"HI GUYS, TABLE FOR TWO?"
"AHH BUD, WOULD YOU MIND POPPING THE HOOD?"

You've gone out to dinner. Whether a Doggie Diner or a fru-fru place, no doubt the wait person has greeted you, "Hi guys!" First words out of my mouth in return, "We're not guys." because the wife is definitely not one of the guys.

If I had one of those same sex marriages, "Hi Guys!" would be okay. Same sex marriage would never happen to totally hetero Bob. It's hellalot better to pitch than to catch.

Last month I had the oil changed on one of the vehicles. It wasn't long before I was being referred to as "Bud" by one of Oil Can Henry's finest.

Bud? I wasn't a "bud" to this 20 something year old man-child.

Soon afterwards I wrote a letter to the owner of Oil Can Henry's complaining. For a worker child to refer to a customer as "bud" was unacceptable.

The owner was very apologetic in a return letter. His worker had no idea that calling a customer BUD more than twice his age was offensive. The manager understood and said it would never happen again.

Never happen again? Well, not at this place of business.

I've been called "dude" a couple of times while shopping this past month.

These people mean well. Yes, they want to be friendly. But they know nothing about appropriate greetings.

We had dinner out last night at a place that you could call fancy for Cow Town. Real table cloths. Waiters in tuxedos. It would be a nice place anywhere.

First thing in the door, "Hi guys, do you have reservations?" Cringe. Yes, but we're not guys! The host could have said, "Good evening" instead of "Hi guys!".

Is this another indication that our culture is going to hell in a handbasket or is it just me being a snob? I've always been one to respect anyone older than me. Calling that person "dude", "guy", "bud" or whatever never seemed as being appropriate.

If a lot of people objected to being greeted this way I suppose these types of greetings would eventually stop. Instead they're becoming more common place.

I had a nice sirloin dinner last night. The other "guy" with me also known as Candace, had chicken marsala. House wine was horrible. After sending the first glass back and tasting another, I said to hell with it and let it sit. My martini before dinner was good (hard to ever screw up a Blue Saphire that is shaken and not stirred).

For a couple of "guys" we had a good time.

Next time a service person calls you guy, dude or bud, what's going to be your comeback?

I know what mine is going to be. . .


P.S. This is Blog #125. Happy anniversary, BUD!