A Fun (and Sighting) Filled Weekend

[myswtghst]

On Saturday, I ran a few errands for my mom, that included running into the grocery store for a few containers of yogurt for grandma, and running to Walgreens to pick up a birthday card for my cousin. And as is common in chain stores on weekends, I had a few sightings.

While you have a lovely singing voice...

...the greeting card aisle in Walgreens is certainly not the place to showcase it. As I'm trying to get to the humorous Hallmark cards, I wind up standing quite close to a middle-aged woman, who is also looking at the display. And singing along, not terribly quietly, to the oldies music on the radio. Granted, I know and love this music, and sing along to it when, say, in the car, or hanging out with my dad. I do not, however, sing along, loudly, while standing very close to a stranger in a store. And as she's singing, she's moving ever closer to me. As in, into my bubble close.

Oh, and after her cell phone went off LOUDLY playing Coldplay as the ring tone, and she talked, again, quite loudly on the phone for a few moments, still standing very close to me, she resumed her singing. And I decided I could go browse the candy aisle and wait until she left to finish my shopping for cards.


All you have to say is "excuse me"

I cannot stand when people, especially adults, can't seem to just open their mouths to say excuse me. Don't stare at me angrily, or give me cat butt face, just because I can't read your mind.

Case in point: I'm standing at the yogurt case in the grocery store, with a guy stocking to my left, and a pallet of yogurt pretty close behind me. Mini diagram below, but basically, there was just barely room for a cart behind me.

--------Yogurt Case--------
Stock Guy Me Old guy with cart and no manners

--------Pallet----------------

As I'm selecting yogurt for grandma, based on mom's suggestions, from a complete mess of a display (i.e. no flavors were where they were labeled to be), old guy with cart and no manners walks up next to me. And pushes his cart nearly into my hip. Then stands there and stares angrily at me. I ignore him, and continue digging for yogurt. He continues staring, and eventually pushes his cart behind me, as best he can, meaning I'm basically in the yogurt display, almost sitting on his cart.

Now, if he'd simply said excuse me, and as I knew I'd be taking a few minutes to work out what I needed, I'd have moved right on out of his way. But no, he stood, stared, then completely invaded my personal space, and didn't say a word the entire time, just made angry faces at me.

I respect my elders, sure, but I also expect them to at least work with me here - all you had to say was "excuse me!"


Learn to drive!

After the above adventures, I head to my parents' house, excited about the lovely dinner mom and I are making. And as I turn into the neighborhood, the following happens.

*The setup is I'm on a main-ish road, stopping at an intersection with a three-way stop, to turn left onto a smaller neighborhood road with houses on each side.*

I pull up to the three-way stop, and see on the road I'm about to turn left onto, an AT&T pickup truck chilling at the curb near a house. He appears to be staying there, so after making a complete stop and using my blinker, I turn left onto the road into the neighborhood. As I pull up next to the AT&T truck, he decides that now is a good time to pull out onto the road, and basically forces me into the middle of the road, and just drives along next to me, like nothing abnormal is going on.

He turned right pretty quickly while I continued straight, but I wish I hadn't been so shocked, as I would've gotten the truck # and called the company to report it. Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic, and it's a wide "two-lane" road, but still. A little common sense people? Are we not taught to look before pulling out into potential traffic?

[Andara Bledin]

On that AT&T guy, you can still report him. After all, if he was on a scheduled stop, they'll know who it was that was assigned it.

On the greeting card serenader, it sounds like she might be a bit hearing impaired and doesn't quite get that she's that loud. Some people are in denial, and others just don't realize it until it's pointed out.

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Coldplay=musical prozac.

Just thought I would point that out.

[Kogarashi]

Are we not taught to look before pulling out into potential traffic?

Apparently not.

Hubby and I went on Adventures (tm) two Saturdays ago, which included a trip to the mall to get Baby's 1-year photos taken. I saw no fewer than three traffic stupidities/near-accidents over the course of the trip, one of which tried to make us an intimate part of things. ::twitch::

The first was while we were waiting to turn left onto a highway on-ramp. The lane to our right had a green light, giving them permission to go past the highway's corresponding off-ramp, which had a red light. Someone turning right-on-red off the off-ramp nearly T-boned someone who was going straight with the green light, because they couldn't be bothered to pay attention to traffic or even come to a complete stop before making their turn.

