To begin with, I never go to stores on Black Friday. No offense meant to you personally. However, your actions are precisely why I will never go to a Black Friday sale. No amount of savings is worth dealing with folks that are ready to erupt over minor incidents. Besides, I hate crowds. Angry crowds more so.
I am not really sure why one would be surprised that the parking lot is full on Black Friday. It always is.
This! It is part of my “Defensive Driving” strategy. Keeping calm helps one to make good decisions. Being angry does not. The OP is a classical example of this.
What good does it do anyone to get angry over this stuff? None that I can think of. Lighten up Frances.
Too damn funny! So, what kind of mag lasts you 14 hrs?!
Re: road rage, or even just flipping people off, I guess I might be paranoid or something, but i just see too many news items about crazies out there, willing to escalate or shoot over the slightest perceived provocation.
The more I drive, the more “near misses” i experience - and occasionally cause despite my best efforts. Whatever fleeting satisfaction I might get out of flipping someone off would not be worth it if they decided to escalate. It takes some effort to learn to control one’s external displays of anger, but IMO it is a worthwhile exercise.
Last month I jiggled my knee against my Grand Cherokee and the truck shut down completely and wouldn’t start again (this is an issue that has a big recall going on – Jeepie will be going in to dealer’s soon).
Anyway, it was a 55mph road stretch and when I suddenly stopped the guy in a huge Dodge Killerator SUV honked, screamed profanities, flipping off, and so on.
I got out of my car (stupid, I know) and told him what happened. He was immediately remorseful and even helped me push the car to the breakdown lane. He helped me get the car going again and – get this – drove behind me for five for miles to make sure the Jeep was okay.
Having said this, and having been the object of road rage a few times, my advice is to not feed rude idiots. Get out of their way, fall waaaay behind them, and let it go. People get killed in RR incidents.
I mean, I wouldn’t have yelled in the first place. I get that it’s cathartic, but our society has such a problem with retaliatory violence these days I would not feel safe angrily confronting any stranger on the road.
Back when we lived in Jersey, Sr. Weasel accidentally cut a guy off in traffic one summer – honestly, it wasn’t that extreme of a cut-off, he just switched from the straight lane to the right turn lane at a stop-light (using his turn signal, which in Jersey is generally recognized as ‘‘back the fuck off I’m getting over.’’) I was in the car with him at the time. I’m pretty sure the guy was just looking for a reason to be pissed off.
Anyhow, the guy flipped his shit and yelled out the window at him. Sr. Weasel apologized to him immediately, and the guy didn’t take it as a real apology, told him not to get smart with him because he wasn’t afraid to go to prison for beating the shit out of him (my husband is 5’7’’ and 150lbs and this car had two big young men in it.) He then followed us down the road honking his horn and screaming ‘‘FAG!’’ I guess in an effort to provoke a fight.
At the time my response was basically nervous laughter because this guy was acting so over the top ridiculous. I damn near got out of the car and asked him why he was acting like such a child. But in retrospect it scares the crap out of me and makes me paranoid about angering other drivers.
That sounds like Jersey all right. I remember being in a restaurant down along the Jersey shore and these two meatheads did something to provoke each other in the parking lot. So they both got out of their car to start with each other. But you could tell they were trying to figure out how to get out of the mess they created for themselves.
