Special Snowflake Stories

[Shalamar]

Hee.  It was on the warm-ish side, so hard to say one way or t'other.

[Julian]

I went to pick up Housemate at the airport once.  I sent her a message because I couldn't find her (at our tiny wee airport), and got the response that she was at the 'pickle packing' area. 

Yeah, auto correct was at it again.  It was supposed to be 'passenger pickup'.

[Piratelvr1121]

But pickle packing is pretty funny!

We don't have auto correct on our phones, so I'm not sure how this came about, but once DH texted me to say our son (middle) tried to set the house on fire. I asked how and DH said "He was trying to heat a slice of people in the microwave." 

I quipped "I didn't realize soylent green came in slices" but alas, dh didn't get the joke because he's never seen that movie or heard the classic line "Soylent green...is PEOPLE!!"

[Diane AKA Traska]

Passenger pickup proactively permutated to pickle packing?  Prior to passenger pickup, or post pathfinding pilgrimage? 

[ica171]

The other day DH and I were talking about, of all things, asbestos removal, and he told me about an SS he once knew who thought rules were there to be broken. He was renovating his house, ripped out a lot of asbestos wearing just a dust mask (no suit or respiration) and then threw it on his lawn. Then, when he took it to the tip (dump) complained that the operators rightly wouldn't accept it as it was asbestos.

He told DH that he ought that paying someone to specially take it away and dispose of it was a waste of money and time.

I hope, that when he removed it that he was the only one there! Asbestos dust can sit for years in your lungs before it comes back to kill you.

When we needed some asbestos removed a LOT of people advised us to save money by taking it to the tip hidden underneath other rubbish. I suppose tip workers and other people dumping their rubbish can just go to heck as far as these people were concerned. It really changed how I thought of them.

I was once reading a blog about a couple renovating an older home. They had a room with asbestos tile floor and they wanted to dispose of it the right way. They packaged it up as per the regulations, but they were having a heck of a time finding a place that would take it. Finally they found a dump a significant distance away that would take asbestos. So they went out, paid $125 to dispose of their hazardous waste, and...it went into the regular dump.

[norrina]

I suspect that our neighbors aren't being SS so much as just inconsiderate, and that we're actually the SS for being annoyed at the situation, but here goes anyhow.

DF and I rent a home in a townhome community. There are only 9 parking spots in front of our cluster of 5 units, and parking is not assigned, although every unit has one spot directly in front of the walkway to that unit's front door. There is additional parking diagonally across the little street that runs through the community, in front of the communal fields and ponds. DF and I have 2 cars, but he rarely drives his car, so we park it in one of the spaces in front of the fields, to leave the spots in front of our cluster available for the residents. Our neighbors immediately adjacent to us have a minimum of 3 cars parked in front of the cluster at any given time though, and this means that I also usually end up parking in front of the fields as well since all the parking directly in front of our unit is occupied by the neighbors' vehicles. While I don't love that, I recognize it as part of not having assigned parking. What bothers me more is that they pull their vehicle so far back that it is overlapping our walkway, forcing me to cut across the grass, usually in high heels, to get to my front door. And it isn't just one particular vehicle parked like this, it appears to be every single driver that lives at or visits that particular home. DF actually talked to them about that, which I probably would not have done and may have made him a SS, but nothing has changed anyhow.

What really irked me though was what happened today. I was gone for the morning, and came home to find that our neighbors had 5 vehicles present today, and had parked them in front of and blocking our walkway, their own walkway, and 2 other neighbors' walkways. So I thought that was fairly inconsiderate, since 3 sets of residents now had to cut across the grass to get to their home because of the vehicles parked too far back into the parking space and hanging over onto the walkways.

THEN, not too long after I got home I heard people talking outside my front window and saw that the neighbors looked like they might be getting ready to leave. So I watched them a bit, because if they moved one of the cars near our unit I wanted to repark my car as I had some things to unload that I didn't feel like carrying from where I had had to park in front of the fields. A couple people got into one of the vehicles, a large pickup truck, and backed out of the parking space. Then they stopped, now perpendicular to and directly across the narrow street through our community, fully blocking the road to travel. A few other people came up to the trucked, and conversed through the open window with the truck's occupants. Then the passenger got out, and went into the home for something. Then the driver got out, and two other people came up to the driver, and they all lit up their cigarettes and stood around and chatted a bit... They did leave before anyone actually came driving along the street.

So, to summarize:
(1) Neighbors consistently park in such a way as to block the walkway to our front door,
(2) Neighbors today parked 5 vehicles in such a way as to block the walkway to our front door, their front door, and two other neighbors' front doors, and
(3) Neighbors unparked one vehicle then left it to idle completely blocking the street through our townhome community while they chatted and enjoyed a cigarette

[kherbert05]

Norrina check your local codes and the townhouse rules. If the walkways are along a public blocking the sidewalk with your car might be be something that gets you a ticket.


If it is a walk way along the private drive/road belonging to the townhouses they might have rules about blocking the sidewalk.


I don't think your being an SS for wanting to be able to walk on a level surface to your house. My sister's neighbors were another issue.


