Crisis i the Dining room

I would not believe this is I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.  The dining room here is populated with round tables for 4 people each.  You spend lots of time just at the table because of the way   they cook and deliver the meals to the 100 or so diners.  Obvilusly it is a big job.  If you are on the wrong end you will have to wait to eat.  Dinner may be set for 5 pm but not brought out until 5:30  or later perhaps in extreme circumstances.  Breakfast starts at 7 but that s for cereal, 7:30 drinks, and breakfast 8:00 unless it is not late which it usually is for our table.  So as each meal takes a lot of time a large part of the day is waiting for something to  eat if you follow their schedule.  One guy comes at around 7 each day.  He is on my right.  Another guy on my left may come early too.  Today however we came and the table had been moved a couple feet and the place settings turned 45 degrees because behind me they had a new inmate at the table  and there was not enough room for another chair behind me.  Even the lady on the right of the new person behind me has to ask me to move because there is not enough room for her to get by me even without a person in a chair there.

All  I had to do for the new arrangement was to move a little to the left leaving enough room. However  the two guys also had to move and that just made them furious.  I sat down in my new place but when the guy on my left came in and saw the new arrangement he blew his top.  I suppose he had sat in that spot an by george and he was not going to move.  He also said he did not want to sit that close to me because he was not going to move.  So I went back to my old position but left my name card in it's new position.  Several days later we are still in this  arrangement because the lady who was to come went to the hospital and has not been back. It will stay  this way until someone has to sit at the next table and the problem has to be solved. I have only seen this kind of reaction of two old men in the movies or on TV.  I didn't think it possible. 

There seems to be the belief that when someone gets old all you have do do is find a place to put them, provide some activities to keep him busy and  that's that.  Problem solved.  That is not the way it works.This person has spent their lives bringing up kids, Working decades to provide for them, worrying over them in sickness and health, Every minute of their  whole life revolved around them, now when they are old you can not just dump them in a retirement center or rest home and think they can be happy without any contact with what was their life.  As long as there is family around even though they do not visit the longing is there.  That's the way it is. 

One problem at dinner is that the two old timers there at the table is they don't seem to want to talk.  So I got a Walkman and can listen to the radio if there is no conversation. They seem to be loosening up somewhat because I volunteered to look up the submarine he was on the USS Ramora and get some pictures of it.  I found the submarine on the internet but could not get a picture because the printer may be kaput.  But he seemed to appreciate it and seemed more loose with conversation.  The other guy may be the way he is because he has trouble speaking.