at my car, and said "you are in a yellow zone. You are lucky I do not have you towed." His tone was chalk full of hostility and self-righteousness, not a good sign.

I was going to respond that the yellow zone was not in effect for another forty-five minutes, but I kept quiet because I figured that one of the two truckers (and what rhymes with "truckers," folks?) would do the polite thing and move the truck just a tad so that I could pull out. I sat down in my car and waited, because I didn't trust myself to not fly off the handle at this point, nothing ruins an anniversary like your wife having to bail you out of jail.

In my mirrors, I could see this guy glare at me with each trip into the truck and back down the alley with a pallet load. This gentleman, and I use the term loosely, was of foreign extraction. I mention this only because I will give someone from outside the country, a tiny bit more leeway in terms of manners. Though in theory, we should all be civil to each other...or at least follow the golden rule.

Now, I'm making it a point not to mention his ethnicity and I also want to reemphasize that his being born in another country, has no bearing in my feelings towards him. Because, forget metric and forget standard, this guy was a universal tool. I dislike and hate on an individual basis, not by race or religion. I'm sure in his native country, they would tell you that they don't act like that and only tools behave as he did.

This guy was born a dickhead and will always be a dickhead. Also, by not speaking up, by default, and by association, his coworker was a dickhead too.

After ten minutes and another three trips by these tools up and down the alley, it was obvious that they weren't going to let me out, so I had to consider my options. Now, I couldn't pull forward because I would scrap the truck's gas tank and getting the car, and myself, blown up is also not the way to celebrate an anniversary. I could've backed up, but they put a piece of scaffolding behind my car and beyond that, there wasn't a lot of room to pull my car past the truck and there wasn't much room past the truck, because of a car that was parked on the other side of the alley.

I don't like to mess with someone's livelihood and report an employee for each and every disagreement or perceived slight on their or my part, but I had enough at this point. I went to the back of the truck to take down the license, but of course, it was obscured by the truck's lift. Wonderful. I measured the alley and the truck's proximity to the car, and I decided that I could back up carefully, but with only about a two inches of clearance for my passenger side mirror.

I moved the scaffolding onto the sidewalk, got in the car and backed up like an old lady at a shopping center parking lot, in that, good luck to whatever was behind and to the sides of me. The mirror cleared the truck, then Mr. Tool came out to help direct me, entirely too late, because for all intents and purposes, I was clear. As I swung by, I "thanked Mr. Tool for making my fifteenth anniversary oh so special." Yes, in those words, but without calling him "Mr. Tool."

Including the time spent at the florist's, I came home thirty minutes late. The Missus loved the flowers and the arrangement, but I was wound up like Wolfgang Puck trapped in McDonald's. It carried over and slept like crap. I got a late start on finding a jeweler, so I decided to get her a HP LaserJet 3055, because she's always wanted a scanner and we always need a fax and copier for Procrastinator Junior's homework situations with his classmates.

Dinner was a take out surprise from http://www.woodhousefish.com/ and regular readers of this blog know that I'm always looking for that perfect lobster roll. Woodhouse does it right, lots of tail and claw meat, on a delicately buttered roll. Their fries are excellent too, but somehow, Cafe Maritime is better...only, just.