Sounds like you were starting to cross before he cleared that part of the intersection, though, which can make some drivers nervous. (Not that I don’t do it, too–just pointing out what may have been going on.)
That kind of thing can get pretty annoying; use your brain, people. If you keep going and will clear the intersection well before I get there, just friggin’ GO!
One thing I keep noticing, and which irks me for no justifiable reason, always happens when I’m waiting to cross at a particular marked crosswalk. It’s on a not very busy road. There’s almost never any traffic going one direction and the other way the cars seem to come in bunches. Like a string of five or six, a long gap, another handful, a gap, and so forth.
It is ALWAYS the last car in a string that stops for me to cross.
Which is polite of that driver, of course, but I can’t help feeling, WHY did you do that? Just keep going, and I’d cross without inconveniencing you AND it would only be another three seconds of waiting for me. I’d be fine with that.
And, as I said, I feel a tiny puff of annoyance at the POLITE driver while not at all bothered by the other four that didn’t stop – which in fact the law says they should.
I iz weird sometimes.
I get what you’re saying, but when he can’t grok what an all-way stop/taking turns means, when it’s broad daylight and he can see that I’m looking directly at him, have slowed from a run, to a full stop, to a very slow walk, and am angling slightly towards his ass-end, and you know, just am not insane enough to dash in front of a moving two-ton truck – which by that point would have required making a loop around to my left just to get in front of him, and nevermind that I stopped first and let it get closer…
All I can say is, if his ability to judge speed, distance, and the basic rules of the road is that bad, he has no business driving at all.
I also hate when the last car of the clump stops for me, but mostly because this always happens on the four-lane road (two lanes each direction), and the mere fact that this one guy stopped doesn’t mean that anyone in the other lane stopped. So now he’s holding up traffic for no good reason, and apparently is unaware that I have no intentions of dashing in front of the moving vehicle in the other lane, either.
There’s a regular gap between groups of cars because there are traffic lights a couple blocks down, so if he’d kept going I’d have been able to get across both lanes just fine. But because he decides to stop, the gap behind him disappears as the other cars catch up, and I have to wait another full cycle of the lights, anyway. Not helpful!
Heh - my boyfriend and I call that awful capitalization shit “a trip to Pooh Corner”.
I was waiting to cross at a crosswalk one day, and a bus stopped to let me cross in front of him. Now, being a bus and quite large, I couldn’t see around him, and being familiar with Calgary drivers, I knew that stepping out from in front of him into the next lane was asking for a good killing, so I carefully peeked around him to see if the other lane of traffic had stopped. The bus driver was getting all excited and motioning for me to just get the hell out from in front of him already. I really should have taken his information down and reported him - that was so Not Cool. As a pedestrian, I have a responsibility to not put myself in harm’s way, and he can just hold on for another three seconds.
And my head is aching from the sun again. I wore my hat, I hydrated, I’m still getting a headache. Sigh.
I hate it when a driver oh-so-helpfully stops to allow somebody to cross(or turn left). It’s a recipe for disaster if there’s a second lane.
Ugh… and again today.
On my bike, approaching a 4-way stop. I’m a good 20-30 feet away from the intersection yet. The truck is 1> on my right, and 2> already at a complete stop at the intersection, with no other traffic. Had the idiot just taken his damn right-of-way, he’d have been half a block away before I ever got to the intersection. Instead, he just sits there for a solid ten seconds while I approach, brake, stop, do the bike shuffle trying to stay balanced long enough for him to proceed through the intersection, and finally end up having to put my feet down while giving him the death glare. For three more seconds before he finally goes.
Dude, even if I’d accelerated, I was too far away to dash in front of you. I’m also not in the habit of putting myself in harm’s way like that.
And BTW, a big fuck you to the cyclists who do blow through stop signs, which makes for drivers like this. Grr!
Dearest darling ex-landlord,
Of all the times to sell my house, why oh WHY did the move out date have to be in a week when the heat index has not dropped below 100? Not that I’m complaining about getting out of your flea-infested, non-air conditioned, falling-apart house (and thanks for infesting my cat, by the way. And the bites. And the cost of the new bedding. And the cost of the flea bombs and borax and even more expensive flea meds than he already had.) All my possessions down the stairs, across the city, and up another flight of stairs. In this heat. On a day when the block was closed to parking and I had to carry my stuff two blocks to the van.
