As if the usual level of stupidity that seems to run deep through our society wasn't bad enough already, yesterday, it was ramped up to an even higher level.
Now, I know I can be accused of being inordinately grumpy on an otherwise good day. Yesterday wasn't one of those good days.
It started when I went to the gym in the afternoon for my three-times weekly cardio session. It was crowded on the indoor track, which always irritates me, because people seem to forget their manners when passing. This was no exception. I witnessed not one or two people going down the middle of the two lanes, but three and four people at a time. They weren't passing anyone either, they were just walking that way normally, as if they had rented the whole track for themselves for the afternoon.
Then, after I left the gym, I exited the parking lot and was confronted with the sight of a tractor trailer parked in one of the street lanes. PARKED! People had to cross fully into the opposite lane to get around the truck and trailer.
Later in the evening, I headed to the gas station to fill up my tank. Everyone seemed to have had the exact same idea, without any idea of the best way to do that. Rather than rounding the pumps in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion, drivers went in whichever direction they wanted, just weaving in and out of pump stations however they pleased.
After about 10 minutes or so, I finally was able to back up to a vacant pump. While the pump filled up my tank, I was washing my windows. As I came around the outer corner of my vehicle, I just barely saw another car zip into the parking lot and aim for the vacant pump behind my vehicle. Good thing I saw him, because I know the driver never saw me. He never even glanced in my direction as he squealed to a stop, three feet past the edge of the pump station. Did he care how close he came to flattening me? Apparently not.
Fast-forward 20 minutes later. My wife and I pull into the grocery store parking lot. It's about 8:45pm, so the sun has gone down and it's dark out. I pulled the SUV into a spot at the far end of the parking lot (we actually like to walk), right next to a light post. I shut off the vehicle, and my wife starts to open her door and step out. Fortunately, I was looking over at her at the time, because as she opened the door, I caught a flash of headlights in the passenger side mirror. I shouted at my wife, "LOOK OUT," and yanked her back. She still had her hand on the door handle and was able to yank the door back in as I yanked her back. This was good, because the fool driver in another SUV flew through the row of spaces, into the space next to us, missing our passenger side by six inches.
If I hadn't seen the headlights and pulled my wife back, the other SUV would have killed her. The driver knew it, too. I saw her glance over, wide-eyed, as she paused in the space next to us and then kept drifting forward until she was two rows away from us.
If it hadn't been for the fact that I was concerned about my shaken wife and wanted to make sure she was alright, I would have walked up to the other SUV and torn the driver a new one. She would have deserved it. Honestly, people should have to pass a common sense test before they're issued a driver's license. I have a feeling that most people would fail, and vehicle accident fatalities would drop like a stone.
And then, to top off the night, when we were checking ourselves out at the grocery store, my wife stepped away from the self-scanner to get her purse from the cart next to me, and this woman walks up behind her. She plunks down her pint of ice cream and two candy bars, and proceeds to try to scan them. When my wife turned back, she told the woman we weren't finished yet. The woman actually didn't want to back up and remove her items from the scanning area.
Please, someone tell me, what is wrong with some people?!
By the time we got home last night, my wife and I were just thankful to be home again, finally, and in one piece.
--Statler, moderator
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