It is both illegal to block the sidewalk where sis lives and almost impossible to park anything bigger than a compact in your drive way and not be in the sidewalk's space as it crosses your driveway.


So Sis had a neighbor that complained about Mom's SUV being in Sis's drive because the bumper was in the sidewalk's path (you could walk around on the apron of the driveway without stepping into the street). Cop came by told sis it was illegal. So they parked the SUV in the street. Same neighbor complained that it was a hazard. It was fine. Same neighbor screamed at sis and Mom's home help aid because they pulled it into the drive for 10 minutes to load our mother who was using a wheelchair at that point. She reduced my MOm to tears.


Mom passed away. There was some stuff at Sis's that belonged to me. I pulled my car into her drive way. My bumper was above the sidewalks space but horror of horrors I put the boxes down on the ground and "blocked" the sidewalk just as she was walking by (Sis said she patroled the  neighborhood walking around and around all day). She screamed at me and I told her fine call a cop. Put the boxes in my trunk. Sis stays outside. Lady walks on. Next door neighbor comes out. I go inside to get the last thing. I walk out and next door neighbor sees me and starts screaming blood murder that she is going to call the cops.


Please remember I live in Texas - it is perfectly legal for me to have my (formally my Dad's) 22 rifle in the yard especially since it is unloaded, pointed down not at anyone, and I'm putting it in my car to take home. Also I've had gun safety drilled into my head since I as born. I'm always careful. 


That weekend next door neighbor's husband talks to my BIL asking what type of gun it was. BIL tells him a 22 and it was unloaded. Neighbor's husband starts laughing. Said by the time his wife got into the house it had turned into a high calibar automatic rifle in her head. She was convinced that I should have been holding it over my shoulder - like in the movies. We all went to school together. Honestly I doubt she knows anything about guns not learned from CSI or Law and Order. Neighbor's husband had to talk her down from calling the cops.

[norrina]

Norrina check your local codes and the townhouse rules. If the walkways are along a public blocking the sidewalk with your car might be be something that gets you a ticket.


If it is a walk way along the private drive/road belonging to the townhouses they might have rules about blocking the sidewalk.

Thank you kherbert. We don't have public sidewalks, or even private sidewalks. It's just individual concrete block walkways leading from the parking spaces to the front doors of the town homes. Like so (|p| = parking space, \ = walkway, H = house (front door)):
———————
    STREET
———————
|p|p|p|p|p|p|
  \     \  \     \
   H    H H    H

I will definitely look into whether the rental office has a position on blocking the walkways. I know our lease is silent on the matter though. If all else fails, I may consider placing a 6x6 or a couple cement blocks as a makeshift parking block to make it more difficult to pull forward far enough to block the walkway.

[norrina]

Same neighbors have now decided to START their partying at 12:02am (hey, it's officially St. Patty's Day, right?). In the backyard area that is directly below all the master bedrooms in our unit. There's a fire pit going, so I guess they plan to be out there for a while, and since they're outside they clearly see no reason to use their inside voices.

[mmswm]

Same neighbors have now decided to START their partying at 12:02am (hey, it's officially St. Patty's Day, right?). In the backyard area that is directly below all the master bedrooms in our unit. There's a fire pit going, so I guess they plan to be out there for a while, and since they're outside they clearly see no reason to use their inside voices.

I would be very surprised if there aren't any noise ordinances in your city/county that would address this situation.  Maybe a call to the non-emergency line would be helpful. 

[norrina]

Same neighbors have now decided to START their partying at 12:02am (hey, it's officially St. Patty's Day, right?). In the backyard area that is directly below all the master bedrooms in our unit. There's a fire pit going, so I guess they plan to be out there for a while, and since they're outside they clearly see no reason to use their inside voices.

I would be very surprised if there aren't any noise ordinances in your city/county that would address this situation.  Maybe a call to the non-emergency line would be helpful. 

I'm sure there are, but our thought was that with the number of people celebrating St. Patty's Day a day early the police department was probably pretty overworked with responding to the partyers out on the roads, and that's more important than our peace and quiet.

They actually went back in pretty quickly (with the firepit still burning, which is a whole other issue, and they're firemen), and surprisingly enough we couldn't hear them after that. These walls are paper thin and the past few nights we've heard one of the couples over there arguing at 1 AM, and there drum-heavy music of choice at about the same time, so maybe they actually realized they should be a bit quieter in the wee hours of the morning.

[Yarnspinner]

Okay, I didn't know if this was Snowflake Material or Impossible Request Material.  I chose snowflake because the patron's behavior just got more and more entitled as the week went  on.  (And also, he indirectly was the cause of me getting chewed out--and getting everyone else chewed out--for gossip.)

Background:  Because of the skyhigh incidence of theft of certain magazines, newspapers and journals, we have to keep them behind the desk and put dummy copies on the shelves.  The patrons have to ask for these and leave ID (usually their library cards) until they have finished with the item and returned it to us.  Until we instituted this system, even the local paper (which we spend about $200 monthly for a ten paper subscription) was gone before noon the same day we set them out in the reading area.