I don't quite remember the second. It must've been too horrible. I think it had to do with someone trying to merge into someone else without looking first.

The third was the one that tried to involve us, and the one that most closely resembles your AT&T incident.

We were driving on a two-lane road (one lane either direction, no turn lanes) to get to one of our stops, and traffic was fairly moderate. Things suddenly slowed down amidst some apartment complexes as we encounter oncoming traffic, and it soon becomes apparent that there's a car waiting to turn left into an apartment parking lot. Left blinker and all, line of about seven cars behind it since the many cars and trucks coming from the other direction won't let it complete its turn.

Well, there's just enough room to the right of the car to drive mostly on the shoulder, partly on the road, and squeak by. The three cars in front of us do so. We approach in our big Jeep and start inching past, making sure to clear both Turn Guy (who's still stuck waiting) and the mailboxes to the right. We would've made it, too, but then Turn Guy suddenly decides he's tired of waiting and, without preamble, just starts driving forward, nearly taking off a chunk of bright red Jeep paint in the process. And proceeds to stop not fifteen feet ahead, again signalling left, this time to turn into a different parking lot. And this time there's no room to squeeze past, not that we would've tried after that stunt.

Of course, oncoming traffic clears up at that point, and Turn Guy proceeds to pull into the second parking lot and turn around so he can turn right into the original parking lot this time. And not once does he seem to acknowledge our presence.

[Andara Bledin]

This all reminds me of an incident I witnessed just the other day.

I was either getting on or off the freeway, and the lane I was in had just merged into another lane.

The person ahead of me was moving along when the person in the lane to the left suddenly decided he needed to change lanes. He starts moving over without any preamble of looking or anything and nearly runs into the guy ahead of me.

The guy ahead of me honks and swerves right to avoid being sideswiped, and slows down quite a bit. The guy moving over barely bats an eye and after a slight hesitation at the honk, just keeps on moving as if nothing in the world had happened. Ass.

^-.-^

[Triscuitty]

What is it with people merging and lane-changing? Every time I get on the freeway something like that happens to me. Maybe it's because I drive a small car and people think they can just force me out of their way?

One night I was driving home from visiting mom at the hospital, on the freeway; there are 3 lanes and I was in the far right because my exit was coming up. Pass an on-ramp, and I see there's only 1 car merging onto the freeway, and he's a bit behind me so I expect him to merge behind me. There was plenty of room for him to do so. Did he? No, he sped up and continued to drive in that merging lane until that lane ENDED, basically driving along next to me on the shoulder until I notice him, panic, and swerve into the middle lane to avoid a collision with him. Of course he wouldn't let me back into the right lane and I missed my exit.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Picture this: it's a dark & rainy night on a residential road that is only two lanes & twists and turns. You & your SO have had a nice supper & now you're on your way home. Suddenly there are oncoming headlights, in your lane!

That's right, some idiot decided to pass the car in front of him & when he saw us coming, he kept right on passing. My BF tested his car's brakes and swerved onto the shoulder. The car behind us swerved further onto the shoulder & managed to go around us. The car being passed put on brakes so doofus would get out of our lane.
yeah, alllll of that and then some. I am so glad BF has good reflexes & so did the guy behind us.

We had to go to the grocery store after that to buy some comfort food. Both of us were seriously stressed.

[bainsidhe]

The guy ahead of me honks and swerves right to avoid being sideswiped, and slows down quite a bit. The guy moving over barely bats an eye and after a slight hesitation at the honk, just keeps on moving as if nothing in the world had happened. Ass.
^-.-^

To be honest, I've been the "jerk" on occasion. I'll be merging or switching lanes and not realize someone is beside me or I'm cutting it too close. In my defense, I DO try to be careful and am a much more cautious driver than most people I know. If I'm honked at legitimately, there's little I can do except continue on and feel startled, embarressed and relieved that I didn't hit anyone. However, if I realize I'm merging INTO someone and I'm not completely into the new lane, I'll immediately swerve back. I don't automatically expect the world to move out of my way.

On a side note, to those whose response is to instantly scream and flip me the bird for whatever the transgression, perhaps you need to calm down or work out your anger issues. I most often see this in parking lots if someone has to wait for someone or slow down. I mean, grow up already.

[Pagan]

All you have to say is "excuse me"

I cannot stand when people, especially adults, can't seem to just open their mouths to say excuse me. Don't stare at me angrily, or give me cat butt face, just because I can't read your mind.

