People are Assholes
I'm supposed to be blogging more, social media'ing less. Or, at least that's my New Year's resolution this year. Technically, I made it for only January, but I want to try and stretch it out a little. We'll see.
Anywho, I'm here today hoping to tell you about assholes. You know, those people without regard for others, who only think of themselves, who can't see any other perspective than their own and hold the rest of the world accountable for not adhering to their perspective.
Earlier today we were leaving the neighborhood, stopping at a red light as we wait for traffic so we can turn from the local street onto the three lane westbound street. As we're sitting there waiting a truck with a trailer makes the westbound turn from the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the person in the truck didn't have the items on the trailer properly tied down and a couple of windows - you know, those vinyl framed ones - fell off shattering all over two lanes of westbound traffic.
So, I jump out of the car (I was the passenger) and run over to the vinyl frames. At that particular moment the light had changed leaving westbound fairly free of traffic, so I stepped into the road and grabbed one of the frames and pulled it onto the sidewalk. Now, you have to understand, these frames are about 5 feet long and two to two-and-half feet wide, whatever the standard width of windows is these days. Consequently, they weren't as light as I thought and with the remaining glass, I actually struggled to pull the first frame off the road before a car came screaming by.
Then a car came screaming by. What the hell? I'm not a small person and this stuff was in the road and no one could slow down enough or change lanes to give me time to get off the road? What's worse was when someone finally did slow down the people behind him started honking their horns. Well, I'm sorry people, the guy was trying not to kill me - no need to honk at him.
I got the first piece on the sidewalk and stepped out to grab the second one. Cars came, crunching the glass as they went by, not slowing or stopping when they saw the windows in the road and not stopping or slowing when they saw the Jason in the road, either. I was finally able to get both window frames off the road and onto the sidewalk, then pulled them from the sidewalk and onto the grass to keep the sidewalk from being blocked for pedestrians and bicyclists. I even grabbed a road hazard sign from a nearby construction job site (the electric company is upgrading their lines near the intersection) and placed it on the sidewalk to let people know to be on the lookout for hazards, in particular broken glass.
The whole time I'm doing this my friend was sitting in the car - at the intersection - with her hazard blinkers on. The traffic piling up behind her was becoming very antsy, honking their horns, flipping my friend off if they didn't just outright scream obscenities at her. All for nothing more than waiting for me to make the road safe and passable.
People are assholes.
At one point the driver of the van that lost the windows came walking back up the sidewalk from where he'd apparently pulled the van over a block ahead. He thanked me for clearing up the mess then claimed he'd tied the windows down securely with two separate straps. He grabbed one of the window frames and carried it back towards where he pulled his van over. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why he didn't just turn the van around but wrote it off as too cumbersome with the trailer trying to cross three lanes of oncoming traffic and then having to turn around again. I figured he was coming to clean up the rest of the mess: ie: take the window frames and maybe sweep up any glass, so I got back into the car after showing him where I found the sign so he could put it back where it belonged.
[addendum]
This morning (the next day) I was driving by the scene and noticed the man in the van had left one and about a quarter of the windows sitting in the grass where I pulled them aside. I thought he would return for the rest of his mess but apparently he didn't. After relating to my friend that the remaining window frame and glass was left near the sidewalk she said, "He probably only took the one to prove to his boss he didn't steal it."
So, not only did he make the mess, but he didn't stop or return in a timely manner to clean it up and even after I pulled all the debris from the road he still didn't even take his own garbage with him, leaving the windows for, who? Garbage men? City road crews? A good Samaritan? I guess the market will take care if it.
People are assholes.
Anywho, I'm here today hoping to tell you about assholes. You know, those people without regard for others, who only think of themselves, who can't see any other perspective than their own and hold the rest of the world accountable for not adhering to their perspective.
Earlier today we were leaving the neighborhood, stopping at a red light as we wait for traffic so we can turn from the local street onto the three lane westbound street. As we're sitting there waiting a truck with a trailer makes the westbound turn from the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the person in the truck didn't have the items on the trailer properly tied down and a couple of windows - you know, those vinyl framed ones - fell off shattering all over two lanes of westbound traffic.
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Then a car came screaming by. What the hell? I'm not a small person and this stuff was in the road and no one could slow down enough or change lanes to give me time to get off the road? What's worse was when someone finally did slow down the people behind him started honking their horns. Well, I'm sorry people, the guy was trying not to kill me - no need to honk at him.
I got the first piece on the sidewalk and stepped out to grab the second one. Cars came, crunching the glass as they went by, not slowing or stopping when they saw the windows in the road and not stopping or slowing when they saw the Jason in the road, either. I was finally able to get both window frames off the road and onto the sidewalk, then pulled them from the sidewalk and onto the grass to keep the sidewalk from being blocked for pedestrians and bicyclists. I even grabbed a road hazard sign from a nearby construction job site (the electric company is upgrading their lines near the intersection) and placed it on the sidewalk to let people know to be on the lookout for hazards, in particular broken glass.
The whole time I'm doing this my friend was sitting in the car - at the intersection - with her hazard blinkers on. The traffic piling up behind her was becoming very antsy, honking their horns, flipping my friend off if they didn't just outright scream obscenities at her. All for nothing more than waiting for me to make the road safe and passable.
People are assholes.
At one point the driver of the van that lost the windows came walking back up the sidewalk from where he'd apparently pulled the van over a block ahead. He thanked me for clearing up the mess then claimed he'd tied the windows down securely with two separate straps. He grabbed one of the window frames and carried it back towards where he pulled his van over. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why he didn't just turn the van around but wrote it off as too cumbersome with the trailer trying to cross three lanes of oncoming traffic and then having to turn around again. I figured he was coming to clean up the rest of the mess: ie: take the window frames and maybe sweep up any glass, so I got back into the car after showing him where I found the sign so he could put it back where it belonged.
[addendum]
This morning (the next day) I was driving by the scene and noticed the man in the van had left one and about a quarter of the windows sitting in the grass where I pulled them aside. I thought he would return for the rest of his mess but apparently he didn't. After relating to my friend that the remaining window frame and glass was left near the sidewalk she said, "He probably only took the one to prove to his boss he didn't steal it."
So, not only did he make the mess, but he didn't stop or return in a timely manner to clean it up and even after I pulled all the debris from the road he still didn't even take his own garbage with him, leaving the windows for, who? Garbage men? City road crews? A good Samaritan? I guess the market will take care if it.
People are assholes.
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