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Your not going to believe this but my aunt is a code enforcement official in California and she told me this story about a hippie in a van that was carpeted on the outside to resemble a cat! She said the whole vehicle looked like a hippie van from 1974 out solving mysteries with a crew of nerds and a dog named Scooby! Now in California the code enforcement officials drive a fleet of Volvos because they are a sister state with Sweden so we ship them Teslas and they in return give our city a fleet of Volvos.
So at any rate she told me a story about a case just this week with this crazy cat woman at a bank. The van was transporting ticks and fleas so my aunt was doing her job and offering to give this woman's van a complimentary flea bath. It was parked in the shade which helps breed the pests so she was leaving the free car wash coupon under her wiper so she could get rid of the pest problem without fumigating the whole strip mall when this irate maniac jumped from the van wearing a cat woman cat suit and proceeded to berate her about her Volvo!
Really? Considerately parking out of the way in a sparsely-parked lot, then falling asleep in the back of one's car is provocative or belligerent behavior? Whatever the OP's history is, is irrelevant in this case. The OP may have over-reacted, but s/he did nothing to provoke an angry note directed at him/her. The other driver appears to have sought out the OP's back corner of the parking lot for no apparent reason, and invented a grievance. Though this may sound unlikely, I'm one who can vouch for irrational behavior like this coming from complete strangers. Parking lot rage is real, and it happens even in small towns like the one I currently live in. Civility has become old-fashioned and endangered.
No, it is not irrelevant. The OP has a few posts now about having altercations with strangers, seems to be mostly old women that she gets into it with.
As I said earlier, it's like the person who every job they have they run ins with coworkers, after awhile you have to look at yourself and say what role do you play.
Maybe this old woman was unhinged, but as JerZ said who knows what is going on with her.
And I'm over the CA bashing, OP does that often. Did one post how no one in CA would help you if you have car trouble.
And I would like to know if we replaced old woman with a young man, how that would have played out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ
Ruth, I don't think it's irrelevant. I think it behooves any of us who are having repeated issues to look into why.
You hit the nail on the head with "appears to." We don't know the whole story. We DO know that a. the old woman's behavior does sound really odd IF the situation happened just as described (none of us were there) and b. the poster seems to keep having issues like this...and I'm sorry...the natural proposition would be that the OP does indeed have something to do with her repeated issues. Either that, or she has VERY bad luck. We can't know which and perhaps the OP is 100% innocent of any wrongdoing, that is absolutely a possibility, but just in case, can it really hurt to ask oneself, "hey, I seem to keep having run-ins where I end up screaming and throwing things at people. Do I have anything at all to do with this?"
As for your last comments, yes, one other possibility is that this lady was unhinged. Sure. There are unhinged people out there. But again...that possibility is kind of reduced when it becomes something of a pattern...how many of us just happen to repeatedly be the ones running into "the crazies"? If it were me I'd want to look deeper into the "why" possibilities. JUST if it were me. The OP doesn't have to but I think this is why some of us are suggesting the OP look for other causes than: the entire world is crazy but she herself, the OP, is totally sane and above-board.
You have a lot of threads where you have issues with strangers. A lot of issues.
As far as California goes, I live in Southern CA and find most people to be pretty pleasant, especially compared to the Northeast. A recent trip to NY/NJ proved that. In regards to driving and just general behavior
When someone keeps having altercations in parking lots, in stores, you need to look at your behavior. Kind of like the person who every job they start has problems with coworkers. After awhile you have to look at what am I doing.
You should look at relocating to Florida, there are a lot of old people down there who seem to go around looking for altercations.
Nah. I don't believe the op goes around looking for trouble ... I'm a friendly, considerate, polite, clean cut, middle-aged man and you wouldn't believe the crap I sometimes get in public. 99% of the time it's been from two demographics - white females (the majority) or black people.
My mom says the white women start with me because they're looking to take something out on someone other than their husband. I think a lot of them just hate men and I'm an easy target.
