Bachelor boob, behavior, car versus human
Yesterday after work I stopped at Costco to get something. Even though it was a Tuesday night there still were a quite a few people milling about. I have complained in the past about how I dislike my shopping experience at Costco, despite my support for their business model where they pay their employees real wages, despite being in the highly competitive retail market. Unfortunately, there are just too many human beings that crowd the aisles of my local Naples store and I find it extremely annoying.
Last night in the span of 30 seconds I ran into 4 different individuals, all women, blocking the aisles through thoughtless cart placement. Two of them stuck their cart in the middle of the aisle at an angle, making it impossible to pass on either side. Two of them pulled the classic bonehead move, park your cart on one side while you look at stuff on the other side, turning yourself into a shopping cart/human barricade. Each successive female got an increasingly frustrated sounding , “Excuse me…” as I tried to snake around them.
When The Bachelor first came out nearly a decade ago I watched the first season of it and never have returned as I deemed it as not worth my time. Well Cindy has been a long time Bachelor fan and indirectly got me watching this current season with the infamous Juan Pablo. Well even though I realize the show is trash tv at it’s finest, I have to admit I found last night’s finale fascinating. The guy has cemented the crown as the biggest d-bag bachelor in the history of the show. He is the male equivalent of a beautiful woman that has air between her ears and a horrible attitude to boot. The most amazing part of the show was how Juan Pablo’s family basically told both of the final two girls that JP is more or less an asshole.
There have been a lot of press down here lately regarding vehicles hitting cyclists and pedestrians. In the past couple months there have been a number of these cases. As someone who has a road bike and has put a decent amount of time in on two wheels on our local roadways I have seen a lot of this firsthand where vehicles get far too close to me as I am pedaling in the bike lane. Luckily I never had an impact with a car/truck.
Just yesterday I saw a guy on a bike that got knocked over on my way to the gym and then on my way home saw a driver making a right hand turn lay on his horn and narrowly miss a guy in the crosswalk. There is no excuse for a driver to hit a pedestrian or cyclist.
However I have also seen the side of this coin. You see, in these incidents there is one common factor, human beings are involved. Human beings do stupid things and this is often the case with pedestrians and people on bicycles. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen both cyclists (on sidewalks) and pedestrians cross in front of cars or enter intersections without so much as a momentary glance to ensure they are seen. Yes, drivers are responsible for making sure they spot people on bikes or on foot but that does not absolve cyclists/pedestrians from doing their part to avoid potential accidents as well.
Hell 5 or 6 years ago when I was going to the gym I knocked over some Hispanic guy on a bike that crossed in front of me as I was looking the other way at oncoming traffic. Yes I should have made sure the other direction was clear but he should have made the effort to determine if I saw him or not. Instead he just went straight ahead like he had a set of blinders on. As I said, I see this behavior ALL the time, so much so that I just assume the other person will not bother to look at me. Failure to exercise common sense in your own personal safety is your problem first.