Things that Grind My Gears

Things that grind my gears . . .

My normal day to day activities do not require the use of a car. I drive very infrequently. And in this pedestrian friendly city, I’m very annoyed at how often cars will not stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk. There is a crosswalk on my way home that is notorious for the fact that you have to walk into traffic before anyone will stop for you.

The crosswalk is probably only a year or two old. That intersection was enough of an issue that a crosswalk has been put in since I’ve been living downtown. And still cars do not stop. I’ll forgive the one lone car blazing through not paying attention. Lucky for them, and my health insurance carrier, I am paying attention. What irritates me is when there is a steady stream of cars, I am clearly visible waiting to cross and no one slows down. I will step in front of you and your car and force you to stop. And then I will proceed to walk slower than an old lady who needs hip replacement surgery.

In fact, the majority of the times I use this crosswalk, I have to step into the middle of the street before anyone will stop. One time I even had a guy swerve around me while I was in the middle of the crosswalk because he couldn’t wait for five seconds. And what are sometimes worse than cars are the bikers. Bikers, if you want to be respected on the road and treated like a car, then you have to follow the rules of the road too. Which means that you have to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. And stoplights, but that is a whole new rant. To the people that do stop and let me use the crosswalk as needed, I not only hustle across the street, I give a courtesy wave and thank you.

The other thing that really grinds my gears . . . rudeness. I am a modern girl, I don’t expect you to hold the door open for me, but I do expect that you won’t trample me trying to get through it first. I have literally been shoved out of the way by a business man trying to board public transportation before me. On the flip side, I have homeless people telling me good morning and to have a nice day when I walk past them on my commute to work. If people that have very little can be polite and courteous, I don’t see why everyone can’t.

The gym is another place that seems to grow rudeness like a Petri dish grows bacteria. Yesterday I was at the gym headed upstairs to the cardio machines. A guy cut me off on the stairs and then cut me off again to take the machine I was headed towards. I hate waiting for a machine as much as the next person, but is it really worth knocking someone out of the way for? And what always makes it worse is the person who cuts you off for a machine only stays on there for an average of two minutes. Really buddy? Two whole minutes? Don’t burn yourself out. The weight area is another place without manners. Just because you leave a water bottle by a machine doesn’t mean it’s yours. There is this thing called sharing. Most of us learned it as toddlers. Some of you need a refresher on the concept.

And those are just a few of the things that grind my gears.