Buttons
SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO INSTINCTIVELY KNOW HOW TO PUSH MY BUTTONS. I wish two things: That they didn’t know how to do that, and that I wouldn’t keep running into those people. There is enough aggravation in everyday life that I don’t need any unsolicited donations.
But Life doesn’t work that way.
A couple of days ago I pulled the Toyota into a Gimp Spot (AKA a Handicapped Parking space) at the Kroger store. Next to, and part of, such spots are blue stripes that are there to serve as a loading/unloading area when a vehicle with a wheelchair ramp is parked there. That striped area is not a legitimate parking space – even if you have a valid “Handicapped Parking” permit or plates.
After I pulled into my space I got out of the Toyota and headed for the store. I noticed that there was an empty shopping cart abandoned in the Blue Striped Zone. I was going to take it into the store to hold all the goodies I was going to pick up.
That was my plan when a man in a large pick-up truck started to pull into the “No-No” space. He rolled down his window and called out to me.
“Could you move that cart. I want to park here.”
(Oh, really, I thought?)
“This is not a parking space, Pal,” I told him.
“I don’t care. I want to park here anyway. So, move the cart.”
(He didn’t even say, “Please.”)
I answered him.
“Well, if you don’t care that it’s not a parking space, I don’t care to move the cart.”
With that I walked away. I got another cart from inside the store. The Doofus in the truck was forced to get out and move the cart himself. I watched him do that as he looked my way, muttering the entire time. I doubt that he was wishing me Merry Christmas.
Some people.
That guy knew that what he was doing was wrong, but he didn’t care. It was not like there weren’t other, legitimate, parking spaces available that were just as close to the store. This was a person who has “Issues” with 1) “Handicapped Parking Spaces”, 2) the Law concerning “Handicapped Parking spaces, or maybe 3) with those there People With Disabilities. Or maybe he is just as stupid as a sackful of hammers. While numbers 1, 2, or 3 are more likely I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and go with number 4) – that he is as dim as a pound of burned out light bulbs.
I am a bit disappointed in myself over that incident. I let him get my dander up along with my blood pressure. Allowing him to do that was ceding power to him that he neither deserved, nor knew what to do with. Letting him push my buttons did me no good. It didn’t really change anything and I’m also sure that it didn’t even plant a seed of thought in his brain.
Ideally I should just ignore the idiots in the world, but it’s not easy. If I had this incident to do over again I think that I would ignore him and let him wonder why – and then I hope that I would go into the store and buy myself some cookies.
Down the Hall on Your Left 
We get a lot of this attitude here, where everyone drives by the rules of the country they came from, and most of those countries don’t have any rules and very few cars. I also have a handicapped decal, and I would probably do the same thing you did, John. I would, however, give him a cookie, if I have a chance, and hope that he gets a message the sweet way.
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You are more civilized than I.
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Sometimes you gotta stand up or what’s right, John.
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