As I'm selecting yogurt for grandma, based on mom's suggestions, from a complete mess of a display (i.e. no flavors were where they were labeled to be), old guy with cart and no manners walks up next to me. And pushes his cart nearly into my hip. Then stands there and stares angrily at me. I ignore him, and continue digging for yogurt. He continues staring, and eventually pushes his cart behind me, as best he can, meaning I'm basically in the yogurt display, almost sitting on his cart.

Now, if he'd simply said excuse me, and as I knew I'd be taking a few minutes to work out what I needed, I'd have moved right on out of his way. But no, he stood, stared, then completely invaded my personal space, and didn't say a word the entire time, just made angry faces at me.

I respect my elders, sure, but I also expect them to at least work with me here - all you had to say was "excuse me!"

I had some hag do something very close to me at the store yesterday! I was perusing the ice cream pints to see if they had any Breyer's vanilla (See, I have these strawberries that are just begging to be made into a milkshake.) I was aware of a cart stopping to the left of me, but I thought she was looking in the next case. You know that feeling you get when someone's watching you? I look up to my left and there she is glaring at me! And she's one of those "I'm shopping after my oh-so-important office job now get the hell out my way because I'm better than you" types. Still wearing her business suit with tennis shoes. Well, the older I get, the bigger my mouth gets, and this came out, "Well excuse the hell out of me but you could have said something to me instead of glaring!" Here's her response: Look lady, I'm a full-time student, I work part-time, and I've got about 20+ hours of studying that I put in....you do not work any harder than I do. (Not to mention the fact that I have the potential to kill someone, can you do that at your job? No? Then STFU.)

As I pull up next to the AT&T truck, he decides that now is a good time to pull out onto the road, and basically forces me into the middle of the road, and just drives along next to me, like nothing abnormal is going on.

Don't you realize that, to these people and the ones that try to merge into you, in their world's, they are the only ones on the road?

[Andara Bledin]

I've had two situations with people merging into lanes that there wasn't enough room for them recently.

The other night, I was driving with my brother, and he started to move to the right. Only there was another car there. I noticed the car and gave him a warning, and he pulled back into the lane we were in. When we got up to the next signal, he gave a sheepish wave to the person he almost moved into, and the woman in the car just waved back! No hand-waving freaking-outery at all!

Then, just today, I'm on the freeway. I'm moving over to the left so that I stay on the freeway that I've just gotten on rather than taking the interchange that's coming up. So, I'm sitting in my lane, contemplating whether or not the guy to the left is far enough back that I can move over. Since he seems to be drifting even further back, I decide that it's a good time to move over.

Well, apparently, he was drifting back so the guy to the left could move right. I'm about half a car-length ahead of him, so I can't really see him that easily. I start changing lanes, and I see the flash of the guy's blinker as I'm double-checking to make sure I'm still clear, since this is rush hour at a busy interchange on a southern California freeway. So, I stop moving left and hit the gas so I'm well out of the other guy's way before I finish the lane change. He also finishes the lane change without incident.

He then moves over another lane to the right and honks at me as he passes. What a douche.

Not only that, but he wanted the interchange, for which he should have been in the correct lane a mile back, not fighting his way over through the hordes of people just getting on the freeway. Asshat.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

Not only that, but he wanted the interchange, for which he should have been in the correct lane a mile back, not fighting his way over through the hordes of people just getting on the freeway.

Welcome to Connecticut, land of last-minute lane changes.

(Yes, I know you said California.)

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, they're all over the place. Any place there are roads, there will be asshats who don't bother to get into the lane they need until the last possible second.

I actually got extra credit in my drivers' ed class (back when they were still in high school) for knowing why not to be in the middle split lane. None of the rest of the kids were very bright.

^-.-^

[myswtghst]

Oh, they're all over the place. Any place there are roads, there will be asshats who don't bother to get into the lane they need until the last possible second.

It's quite common in the midwest too. I've had a lot of driving time in MI, IN, IL, OH and WI, and it happens in ALL those places. Especially near Chicago, where the speed limit is apparently just a suggestion, and anyone driving less than 20mph over shouldn't be on the road.

The scariest accident I've ever witness actually happend because, at a point where two major highways merge, the two people driving in the lanes that were merging into one another decided they couldn't be bothered to check their blind spots/look before merging, and just merged in to one another. Would have been funny if it weren't so scary.