Waiting for angels?

You know you're reaching the end of your tether when you find yourself talking to a ram ...

A nos moutons...as the end of another day finds me headachy and tetchy despite the good walk on which I met this handsome fellow. Having made up another largish box of presents to post, I decided that maybe mid-morning would be less busy at the post office, and got myself up there before elevenses - only to find that once again there was a queue round the wall and into the shop (remember, our Post Office is now at one end of the Co-op). I'd not been there long, was just trying to make up my mind if the man in front was someone I knew or not, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman join the queue behind me. I thought nothing of it until she coughed - and I turned round to see her standing about 18" behind me, not wearing a mask. Before I knew what I was doing, I said "We're supposed to be six feet apart ... and you're not wearing a mask ... and you're coughing!" 

Reader, she was not happy. She backed off with a face meant to express surprise at my reaction. As I mentioned the mask - because there were gaps in my recognition of all this - she pulled up a buff that was round her neck and said "There you are then - will that do?" and then added "There's always one" (rolling her eyes exaggeratedly). I have to confess that I was on the verge of a proper barney - I'm not short of suitable expletives, but tend to attempt restraint in public - but merely repeated that she had been standing far too close and coughing over me. "And don't speak to me like that!" she yelled. By now, people were watching ... so I just said firmly, best teacher voice, "I spoke to you like that because you were RUDE." Can I confess now that I really, really wanted to say that it was because she was a stupid, selfish (supply your own pejorative noun)? 

And it was really because of the tension generated by this encounter that, after lunch, I met my pal in Glen Massan, where we fairly stormed up the road to the upper glen, talking non-stop above the noise of the burn which is still pretty full. It was in an awful muddy field that we encountered this rather splendid creature. He seemed interested in us rather than the crowd of ewes who kept a respectful distance - look at those eyes! Anyway, we asked him if he was expecting to see any angels soon, and wished him a merry Christmas, and left.

Still feeling the effects of the continuing uncertainty about what we're doing next week - along, I imagine, with all the other people who are neither virtue-signalling nor brazen on social media. But I have to say that I'm becoming ever more grateful for the sane and sympathetic people I'm meeting on this site. If we were in a movie, we'd all meet up, safely vaccinated, in some rather splendid bar some day, and toast each other for the community we are ...

Cheers!