They were gritting last night

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At the risk of coming over all Peter Kay, I noticed the gritters last night. Time was when I saw gritters, I got all excited. It meant it was cold, which meant it might SNOW! And then I cud do lots of SNOWMEN AND FITES.

Then in my aloof teenage years, references to gritting passed me by as the minutiae of tedium indused lives.

Last night, I became my parents. I noticed the gritter out on the road. I turned to my housemate and went 'ooooh, they're gritting...' and trailed the comment off. The trail off is a coda for 'This is shocking news. It will be cold tonight, so the car will be hard to start tomorrow morning. The windows will need to be de-iced. The roads will be slippy. This is bad news indeed.'

I found this worrying as I don't have a car. I just assumed the symbolic mandate of my parents, and gritting was something I suddenly had an opinion on. And it was bad, as cold snaps are not good since society breaks down, anarchy is unleashed etc. Oh dear. I ph34r I have crossed a rubicon.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't yet feel like i am becoming my parents, but i definitely feel myself thinking 'old' a lot of the time. especially concerning my health - i'm starting to understand why there's the stereotype of fogies sitting around the home discussing their gout and arthritis :-(

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Did your housemate nod nervously and start slowly backing away, making placating gestures with his/her hands and glancing around for the nearest exit? Because, without context, "Oooh, they're gritting..." strikes me as a fairly mental thing to drop into conversation.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

At least you didn't come all over Peter Kay

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Tracer - I set em up, you bang em in.

Dang - It wasn't dropped in apropos of nothing; there was a quiet lull in conversation when I noticed the gritter and pointed this out. He didn't look at me as if I were a mentalist, because my comment has implications for the weather which is intuitively understood by all true born Englishmen.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

weather is indeed for old people, Dave B

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

= I am old. Sob.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be old if you need someone else to bang it in for you.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

It's just like having a runner in cricket.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

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