Picayune Questions

 Here's the latest on the guy I don't like who insists on walking with me . . . 

Really, he's okay and it's not that I don't like him - rather it's more of a case that I find him a little boring and if I'm given the choice between being with people or being alone I would almost always choose the quiet solitude option.  We've reached a detente on our walks - if he stops and talks with someone . . . I mean, when he stops and talks with someone . . . I continue walking, maybe making a couple of loops before heading on my way.  This is my exercise so if he wants to chat he can stop and chat.  Actually, the other day he left me hanging and apologized for leaving me hanging: "I should have said goodbye."

I've noticed that although he has shown a ton of growth in his seven years of sobriety he has a tendency to talk about other people in a disparaging, less than complimentary way and behind their backs.  He's given me the latest on one of our members who has been renting a room in his house, intimating that the guy is drinking, a possibility not confirmed by the tenant.  He talks a lot about a homeless man who just sits on the curb all day across the street from his residence (making me wonder how he knows this as it would seem to suggest that he's sitting there watching the guy sitting there).  And today he pointed out the house where another one of our members lived with the intimation that he isn't convinced she's staying sober.  The Book tells us that we shouldn't ever intimate that someone is drinking - it should always be left up to the member in question to make any statements about their behavior.

I've been noncommittal when this happens save for the occasional bromide about everyone doing the best they can and never knowing what might be going on in someone else's life that might help explain their behavior.  Today he waved me over as I passed him sitting at an outdoor table in a restaurant and complained in great detail about the rudeness of the waiter who was not explaining in enough detail all of his questions about the menu.  All of his picayune questions about the menu.  A lot of picayune questions.   A lot of unimportant, picayune questions about the menu.  The guy is having a fucking continental breakfast, for god's sake, how important is the exact composition of the fresh fruit on top of the yogurt.  It'll be a surprise, for god's sake.  I may have to say something next time he does this.  When someone is making a simple situation complicated it's hard for me to listen to the whining.  We really do create most of our own problems and if we aren't creating we're making little irritations into bigger ones with all of our nitpicking.  He reminded me of a garrulous old man bitching about the shape of the world today.

I'm telling you I'm always learning new stuff.