2013-01-11 – A story is told about an air traveler who founding himself seated next to an elderly man who was muttering to himself over and over: “Oy! Am I thirsty! Oy! Am I thirsty!”

As a polite American, the traveler tried to ignore the mantra, but it got to him. So he quietly spoke to the flight attendant, who soon asked the thirsty man if she could bring him something to drink. The man placed the order, received his drink, gulped it down, and seemed satisfied. But before long, he started muttering again, “Oy! Was I thirsty! Oy! Was I thirsty!”

I was reminded of this story today when my wife and I saw an old friend. My wife asked the friend about her shoulder. The friend asked my wife to repeat her question, not once, but twice, before she responded: “My shoulder is bad and my hearing is bad, too.” My wife said, “If I ever get like that, shoot me.”

But sometimes our complaints are our most precious possessions.

Have I told you about how much I’ve been coughing lately? And I’m really, really tired. And I can’t sleep.

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