We ran into a few, notably the fellow this afternoon at Trader Joe’s. I needed eggs, waiting patiently as he examined them. Then he examined some more. Being a hefty guy, he took up all the space in front of the egg display. I waited and rolled my eyes. He picked up yet another carton. He made no move to put anything in his cart. I gave up and moved on.

At Whole Foods a few days ago, I needed an item that was blocked by a woman on the phone. She was deep in conversation and had a list that was a legal-size sheet of paper, writing on both sides. Apparently there was some question about the price of needed items. If this was truly a concern, she was in the wrong store. Still, she loudly expressed her views on this and that, here and there, politics, religion - the while blocking my way. I decided that she would have been more organized had she not spent the last 45 hours working on her hair.