Today’s rant
Gonna be an asshole for a few minutes, so bear with me. I have a question for you all. We’re all in this together right? This life? This city? Work? etc. Why must individuals feel they are the only people who matter sometimes. Why must people go through their day without thinking about their fellow man/woman or the person sitting next to them. It is kinda of like that commercial that keeps showing people helping each other.
Well, today I had one of those moments where I saw two people being just asses. This couple were rolling their child across the Hawthorne bridge in one of those larger sporty strollers. The problem I had with them was that they were strolling down the middle of the combined pedestrian/bicycle path with absolutely no regard for others moving over the bridge. We were all walking east. When you walk east, the signs on the bridge state that pedestrians should be on the left, bikes on the right. When these asshats were walking down the middle, the bikes were forced to either stop or risk falling into traffic. I saw a few bikers get of their bikes just to accommodate these clowns.
I am not saying a biker has more rights on the bridge than peds. I’m not saying peds have more rights than bikes. What I am saying is that we all should share the space and by walking down the middle when you could be to the left – that is not sharing. That is crap. When I passed the couple, I passed on the left and suggested they move to their left because the bikes come fast. I was trying to sound suggestive and cautionary and yet they sneered and stayed in the middle. Grrr!
Sorry to burst your bubble – but no, we’re *not* all in this together.
Yeah, I was expecting such a response from you RAH. Even though I don’t know you, know that I would help you out in a bind and so would others. Not everybody is a hater.
Ooh, rants!
Mine for this week would be the inevitable guy on the bus who thinks he’s so much a beautiful and unique snowflake that he’s not required to move down the aisle to make room for new passengers, instead forcing everyone else to try to squeeze past him and his backpack.
And also the idiot driver who thought that honking their horn would magically enable the car in front of them to pull into the intersection without either (1) illegally and inconveniently ending up stuck in the middle of the intersection and/or (2) attempting to occupy the same space as another vehicle, an act prohibited by the laws of physics.
Unfortunately, there’s a class of people who still don’t understand that they a) don’t travel within their own bubble of personal space that all must respect, and b) think their needs/wishes/desires trump all.
Hence, the friends who run into each other at the Farmer’s Market and proceed to have a conversation right in the middle of the aisle, obstructing traffic trying to move both ways.
The people who finish their meal, pay the bill – then ask their server for four large glasses of water and then settle in for social time (this in a crowded casual restaurant, where people are standing not more than 3 feet from them waiting patiently for a table – *their* table, to be exact.)
And my favorite – the person at the red light who only signals that he’s turning left after the light changes to green (extra bonus points if he’s occupying the entire road so that the cars behind him can’t even squeeze by on the right and/or never bothers to use his signal, yet just stays there like a lump.)
I don’t care what your mother might have told you – you’re not the most privileged person in the whole wide world, and you *do* need to figure out how to play nice with others!
oh, forgot to add the two bicyclists who crammed onto a very crowded train and then at the next stop when a wheelchair attempted to get on, they wouldn’t budge until others on the train chided them into moving.
AMEN. I get so f**king pissed when people are so clueless and oblivious to the world around them, or the people that inhabit the same space. It happens on the sidewalks around town too… I’ve had to step off into the grass, flower beds, or just stop because some people walk 2 or 3, shoulder to shoulder.
I’d like to add… Don’t talk on your cell phone when you’re ordering food or other counter service. Dude, common sense. I will ignore you until you put down the bejeweled RAZR phone, so don’t EVEN give me the ‘stink-eye’…
TKrueg, you hit the nail on the head. Whenever we’re at a bar or restaurant and someone answers their phone and proceeds to have a conversation right there, we immediately begin talking loudly about how we wished we were important enough to get cell phone calls during lunch. We also throw olives at them (not true, but it has been a suggestion.)
Yes, god forbid that someone have a conversation on a cell phone in a public place. The moment someone threw an olive at me, larger items would get thrown right back at ’em – and then I’d complain to the proprietor of the establishment.
If someone can’t talk on a cell phone in a public place, then everyone else should have to shut up too.
My point is that some people don’t just talk on the cell phone. They YELL or they keep asking the same question over and over – can you hear me? There are still so many users of cell phones who have no idea how they work and are even scared of them. When the celly is ringing at its loudest volume during dinner, they are the ones who either ignore it or grab it and stare at the number until it stops ringing as if it is an alien being.
Seriously, if you and your date or friend were sitting next to me and yelling at each other or you were sitting there talking to yourself but yelling, I would comment or make snarky statements.
TKrueg, you are so right on the sidewalk thing. And they walk 3 across coming TOWARDS you also! I’ve even stood my ground a couple of times, taking the charging call just to get thier attention. It almost becomes a game of chicken sometimes.