Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Non-verbal Encounters with Random People


 Image result for obliviot walking with earbuds
Driving along Independence Street.  A man/boy, perhaps 17, wearing earbuds in both ears and looking neither to his left nor to his right, stepped off the curb and ambled across the street directly in front of my moving vehicle.  I got stopped, of course? and he strolled on totally oblivious and unaware of my presence, I guess.

I drove on nearly to the end of the block, saw a parking space I wanted and started backing into said space.  A grown man, gray bearded, walked along the sidewalk, stepped directly behind my moving vehicle and cut across the vacant parking spot to get to his vehicle which was behind that space.  I stopped, of course? and waited until he cleared my path then proceeded to park-- close to his truck so he would have to back up to get out, of course!

I was presented with the platinum opportunity to off or seriously maim two of my fellow-human beings in the space of  less than one-half-block.  I didn't.

Idiocy reigns.

Happy birthday to my eldest child, Ann Marie,
and to my brother-in-law, Elvin!



7 comments:

Secondary Roads said...

For many folk these days, the motto seems to be, "All for me and me for me."

Grace said...

@Secondary Roads - Or as my mother used to say "Hooray for me, the hell with you"

vanilla said...

Chuck, in the case of the obliviot, had I been going three mph faster, or had he stepped off when I was five feet closer, it would have been lights out for him.

Grace, yep, that is the world in which we live.

Lin said...

And if you had hit either, they would have sued the pants off ya. And win. arrggh.

I had a teen on a bike ride directly across 4 lanes of traffic just as the light turned green for us to go. I couldn't catch my breath for a block or two.

vanilla said...

Lin, oh, yes I would have been the loser all the way around. Doesn't this stuff happen just entirely too often?

Sharkbytes said...

Lots of close encounters. Of the idiot kind. But scary

vanilla said...

Sharkey, admonition: keep your eyes open and your wits sharp.