Special Snowflake Stories

[jane7166]

This isn't any specific story, but it's something I've noticed over the years in parking lots.  People just don't seem to hurry to get out of your way anymore, or maybe I'm noticing it a bit more.  Exceptions being people trying to corral little kids or people with limited mobility.  No, I'm talking about people who can move, but choose not to.

1.  Crossing the parking lot without looking to see if traffic is coming, then giving you the stink eye when they surprise you into slamming on your brakes.  Bonus points if they throw up one or both hands in a "The HECK you doing?!" gesture.

2.  Walking side-by-side in a slow amble, making you drive so slowly that it barely registers on your speedometer.

3.  Walking right in the middle of the drive aisle, cart or no cart, like they own the place.

I grew up learning that, if at all possible, you stay off to one side or jog to get out of the car's way.  When I worked at a store with a big parking lot, customers like this made me late, even when I left early to avoid it. 

A few weeks ago, I was making the turn into the driveway of a medical building when I encounter a woman in scrubs walking  slowly in the parking lot and heading directly towards the front of my car - texting.  I have a hybrid so my car doesn't make much noise.  She kept coming at me so I extremely gently tooted my horn and her head jerked up and she realized what was going on.  I was laughing because it just hit me as very funny.   She smiled, mouthed, "Sorry!" and moved over to the side of the driveway. 

[Winterlight]

I'm not sure if they were actually special snowflakes or just annoying (and maybe they had some good hidden reason though they appeared to have no problems with mobility) but I don't think that a very full bus (so that people have to stand) is the place to transport a bicycle, especially if it involves only travelling maybe 500 meters (and if they walked they could have taken a short cut), arguing with an old lady with a walker and some other passengers and passive aggressive sighing and counting to ten in a loud voice (to show how she was trying to calm her anger). She was also commenting to her companion about how it's always so difficult in Finland (the companion was a foreigner). With a little better attitude she might find things easier.

Did she actually bring the bike on the bus?

[Elfmama]

2.  Walking side-by-side in a slow amble, making you drive so slowly that it barely registers on your speedometer.

Please remember that not all handicaps are visible and/or qualify for handicap parking spots.  On my best days, my fastest pace is described as a "slow amble" by my DH.  He keeps pace with me in the parking lot to help if needed.

[kherbert05]

2.  Walking side-by-side in a slow amble, making you drive so slowly that it barely registers on your speedometer.

Please remember that not all handicaps are visible and/or qualify for handicap parking spots.  On my best days, my fastest pace is described as a "slow amble" by my DH.  He keeps pace with me in the parking lot to help if needed.

But I expect that you do not do this in the middle of the lane and you move over to let people drive by.

[CrochetFanatic]

2.  Walking side-by-side in a slow amble, making you drive so slowly that it barely registers on your speedometer.

Please remember that not all handicaps are visible and/or qualify for handicap parking spots.  On my best days, my fastest pace is described as a "slow amble" by my DH.  He keeps pace with me in the parking lot to help if needed.

I do understand that, and I try not to assume.  But it happens so often around where I live that it can't always be the case.

[MOM21SON]

I was in Walmart today.  I saw people moving from a line so I went to that line thinking they were in a hurry.  Well the customer had tons of WIC checks and had gotten the wrong items and the cashier was letting her/making her run back and forth to get the correct items.  It's walmart, not a convenience store!  Yeah, I was irritated but watched the show in amazement.  They seemed to be friends.

The store in my area is HUGE.

[rose red]

I just remembered a coworker who is very entitled, but it normally didn't affect me since we didn't do the same job.  Didn't affect me, that is, until my last day.  I was packing up personal belongings which included a nice foot stool, fan, and desktop supplies (I didn't like the ones they give us).  She said "You're giving those to me, right?"  She was deadly serious and was very shocked and annoyed with I said no. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

"Of course I am!  If you'll wait right here, my manservant James will be here to gift wrap the items in 24K gold, he just hasn't arrived yet.  Poor dear, the commute from Narnia is terrible this time of year, even by unicorn."

Wait, she *didn't* want a response from Snarky?

[siamesecat2965]

Several I saw yesterday. I was waiting to turn left onto a road, and on that road, to my left, I heard sirens, and saw an ambulance.  The light turned green, and while there probably could have been enough time for me to go, I waited.  But the three cars in the lane to my right, going straight, did not. All three zoomed across the road, the third literally just missing being t-boned by the ambulance.  All because they might ahve to wait for the NEXT cycle of the traffic light.

[Hollanda]

People who just stop dead in the middle of the path for no obvious reason. For example students!!!!!! Nottingham is full of students right now. Most of them do move if you say a polite "Excuse me please" but some just stand there and stare at you with the attitude of them"why should I move?". It drives me mad.

[littlebird]

This isn't any specific story, but it's something I've noticed over the years in parking lots.  People just don't seem to hurry to get out of your way anymore, or maybe I'm noticing it a bit more.  Exceptions being people trying to corral little kids or people with limited mobility.  No, I'm talking about people who can move, but choose not to.

1.  Crossing the parking lot without looking to see if traffic is coming, then giving you the stink eye when they surprise you into slamming on your brakes.  Bonus points if they throw up one or both hands in a "The HECK you doing?!" gesture.