Now, MOST people have library cards that they leave with us.  But then there are those special snowflakes who I can only surmise, get library cards, stuff them in their wallets and purses, then go home and remove the library card and either cut it up for an art project or say "This is much too valuable an item to carry around in my wallet/purse.  I shall leave it at home whenever I go to the library."  These are the people who have to produce a picture ID so we can give them the number of the library card they don't think they need to check books out or get on the computer. 

So at the beginning of this week, two different men and a copy of the same issue of the same magazine.  They both gave their driver's licenses to one of my young coworkers.  You can see where this is going.  Not to excuse the guys, but Monday (and the rest of the week for that matter) saw the heaviest concentration of people with Actual Information Requests ever...in addition to the usual overload of people who want the computers to cook dinner for them and don't understand why this can't happen.  So, very busy.  Mr. Jones returned HIS copy of the magazine and received his driver's license.  When Mr. Smith returned with HIS copy, you guessed it...we learned that my young coworker had inadvertantly given Mr. Smith's ID to Mr. Jones. 

Mr. Smith promptly had a meltdown about how stupid we are and how irresponsible and how we didn't give a darn about him or his troubles and on and on...this, despite the fact that one coworker was paging Mr. Jones, coworker two was apologizing profusely for the error and I was on the phone calling everyone we could think of (everyone in the phone book with the last name Jones, the DMV, 4ll and even the condo complex where Mr. Jones lived, trying t track him down.)

Inspite of this, we had to get one of the higher ups to talk to him where he reiterated how no one was owning up to doing this (again, despite the fact that coworker was saying over and over, Mr. Smith, I am so sorry.  It was totally my fault) and that none of us were trying to help him.  (Inspite of the fact that we were cold calling total strangers and asking if they were related to Aloyuisius Jones.)  He wanted our heads on platters.  He wanted us fired!  We targeted him personally.

The supervisor, being the person she is, symathized with him completely, chastized us for even taking ID cards ("This poor man has lost a $75 license because you are all afraid of losing a two dollar magazine!") and told him we would pay to replace his license if we couldn't get Mr. Jones.

Tuesday, Mr. Smith called and promptly sailed into another tirade about how irresponsible we are, how inept, how mean and uncaring and so on....a coworker sent around an email advising us all of what Mr. Smith had said.  At that point I was annoyed that my team's mistake was being recited as us being evil and inept and lazy.  So I sent out an email that stated as much and added "I really do not know what more he can expect.  We have done X, Y, AND Z, we have all apologized for doing this, even those of us who didn't, we have offered the following solutions, we are going to pay for his license and short of getting Mr. Jones' picture blown up and stapled to every telephone pole, I don't know more he expects.  We are already groveling, does he want us all to get fired as well?  I understand he is upset, I would be, too, but accusing people of targeting him or deliberately losing the card is unfair and the implication that we don't care and won't take responsibility is patently untrue."

Five minutes later the Sympathizing Supervisor lit into me for "unprofessionally gossiping" about Mr. Smith and I should be a lot more careful to keep my negativity to myself.

She then called Mr. Smith invited him in and gave him the money to buy a new license. 

Yesterday Mr. Jones was in.  When my young coworker saw him, he wept with joy, related the story and Mr. Jones went wide eyed.  He's an elderly, frail and really very sweet guy.  He glanced at the license and said "I had no idea!  Guess it's a good thing I didn't get into an accident!"

He got his license back and I called Mr. Smith. 

Mr Smith was overjoyed, but hesitated when I said "Now, I know you already got your new license, but I thought you would want this one back right away so you could do with it as you see fit."  "Well, I haven't had the chance to go and get my new card," he finally said "but I don't think I should have to give the money back.  I lost time from work, pain and suffering..."  "Oh," I told him "no, we want you to keep the money.  We just wanted you to know that Mr. Jones was back and that he didn't even realize he had your card and he's returned it and we have it for you."  "Oh, okay!  Gee thanks.  You people really went the extra mile for me!"

Sure we did.  We put up with being called irresponsible (bad names), being accused of purposely stealing your ID, being threatened with being fired and generally being railed at by a supervisor.  YOU got your card back, plus almost one hundred dollars that you can now spend on whatever you like.

P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

[JoW]

.....
.......
P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

Smith is an all-purpose jerk.  Complaining is reaspmable, but he went far beyond reasonable   

I suspect he works 2nd or 3rd shift somewhere.  He's using the library as his living room.  But if thats true he didn't need to take time off work to replace his driver's licence.

[gramma dishes]

.....
.......
P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

Smith is an all-purpose jerk.  Complaining is reaspmable, but he went far beyond reasonable   

I suspect he works 2nd or 3rd shift somewhere.  He's using the library as his living room.  But if thats true he didn't need to take time off work to replace his driver's licence.

And he didn't!   

[alkira6]

.....
.......
P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

Dealing with people like this is the reason why I still play the lotto so that I can afford to be a hermit and live off of things I order from Amazon and EBAY.

Smith is an all-purpose jerk.  Complaining is reaspmable, but he went far beyond reasonable   

I suspect he works 2nd or 3rd shift somewhere.  He's using the library as his living room.  But if thats true he didn't need to take time off work to replace his driver's licence.

And he didn't!