AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS BALLAD…..
IT’S SENIOR DAY at THE SUPERMARKET!
(ACTUALLY THIS DAY SHALL GO DOWN IN SUPERMARKET HISTORY!!!)
Decades and more decades ago and O.K., throw in a few more decades. Bingo!
Time to Meet:
AMERICA’S FINEST ADDLEPADERS!
Gemini
Shopping Day at the supermarket reveals to us a bound and determined population of a certain age that take a once a week excursion for staples and foodstuffs.
Gemini
Yep, we are talking Seniors, and, an especially augmented chunk of really, really old Seniors. Believe it or not, this herculean bunch keep advancing by the multitudes —— it’s like an ensuing tidal wave. I speak with conviction because in reality——I am part of this ecospecies. We are everywhere, wandering in and out of most of the activities that the rest of the world does daily. Yep, some of us are in our cars, still driving fifteen miles an hour——lost——! Be cognizant if you have one driving behind you, (even more seriously, if one is in front of you). Be ready to stop on a dime!
Copilot
Our heroes and heroines are piled onto buses on their way to the supermarket. They are prepared to take charge and connect with bags full of bargains.(Bargains are a way of life!)
Gemini
Remember circling round and round in those department store revolving doors when they were so crowded you could not get out to enter the store. That’s right——some of them are still there——going in circles. PoorDarlings!
Copilot
Yes, the weekly Senior Bus full of fossils has launched the long-lived to bolt (try and get your basket before others) to the basket line-up of their rickety and rusted trolley baskets. Another dynamic shopping day begins. A whistle blows——Start your baskets Senior Shoppers——GO! Success! Those baskets were whipped around and pronto, eyes forward——elbows out, advance! Forward propulsion, ye over-the-hill shoppers!
Chat GPT
Oh boy and force-with, watch out for the sweet smiles of those who are sunnily pushing their supermarket baskets, Remember the ones with the sweet smiles, especially remember their radiant and genial grins, the ones with their baskets so full of groceries they can barely push or see over the top, but, in a hot minute, if they need to move, basket and all, (trust me) they can ram forward with the force of a jet engine.
ChatGPT
Unfortunately, some of the supermarket carts do not turn corners smoothly, well barely at all, especially the rusty ones. If more than one cart wishes to complete a turn near a wall, that’s trouble. It’s highly important to achieve a firm grip and, wait, count to ten very slowly and remember this is not the Indianapolis Speedway.
ChatGPT
You must politely wait your turn to turn. But just in case you spot a renegade in the group, prepare for a possible altercation. In point of pride, you might just as well yell, “sally forth” and go for the win. There are a lot of pluses at being the instigator. (Ambulances are usually waiting outside during Senior Bus Days.) One old dodderer lost his dental bridge. (The sky’s the limit!)
Last week, we made the evening news. The headline said, “The First Supermarket Tournament of Champions” took place today. A bunch of tottering seniors pushing Rusty Super Market Carts swerved together making a Sharp Right Turn.
ChatGPT
Whoops!
A Massive Collision Collided!” Of course, each and every oldie was attempting to be first in line. They were not paying attention. They came from the sides, they came from the back and….
Guess What?
The first two collided!
Gemini
They were coming forward, fast. The crowd followed. Oh Dear, Oh Dear!
Regrettably the groceries in the carts also missed, they detonated!
Gobs of groceries flew far and wide and amazingly those doddering geriatrics came up smiling including the ones with Cheerios in their hairdo’s. Chocolate pudding landed on shoulders, mixed with Rice Roni and dribbling down clothing. To make it worse bits of lettuce fluttered and floated and stuck to the ground meat with the ground meat ending up stuck in the cart’s mini little openings. It was a most astonishing feat. Bus boys were drafted into opening boxes of plastic raincoats to cover those slushy antediluvian over the hill bodies.
Copilot
Apparently every Senior in the store joined the melee, you should see those venerable golden agers move. Lots of little aggressions were soothed and smoothed out last Wednesday. Plus, the razzle-dazzle sounds of those carts vigorously merging was spectacular! A musical crescendo!
Gemini
“The Newport News” Evening Gossip Section: (An untidy skirmish and reprehensible altercation happened today at the A. to Z. Grocery Warehouse when an assemblage of Senior Grocery Shoppers Carts filled with their victuals terrifyingly converged onto each other and into a wall.) The carts were a mass of jumbles, the conglomeration of Seniors victorious. Typical human nature, some were scooping up the Cheerio’s and putting them in their pockets and purses. (You know if they were five year olds, their parents would have given them a “time-out.”) Unfortunately, those scooper-uppers were the parents of parents. What to do with them?
Actually, they loved the shopping basket challenge they created! FYI: The Supermarket ordered 75 new grocery carts with rubber rims, rubber handles and balloon wheels!
The winner, Susie Q. Mountbatten was awarded a New York steak and said ramming baskets at full speed was a far superior way to strengthen her arm and leg muscles. Much better, than using the bar bells at her retiremehome exercise facility.
Susie Q. is 95!”
Gemini
P.S. The Retirement Home picked up the best broken carts from the junk yard for exercise time at the Home—It was a triumph. Those Seniors could get rid of their aggressions by pushing the carts into a new rubber wall at the Home.
Chat GPT
The Retirement Home changed its name to “THE NEVER ANY WORRIES SENIOR SANCTUARY!”
We offer our residents “NO FEARS, NO FRETS, NO FUSSES!”
(Complimentary competitions and chances to join Relay Shopping Cart Teams!)
SY’S SALIENT POINTS: AI has rained upon and into and around our lives. And an umbrella cannot keep it out or off. To use it intelligently takes research and learning. I recently attended a lecture with a panel offering insightful knowledge that computers can converse, understand and fluently create manuscript in human language. The value of AI should be focused on technical enhancement rather than just repetitive cognitive offloading and copying. In my above blog I used the three main AI technology programs to technologically and hopefully enhance my shopping day ditty with humor. I was always curious to see how each cartoon would turnout and it was an entertaining study, but I still want to understand the basic fundamentals and learn to collaborate with my “machine-computer’ and not copy AI information in a verbatim manner.
Matt Karl teaches an excellent AI Class presently at LCG. He leads the class with a mix of warmth and practical wit, stripping away the hype to reveal AI’s everyday utility. He doesn’t lecture on “neural networks”; instead, he treats AI as a digital Swiss Army knife tailored for the golden years. Prioritizing digital literacy, he teaches us to trust our gut and verify AI’s claims with a healthy dose of skepticism. In his classroom, AI isn’t a daunting frontier—it’s just a new way to stay curious, independent, and connected.
Happy Springtime Darling Blaire