Grumpy Rant #46873
Aug 12
Grumpy Rants grumpy 6 Comments
As I get older, I never cease to be amazed at the petty selfishness of your average human being as he or she goes about their daily tasks. I just popped up to the post office and, as often happens, all the streets within quick walking distance were bumper-to-bumper with parked cars. Except, that is, for one space which could have comfortably accommodated two and a half cars, which a woman had just parked her 4WD smack bang in the middle of. As she walked from her car I pulled up and politely mentioned that she had taken up two large spaces and that it wasn’t very considerate.
Of course, the modern method of dealing with any problem that is your fault immediately kicked in–denial. Not “you know, you’re right, I wasn’t thinking” or a slightly embarrassed “whoops, sorry, I’ll repark”. No, she gazed like a stunned mullet at her car and muttered some excuse about needing the room to back up. I kid you not, if she needed that amount of room to park, she must spend half her life looking for parking spaces in Sydney. I sighed, said “forgedabouddit” and drove off. I found a place to park a few streets away. Hell, at least I got a little exercise.
Now, is it just me that finds that selfishness annoying? Every time I park my car I think about other people, making sure that I’m not taking up unnecessary space that can be used by others.
#46873 of a continuing series.
Aug 12, 2008 @ 12:01:20
I keep meaning to print up some SUV-ready bumper-stickers reading ‘This car is morbidly obese’ and go on a sticky-backed rampage through south London.
Aug 12, 2008 @ 12:07:48
Funny you should mention that, yesterday it crossed my mind that someone should slap ‘this person is morbidly obese’ stickers on people—it would require a hell of a print run around this neighbourhood …!
Aug 14, 2008 @ 07:23:10
Be thankful you don’t live in the U.S. At best you would have been cursed out for daring to tell someone they had done something inappropriate, at worst you would have been shot.
Aug 14, 2008 @ 19:05:19
I’m lucky, as I have a pretty small car (3.8m) and need only about 30cm extra to park, so I can cram myself into some pretty small spots. Spots most people think don’t fit my car. So they think they’re parked comfortably. And then I put my car in there, and they have a hard time getting out. Not my problem, I have no problem with parking in tiny spots, I actually enjoy the challenge it brings 🙂
Aug 24, 2008 @ 14:45:48
Mate, you live in Sydney. If clueless people driving gas guzzlers are still a surprise to you, then I’ve got a sweet deals on some magic beans that should interest you. 😛
Aug 27, 2008 @ 18:50:52
Traffic ethics always gets my blood boiling. Case in point, just from driving to work this morning:
– I need to turn left and the opposite lane is full.. everybody goes bumper to bumper, preventing my left turn, and promptly creating a line behind me, so now traffic is backed up in both directions.
– Me allowing a merge. Waving one car into the traffic, and the next four cars promptly jam their collective asses into that one slot, without waiting for the next slot (apparently, the one slot I make ahead of me is the only one left in this decade)
Parking.. same as original post, except it seems that even with marked slots, with nice ( I think) quite visible white lines.. those lines seem to never match up with the car…
Oh and as a final remark.. ever noticed that the size of the asshole grows relative to the size of the vehicle?