I cleaned that place till it was sparkling and killed the fleas that were there. If more appear, don’t you dare take my security deposit. You sold the house anyway- the money’s in your pocket, you don’t have to worry about the next tenant. By the way, enjoy the mice from the vacant house next door- Chaplin was the only thing controlling them. I’m sure once I took his Advantaged self to the new house because he wouldn’t walk on your floors, they started to gather for the revolution.
Good riddance.
vh1.com’s video of the most recent episode of my new favorite show, You’re Cut Off! is all screwed up. All of the comments on the website are annoyed people wondering why the video won’t play, so I know it’s not on my side.
Damn it, VH1! I want to know what crazy shit Gia did this time! I want to hear more about Erica’s dog’s bat mitzvah!
(Seriously, you have to watch this show, it is some really high quality programming. But not episode #3 on vh1.com, because IT ISN’T WORKING.)
I want to start a public awareness ad campaign.
Billboard:
Wide clear shot from the driver’s perspective.
Circled in red is the speedometer, showing the car is moving 40mph.
Also circled is the speed limit sign the car is approaching, showing that the speed limit is, in fact, 50mph.
The car is in the left lane.
Third circle is the rear view mirror, which shows a lot of cars behind, while you can see there are no cars in front of this one.
In large letters;
Wake Up.
Pay Attention.
Read The Signs.
Second would be a video inside the car. The driver would be shown in the left lane, driving 40mph, scowling and complaining about all these people tailgating him and trying to pass him and how they’re a bunch of jerks.
The camera would move outside the car and focus on the Speed Limit 50 sign as the car went past.
The narrator would ask “Just who is the jerk here?”
Wake Up.
Pay Attention.
Read The Signs.
Wake Up.
Pay Attention.
Read The Signs.
Turn Off The Phone.
Now I’m on board. 
I had the whole weekend off and didn’t get anything done. My chronic hives are back and I am tired of being itchy. Other women get hot flashes and mood swings when their hormones get out of whack but I have to be different and be itchy. At least the dermagraphia is a little entertaining.
Dear Period
I appreciate the fact that had to come along a day early, it was so nice of you to want to spend extra time with me. By Friday, after four days of your company, it was also good that you decided to leave. Why, oh why, did you have to come back on Saturday and still be here today?
Please just pack up and leave, ok?
Yours
ScareyF.
HORMONES GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. I would take it as a personal favor if a good portion of the world decided to commit suicide tonight in my honor.
I think he probably gets it, but just might be an annoying asshole who thought you shouldn’t have started crossing 'til he was completely clear of the intersection, but didn’t have the balls to just flip you off and keep driving.
Or he was high.
I don’t care if the speed limit is 70 and you’re doing 90–if somebody comes up behind you in the left lane doing 110, FUCKING PULL BACK INTO THE RIGHT LANE so they can pass you, dipshit. FFS, I don’t even drive and I know how this works.
Okay government, WTF? Seriously. So for an organization to get government funding for a website here the website needs to meet certain technical requirements.
Because the gov uses W3C’s validation tools to see if your site is valid, you cannot use any CSS3, because the tool defaults to CSS2. Now, in general, CSS2 is good to use on a site that needs more accessibility.
However, if the CSS3 property in question has been supported since IE FUCKING 5 you think you could give us a break? Really? Please? If IE5 supports it, you can’t go wrong. Please. Pretty please.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that we have to have the Flash video player work without Javascript when FUCKING YOUTUBE doesn’t even work with Javascript off.
grumblegrumblebitch This is why I can’t let myself get excited over HTML5 and CSS3.
This one actually occurred Friday, but I’ve been thinking about it all weekend: seriously, who frosts a birthday cake with Cool Whip? It was a lovely lemon birthday cake, and the supposed frosting looked so nice from a distance. The colors were very nice too! That first bite of “frosting” was a complete disappointment though. I was expecting the super-sweetness of grocery store cake frosting, or even a traditional buttercream…but Cool Whip? Why?
I posted a free stuff/curb alert ad last Wednesday,and one person responded about a few of the items. I told her that they were out there and she was welcome to them. She never showed up. So I emailed her last night and asked if she was still interested in them. “Well, I need your address so I know where to go!”
It was in the ad, you moron! Or did you really think that I just wrote
1234 Main Street
46200
At the bottom for the hell of it??
Dumbass.
WAG: Hoarder/reseller/whatever who says “omg gimme” to every single “free for the taking” Craigslist ad. She had replied to so many that she couldn’t remember which ad this was for.
Or just an idiot.
Given how I feel about the human race in general today, I’m voting “idiot.”