cantankerosity | - Part 6

May 042014
 
Disney - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Image by Express Monorail via Flickr

New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Mark Twain

Coots are ready for 2011

Well, it’s almost New Years Eve and the Coots are ready for 2011. Not that we are complaining about 2010, mind you. It’s been a fine year. First Justin got the hair-brained idea that there was a market for cantankerosity and then built a stable of cranky, opinionated guys to do the work. Between maintaining his virtuosity on the kettle bells, running his web commerce sites and adding a fourth kid to his household, he has a full plate. Well, the man is obviously a genius. Coot’s isn’t even a year old but each month sees the readers growing as does his stable of hacks.

The Team of Hacks

So far, Justin has snagged me and Bob into regular participation and occasional posts from Jen to give a feminine touch. Over the year , I have enjoyed the opportunity to release my inner curmudgeon- letting it all hang out so to speak. It surprised me that saying what you really think is harder than you would think. There have been times when I have had to sweat in order to dredge up feelings suppressed by years of employment. I find that I actually do have some opinions and that they aren’t the ones I see in the news. As I get older and free from the constraints of a job, I’m finding that the more I see, the less I like.

Bob, the newest addition to Justin’s stable is a young pup too but the man has a lot of experience under his belt for his tender years. He has taken some hard knocks and popped right back up. He has had lots of experience and has done his share of pushing the envelope, surprising me and maybe even himself at every turn. And the man has opinions that just won’t stop. I can make an outrageous statement and he can come back in a second to bury my puny outrage with an avalanche of pure cantankerosity. I can’t imagine what Bob will be able to do when he gets a few years on him.

Looking forward

As the year winds down for the team at Coots, we are just getting our second wind. We have learned some things and forgot some others, We have gotten some things right but we are still clueless about  many others. For 2011, we want to take Coots to new heights of cantankerosity. We want to make Coot’s University a real resource for those who are cantankerously challenged. And we want to get down to your core where true cantanerosity begins and shake up all that conventional wisdom. Our loyal readers deserve no less.

Happy New Year

On behalf of all the Coots, I wish you a very cantankerous New Year. The world needs more people to say “Hey, wait a minute. That makes no sense!” when they listen to the news. It needs more people to tell it like it is. It needs more people to stop taking crap and smiling about it. It needs you. You know it’s true. You know you’re a pussy. So make a resolution to make Cantankerous Old Coots a regular read in 2011.

And give us feedback.

Finally, Coot’s want you to tell us what you need. What do you enjoy most from Coots and what could we do to increase your enjoyment and help you become a Cantankerous Old Coot (whatever your age)? Is there a cantankerous corner that we have missed? Let us know.

Life at the Top!

 Posted by at 10:51  Coot Law, rants
Apr 252014
 
Fans galore!

“Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed.”

Jonathon Swift

Cantankerous Old Coots has been an engaging journey. It’s been well over a year since Justin started this blog and I jumped into water way over my head trying to save him from his folly. Along the way we’ve tried a few things that we thought might be crowd pleasers. We developed Coot’s lessons to help the cantankerously impaired develop their full potential as coots. We even started Cantankerous Old Coots University (COCU) for serious students of cantankerosity, anticipating a mad rush for enrollment. We thought Coots would serve as a meeting place for square pegs sick of squeezing into round holes, a community of Coots exchanging spirited comments. Continue reading »

Apr 142014
 

Unbelievable as it seems, not everyone is cut out for cantankerosity. Conformity is seductive at any stage of life. The risks of taking the road less traveled and leaving the herd behind can seem too overwhelming. The temptation to settle for boring conformity always beckons at the first sign of trouble. Only the willful and pigheaded will persevere and move forward.

Walter Mitty

Relase your inner Walter Mitty

If you are in that majority, you have two choices. You can rationalize or you can surrender. The Cantankerous Old Coots accept you either way. We don’t criticize. We don’t blame. We don’t demean. We merely observe. Going along makes the world go round. It keeps the trains running on time. It pays the bills. We understand. That is why we created Lessons for Sanctimonious Old Sheep.  Go ahead and Embrace the Conformity.

If you are a committed go-alonger then the Cantankerous Old Coots say ‘More power to you’ and :Good Luck’ because you probably won’t be happy spending much time here. If, however, within you there is just a glimmer of cantankerous wannabeism, we say ‘Stick around’. Let you inner Walter Mitty indulge fantasies of cantankerosity while you live a life of deadly conformity. Let your fantasies run wild. Imagine yourself in cantankerous full form from time to time. Who knows? One day it might just break loose. Indulge those fantasies by reading the Cantankerous Old Coots Lessons.

Apr 022014
 
Groundhog Day 2005 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
Image via Wikipedia

I hope everyone had a good break from the regular cantankerosity and enjoyed Heathers work.  She has some good rants on things us other Coots don’t think about.

Is anyone else out there getting tired of winter?  I know it has been very erratic around much of the US and still continues to be…strange weather to say the least.  Next Wednesday the weather prognosticator of all prognosticators will make his debut and tell us all whether we can look forward to 6 more weeks of winter or not.
Continue reading »

Apr 022014
 
Lesson One

Lesson One

Back in the day, when Justin and I created Cantankerous Old Coots we were naive. I won’t speak for Justin but, for sure, I was naive. I misjudged our audience. I thought that everyone aspired to be a cantankerous old coot. All they needed was inspiration and a little nudge to move on from their bland, complacency to outright rebellion against conventional go-alongism. Now, nearly four years later it is apparent that go-alongism isn’t so easily dismissed. We have readers aplenty but along the way, only one hardy soul embraced our mission and neither Justin nor I would dare to claim that Bob was inspired by the content at COC. Bob is an original piece of work and an inspiration to Cantankerous Old Coots everywhere, even though lifestyle change has limited his contributions lately. Life moves. Even Justin the mastermind behind COC has turned his attention elsewhere leaving me to hold down the fort. So, in the absence of leadership from the top, I’m stepping into the void to attempt a bit of refocus.

Is it time to throw in the towel? Given the number of years COC has been blazing a trail of non-conformity, you might conclude that everything new has been said. How much creativity can one Coot stir up? Maybe it’s time to retire? That’s what bland conventionalists would say but Cantankerous Old Coots aren’t bland conventionalists. Conventional Old Coots see an opportunity and are prepared to seize it. Continue reading »