Posted by Racer on November 4, 2005, at 20:40:17
OK, it seems that there has been some confusion lately, so I'm going to try to clear this up, once and for all. I do this purely as a service to others.
1. If the garbage truck passes you on the right on the freeway, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE! Honest. Those signs saying things like "Slower Traffic Keep Right" really and truly do apply to you.
2. If you're driving exactly the speed limit in the fast lane because that's as fast as anyone can *legally* drive, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE. And you have an attitude problem.
3. If you are stopped at the beginning of an aisle in a parking lot, waiting for a space, don't be surprised when people want to go around you. In fact, it would be considered polite to wait to one side of the aisle, rather than smack dab in the middle where you block everyone else.
3A -- blocking the entire aisle is not polite because others really and truly do have the right to use the parking lot, too.
4. If you are waiting at the beginning of that parking lot aisle, and someone goes around you to take the empty space that was there all along just three spaces up from you -- the one that you apparently found too far away to bother with -- YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HONK AND SWEAR AT THEM. Period. End of discussion. If you had bothered to look for a space before stopping in the middle of the aisle and blocking traffic, you would have seen it. As well as the three other spaces beyond it. They weren't hiding.
4A -- No, you're not allowed to give that person dirty looks, either. Whoever took that space was apparently willing to walk a few feet farther than you were. It was your choice. Now you get to live with the consequences.
5. If you are looking for a parking space at the local Costco, and you see a middle aged woman struggling to load four large cases of bottled water into the trunk of her car, you are not allowed to honk at her to hurry up. Especially if you are a young man. Especially if you are a young man with the buffed arms of someone who works out a lot. Especially if you're blocking the aisle so that no one else can get by.
5A -- Hey! You want that space? Instead of the one three spaces away? And you want it now? Ask if you can help get that water into the trunk. I'll bet she'll let you help her. Might even say "Thank you."
5B -- If you are the middle aged woman, on getting those bottles into your trunk, you are allowed -- nay, encouraged -- to take your own sweet time finding a place to leave your shopping cart and starting your car.
6. If you are driving on the freeway, and you are talking on your cell phone, and you are not using a headset of some sort, and the telephone call is so engrossing that you speed up during the exciting parts, and then slow down again during the more mundane parts -- consider hiring a driver. Enough said.
7. On a dark, one lane highway in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, with heavy traffic, don't try to commit vehicular sodomy on the car in front of you to make it speed up. It's quite possible that the driver ahead of you is really and truly driving as fast as she can in those conditions. What's more, if she's driving the speed limit, you're fundamentally wrong to menace her.
8. No matter how bad your day was, it is Not OK to chase another car through freeway traffic with your high beams on just because the driver of that car tried to tell you that you had your high beams on. If you do this, you're just an @$$.
9. You'll get where you're going even if you're courteous to other drivers. Often, you'll get there feeling better about yourself and the world if you're courteous to other drivers. Some times, you won't get there at all if you're not courteous. Is it worth it to arrive six seconds sooner?
OK, I feel a bit better now. I'll sit quietly in the corner now...
poster:Racer
thread:575498
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20051029/msgs/575498.html