Who let the Grumps out?

Is it just me or have people become grumpier? Are people that unhappy with their lives that they have to shoot missiles of contempt at all who cross their path? Are we that emotionally constipated? Grumpy people ( i.e. RUDE people) seem to enjoy spreading their mood around. The sprinkle it around like pixie dust. It seems that there is no safe place for a person to go that is immune to these grumpy barnacles of humanity. The grocery store seems to be the one place where battle lines are drawn continually between the ex-lax personality and all the rest of us.

Wish these grumpy Gus' looked this cute when squalling.

Now, you run into all sorts at the grocery store. Most are SAHM (stay at home moms) who are trying to smuggle some form of food into the cart and pay for it before the kiddies revolt. You have your singles who can enjoy a leisurely stroll up and down the aisles, pain-staking perusing every label. You have your sweet elderly ladies, who do nothing but smile and engage the SAHM into short conversations. Then you have the GRUMPS. The grumps are a SAHM's nightmare because we seem to incite their rude behavior. Our kids are too loud, we are blocking the apples, we are taking to long in the deli section, we stop mid aisle to correct our kids; whatever we do seems to make them want to make our day at the store even more pleasant with their unpleasantness.

 First, let me say that whoever lays out grocery stores should be hung by their toenails. The aisles are too narrow, food scales hang in the worst places, stockers blindly re-route traffic every 5 minutes, and at any given time a food avalanche can block your way.Grocery store traffic jams are the worst, and cause the scenario I was involved in today. Today I was apart of what I would like to call cart jousting. Let me lay the scene out for you. I am scanning the produce aisle for pears, walking slowly to avoid banging my head on the scales i mentioned prior. I see ahead of me another SAHM with one of those huge carts that looks like a car. We nod at each other because the aisle isn't big enough for the both of us. I kindly stop, pull as close as I can to the apples, noticing that a dagum scale is now in my way, and let her pass. She stops a few feet to my left and begins bagging some grapes.  Now, as this little maneuver is happening, a very large, scowling man turns into our lane of traffic. I can see from the look on his face that he is a barnacle. I knew I needed to move quickly in order to clear a hole for him to go through, but this man apparently decided that patience was not a virtue at that moment. Before I could do anything, he rared his cart back, and slammed it into the other SAHM's cart, launching it into a bin of corn ( thankfully no children were sitting in it at the time). I heard her mumble quickly..."Oh I am sorry" as he growled past her in the opening that he rudely created. After the dragon flew away, I caught the eye of the other SAHM; both of us sighed loudly and shook our heads. Deep down I know one of us wished we could have beaned him with a cantaloupe.

I know that one day I will witness a SAHM (hopefully it won't be me) losing it on a gremlin like the one above. I actually look forward to it, because it is high time that rude people be made aware of the code! You know that old saying "do unto others..." But for now, I am left wondering who let all these grumps out...WHO..WHO?