The blacks who've hassled me usually mention something about me being white - and I'm as white as it gets. A good 'f*ck you' or trying to run them over usually settles them down, though.
Sorry to serial-post...this is probably it for a bit and you shall be rid of me shortly, LOL. But for some reason this particular situation is just "speaking" to me.
I had what I felt was an "unfair" situation last Halloween with an elderly lady. I took my kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood as usual. (We LOVE this...my family lives for Halloween, LOL.) But for the first time, my kids asked to ToT at the condos across the street from us. Until then we'd only ever done houses.
So we went in there and ToTd at a particular condo and this elderly lady answered the door. She held out a bucket of candy and told the kids, "Take what you want." My kids are extremely polite and are called "gentlemen" wherever we go, a real throwback. BUT she did say "take what you want" and apparently my littlest thought that meant a couple of pieces, so he reached for I think two pieces.
She snatched the bucket back and said "JUST ONE" in an angry tone. I was so embarrassed because my son had come off as greedy. He's not...he can have candy at other times...it's not the candy really that my kids love about ToTing...it's showing all the neighbors their costumes, running around at nighttime which is so unusual for little kids to do, etc. But I was embarrassed. I opened my mouth to give a quick explanation but she cut me off, "He certainly is aggressive" or something like that.
I was pretty shocked by that comment. I couldn't say anything, she closed the door.
Of course I cried (not literally, LOL) to my friends about this mean old lady who had snapped at my sweet child and blah blah...and one of my friends told me, "You know, JerZ, you don't know what this old lady is going through. Maybe she's on a fixed income and she could only afford one bag of candy and more than one piece would mean all the candy was gone early in the night...maybe she's in pain, her hip hurts...maybe her own grandkids never come to see her and she's angry that her chance at being a mom to loving little kids is over with now...maybe the kid just before your kids took a giant handful of candy and ran away and was a jerk about it...you don't know."
She was so right. How the hell do I know? And what did she REALLY do...she didn't hit my kid or anything. She didn't call the police and have him dragged in for theft of candy. She just got snappish. And, I felt, inappropriate. But not in some ridiculous way or anything. I mean big friggin' deal...a person who isn't perfect...not exactly newsworthy, that.
I think this is why I'm asking the OP to have some perspective. What did that old lady really do? Put a note under her windshield wiper? So what? I don't consider that crazy aggressive or an offense deserving yelling and threatening about costs and throwing papers. When we're wronged, or think we are, we don't necessarily see things from the other person's perspective. But there are two sides to every story. So that's all I'm saying.
Lesson learned...well, at least for me.
I. Do. Not. Care. what some miserable pos is going through, don't take it out on me. When I'm in a less than great mood, I keep it to myself. Others should as well.
Yep, I do the same thing when I'm traveling or when, as now, I'm recovering from surgery. It was the first major surgery I've ever had and I didn't realize how long it would take to bounce back. I take several naps a day. That's part of the reason we bought the van.
If this is the case, it's possible you aren't ready to drive yourself around.
Can't you take your naps at home? Sleeping in a van in public seems bizarre to me.
It does to me too and I'd worry about the cops being called...broad daylight, slumped in a car in an empty parking lot, what are people going to think? Maybe that you've had a heart attack...or that you're passed out drunk, an easy target, frankly, for someone who wants to break into the car and rape the passed-out occupant or steal from her...I don't know, it just doesn't sound like the best idea to me.
I'm picturing a cop rapping urgently at the car window to make sure the OP isn't dead and the OP screaming at the cop, telling the cop he now owes her one thousand dollars for her special custom window and throwing his billy club back at him. LOL. (Sorry, OP...)
Boils down to 2 over reactions. One from Volvo lady and one from OP. Sad neither acted like a grown up.
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The OP doesn't have to but I think this is why some of us are suggesting the OP look for other causes than: the entire world is crazy but she herself, the OP, is totally sane and above-board.
