Font Size:

    It's kind of an open-ended question. "What's on your mind?"  These days i'm not sure. I think the economy and making ends meet are consuming everyone's thoughts.

    This morning I was in a local gas station, filling up my soft drink cup. There was a bit of a line and only one clerk behind the counter. As i walked up, she was asking some of the other employees to help out. I was about 8th in line. The man who was 3rd was going to buy a 12-pack of bottled water. But instead, he walked back to the display, placed it on the top of the pile and walked out. I guess he got tired of waiting. Just a few seconds later, two other workers joined the lone clerk. One of them, who happens to be the manager, was helping this woman, trying to buy gas, a drink and a package of some kind of snacks. This station is pre-pay, so the manager was asking the woman which pump. I didn't hear the woman's first response, but the manager asked her again, in a bit louder tone, "What pump number, ma'am?"  The customer just flew off the handle, screaming, "i don't know which (vulgar word goes here) pump it is." At that point, the manager pushed the woman's drink and snack away from the counter and told the woman to leave. The woman complied, but not without firing a volley of profanity at the clerks, for all of us to hear.

    It was Friday, payday, so not much was going to get me down. But as I sat in my office later in the day, i couldn't help but wonder what made that woman snap over something so trivial. Why did the male customer put his water back on the shelf and leave? Had he been patient for just another 30 seconds, he would have walked out with the 12-pack. Instead, he had to drive to another store and probably wait in another line.

    And this isn't an isolated incident. Think about some of the crazy, senseless acts we've reported in recent weeks. Folks just seem to be on edge a lot more these days. Is it the economy? Are some of them out of work? What's making us (at least some of us) a lot more touchy, impatient and intolerant these days?

    I dunno, maybe it's just me. Maybe I've got too much on my mind. Now i ask you again, "What's on your mind?"