2.  Walking side-by-side in a slow amble, making you drive so slowly that it barely registers on your speedometer.

3.  Walking right in the middle of the drive aisle, cart or no cart, like they own the place.

I grew up learning that, if at all possible, you stay off to one side or jog to get out of the car's way.  When I worked at a store with a big parking lot, customers like this made me late, even when I left early to avoid it. 

Or people who cross at a long diagonal on the road instead of straight across. To be specific:
A young woman crossing in front of the gym who started out in the crosswalk... and ended up 15 feet further down the road, walking slowly the entire time and holding up an increasing amount of traffic. She was, you see, texting (or doing something with her phone) on the way to the gym, and the entrance is not in direct line with the crosswalk...

[Miss Misha]

I present to you a PSA prompted by someone I saw driving today:

Please, do not speak on your phone while driving. If you must, please do not "speak with your hands" (the person you are speaking with will not see your gestures anyhow). If you are driving with one hand at your ear and the other waving in the air, somehow maneuvering with your knee (I assume) then at LEAST keep your eyes on the road, not on the half dozen papers spread on your steering wheel and dashboard.

Catching up on the thread, so I apologize for the lateness of my response.

And also don't try and look at your printed, multipage directions while driving your convertible, with the top down, at 65 MPH.  Saw that yesterday.  It really didn't work so well.

[Tea Drinker]

Which begs a question. In a situation like this were you go through customs before boarding the flight into the US - what happens when the flight is canceled. Do you have to leave through Canadian Customs?

I had this happen once, though without the special snowflake nonsense: just a day of bad weather, and eventually was told I (and lots of other people) would have to be rebooked on a flight the next day. I exited through Canadian Customs, in the sense that I talked to a customs officer, but they had special paperwork to use for this situation, because I obviously wasn't bringing anything from the U.S. into Canada.

As it happened, I hadn't packed an extra day's change of clothes (other than underwear), so I went back to the airport in the same zoo t-shirt with a large elephant on the front. Noteworthy only because I wound up with the same U.S. immigration agent both days, and he remembered the shirt from the first time through.

[Miss Misha]

Two SS on the walking trail over the weekend.  It was a lovely Indian Summer day and the path was crowded.  Most walkers were good about letting faster walkers by or sharing the path with oncoming walkers (not walking abreast, but moving to single file when others were oncoming).  However, our SS were, well, SPECHUL!  Both had strollers and were walking side by side, taking up the whole path.  Not only were they impeding traffic behind them, but oncoming walkers had to go off the path, onto protected meadowlands (stay on the trail signs everywhere). They studiously avoided my " Excuse me?" when I tried to get their attention to let me and about 12 others who had piled up behind them to pass.  The kicker?  We get to the endpoint of the path and their respective husbands asked them what took them so long.  One of the SS giggled and said, "There were so many people on the path!"  Yeah, lady, piled up behind you or jumping out of your way. 

[Yarnspinner]

I'm afraid I was PA here and may have been an SS myself...but it didn't start out like that.

This weekend I got back from vacation (where there were no SS) and friends and I went to retrieve our luggage after disembarking from the plane.  We had to wait a bit.  Those of us who got there early ringed the carousel, crunching in to accomodate others who arrived later.  The luggage came in on one side and most people hung around there to get their bags.  Friend and I thought it made more sense to stand as far as possible from the incoming luggage, thinking things would be easier there.

The best laid plans...

A few of the folks who were breathing down on the incoming luggage suddenly decided they would wait at the far end of the carousel, too.  Fair enough except that they started pushing out of the way folks who had been waiting in the same spot for quite a while.

As my bag comes aro9und the carousel, I reached to get it with both hands, only to have it slide when my arthritic left hand couldn't keep a tight enough grip.  I tried to grab at it again, but even though I was leaning towards it and had a hand on it, some man pushed between me and my suitcase so that I had to wait for it come around again.

And I didn't want to shove so I kept saying "excuse me" and worked my way back to the front....and had to watch the bag go away again because as I was reaching for it, I was shoved out of the way yet again by someone who "just wanted to be in front".

So on the third try, I had finally gotten back to where I had been (the very, very end so as to be out of everyone's way)  a young man walks up to where I am and says "Excuse me, ma'am, but *I* am waiting for my bags so I need to stand in front of you."  I asked him if they happened to be any of the ones coming up and he said "No.  I just want to be here when they do."  I said "Well THAT is MY bag coming up right now and you'll forgive me for being bee-itchy, but it's the  third time I have tried to get it and I am not going to be nice anymore."  "Oh," he says "I didn't realize YOU were waiting for bags, too."

And as I reach for my bag, another woman who was with him tries to get in front of me...and like I said, I stopped with the whole excuse me thing and planted my not inconsiderable backside in front of her and said "I'm sorry, but I am just grabbing this suitcase and NOW you can get in."  Perhaps I should have walked around to the other side, but it was exactly as crowded there as it was in my area, so it would have made no difference.  But it really irked me that people who had arrived first were being shoved aside by others who didn't want to wait their turn.