I’m making a concerted effort not to take an apocalyptic view of the times.  They are what they are.  True, service isn’t what it used to be, but we really need a lot less of it – self serve pumps, microwave dinner, bill payment on line, direct deposit, tickets to anything on the internet.  If I don’t want to interface with those annoying humans (oh, wait, that’s MY species) I really don’t have to.  I can choose for my contact time to be with people I like…or should I say “people like me.” 

The generations behind us don’t need interpersonal skills.  One can be intimately anonymous on myspace.com and millions of chat rooms.  Parents average only minutes a day of face to face time with their children, so they aren’t going to get much there.  Educators get in trouble with administrators for inciting parents.  They choose their battles to avoid the wars.  Television comedy is positively reinforced sarcasm.  

I have a long standing history of being called “abrasive.”  I think it is one of my best qualities.  I like to scratch off the hardened sticky sweet stuff and expose the cleaner, hotter, more real surface in the pot of life.  The under-socialized generations don’t   bother me.  The crass outspokenness of old people is endearing to many, so in the future “cute” will gradually replace “abrasive.”  As for now, I’m scouring along with my most excellent truth.  Try not to have a melt down.