Proof That God is Punishing Me for My Sins...

While in my booth at the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn the weekend before Thanksgiving I received proof that God is vengeful, wrathful and just plain mean.  I know I was being punished for all of my mortal sins...my booth was placed in close proximity to the most dreaded sound that heralds the approaching holidays.  I was within 50 feet of the Salvation Army bell ringer...aaarrghhh!!!  For eight hours on Saturday and seven hours on Sunday I was plagued by the incessant, mono-toned, ringing of the lone brass bell.  The guy never took so much as a five minute break to smoke, eat, or even make a trip to the men's room.  It was constant and loud enough to be heard over the voices of the crowd and the slightly off-tune efforts of the local high school band wheezily playing 20 year old pop-tunes.  The reverberating clang bored into my brain via my poor ear canals and left a permanent bruise upon my grey matter.  I heard it in my car as I drove home.  I heard it ringing in my head as I was attempting to fall asleep at night.  I heard it while I was waiting for my Sunday morning toast to pop up.  I felt like the unfortunate muscle pictured above...with a splitting headache and in need of a champagne "patch"!! Don't get me wrong...I fully support the Salvation Army and all that they do to help those in need.  I just with maybe they'd re-think the whole bell ringing thing...maybe a nice catchy show-tune instead??