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Re: Bees and Other Stingers
I had a friend in college whose younger brother was also attending that same college. One day, while we were all outside talking, a bee drifted up. Now, I know I'm not allergic because I've been stung several times when younger (once when I sat on a bee that got tangled in my skirt). However, I don't like to be stung, so I take special caution around them. I don't make sudden movements, and if I can't or don't want to move away from the area, I gently move my hands to try to "usher" the stinger away. Hasn't failed me yet.
Friend's Younger Brother, however, saw the bee and started flailing his arms about madly, leaping around and whining plaintively. I told him to hold still or he was going to get stung, and his reply was, and I quote, "But I'm allergic to bees!"
I almost did a facepalm as I told him that was all the more reason to stop leaping about like a deranged monkey. I don't recall if I ever got through to him.
Re: Wal-Mart
I feel like I'm in the minority here, since I hold no real enmity for the establishment itself and only for a small percentage of the clientele (of which I've seen very similar types at other stores, so I don't believe Wal-Mart, at least around here, is the suck-magnet it's made out to be).
I, too, get annoyed by the people who stop in the foyer between doors and rearrange things, hold a conversation, etc. Same goes for the people who take up the entire width of an aisle while looking for That One Special Item, or who manage to take up a whole aisle while walking. I actually encountered two of the latter yesterday when I went to pick up a bit of extras. Two ladies just wide enough and just spaced out enough that there was no way around them with my own cart. I stuck to one side, avoiding their cart, and kept going slowly so the lady without the cart could slow down and get behind her friend briefly. Did she? No. I nearly hit the second lady because she waited until the last possible moment to squeeze herself between the two carts, rather than get behind her friend like a sensible person. Oi.
I've managed to train myself off of looking for the closest possible parking space, instead focusing on parking near cart corrals to make my trip that much easier (because I don't have to wander far from the car and my baby to return the cart). Once I sat and waited for my "ideal" parking space while someone loaded up their car next to it, before I surfaced from the brain fart and pulled into a different, not-much-further-away space.
Which leads me to wonder, what is it about the cart corrals that makes so many people avoid them? And it always seems to be the spaces closed to the corral that get abandoned carts in them, while the further reaches of the lot seem remarkably cart-free. I swear, the number of abandoned carts in parking spaces seems to increase exponentially the closer you get to the corral, yet the corral seems woefully empty and lonely. I once saw no less than five carts sitting haphazardly in the space right next to the corral. So several someones could dump their carts there, but couldn't walk ten more feet to put them in a corral?
My biggest parking lot pet peeve, though, are the ones designed in such a way that it's easier to drive across the lanes and parking spaces than along the driving lanes. The one here isn't such a bad offender of this, though I've had some people barrel across the spaces so they wouldn't have to wait at the stop sign and could actually be in front of me at the light. Time saved = 0 seconds. The worst offender was the one I frequented in Utah. From the main entrance, you had to turn left or right, past other cars, to follow the driving lane. Straight ahead, however, were empty parking spaces. Most people didn't bother to turn and use the driving lanes; they drove straight across some six or seven lanes to get even with the store entrances. I kept telling Hubby they really needed to put a cement island there to stop that, since it caused so many near-accidents it was scary.
I had a friend in college whose younger brother was also attending that same college. One day, while we were all outside talking, a bee drifted up. Now, I know I'm not allergic because I've been stung several times when younger (once when I sat on a bee that got tangled in my skirt). However, I don't like to be stung, so I take special caution around them. I don't make sudden movements, and if I can't or don't want to move away from the area, I gently move my hands to try to "usher" the stinger away. Hasn't failed me yet.
Friend's Younger Brother, however, saw the bee and started flailing his arms about madly, leaping around and whining plaintively. I told him to hold still or he was going to get stung, and his reply was, and I quote, "But I'm allergic to bees!"
I almost did a facepalm as I told him that was all the more reason to stop leaping about like a deranged monkey. I don't recall if I ever got through to him.
Re: Wal-Mart
I feel like I'm in the minority here, since I hold no real enmity for the establishment itself and only for a small percentage of the clientele (of which I've seen very similar types at other stores, so I don't believe Wal-Mart, at least around here, is the suck-magnet it's made out to be).
I, too, get annoyed by the people who stop in the foyer between doors and rearrange things, hold a conversation, etc. Same goes for the people who take up the entire width of an aisle while looking for That One Special Item, or who manage to take up a whole aisle while walking. I actually encountered two of the latter yesterday when I went to pick up a bit of extras. Two ladies just wide enough and just spaced out enough that there was no way around them with my own cart. I stuck to one side, avoiding their cart, and kept going slowly so the lady without the cart could slow down and get behind her friend briefly. Did she? No. I nearly hit the second lady because she waited until the last possible moment to squeeze herself between the two carts, rather than get behind her friend like a sensible person. Oi.
I've managed to train myself off of looking for the closest possible parking space, instead focusing on parking near cart corrals to make my trip that much easier (because I don't have to wander far from the car and my baby to return the cart). Once I sat and waited for my "ideal" parking space while someone loaded up their car next to it, before I surfaced from the brain fart and pulled into a different, not-much-further-away space.
Which leads me to wonder, what is it about the cart corrals that makes so many people avoid them? And it always seems to be the spaces closed to the corral that get abandoned carts in them, while the further reaches of the lot seem remarkably cart-free. I swear, the number of abandoned carts in parking spaces seems to increase exponentially the closer you get to the corral, yet the corral seems woefully empty and lonely. I once saw no less than five carts sitting haphazardly in the space right next to the corral. So several someones could dump their carts there, but couldn't walk ten more feet to put them in a corral?
My biggest parking lot pet peeve, though, are the ones designed in such a way that it's easier to drive across the lanes and parking spaces than along the driving lanes. The one here isn't such a bad offender of this, though I've had some people barrel across the spaces so they wouldn't have to wait at the stop sign and could actually be in front of me at the light. Time saved = 0 seconds. The worst offender was the one I frequented in Utah. From the main entrance, you had to turn left or right, past other cars, to follow the driving lane. Straight ahead, however, were empty parking spaces. Most people didn't bother to turn and use the driving lanes; they drove straight across some six or seven lanes to get even with the store entrances. I kept telling Hubby they really needed to put a cement island there to stop that, since it caused so many near-accidents it was scary.
She was not a happy camper.
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