Stupid Is As Stupid Does!

Well, I am sitting at work, practically bored to tears again so I thought I should write something to occupy my time. I re-thought my driving lessons series and decided to cancel them after the pilot episode. I didn’t find them very effective since last night some idiot decided a red light was not really meant for him and continued to turn his truck and the 80 foot flatbed trailer he was hauling behind him while I was going straight through an intersection on a very green light. Anyhow, I digress. Today I am going to write about some recent incidents that happened to me while walking from the train station to work, just to illustrate the degradation of society.

The first episode is perhaps the funniest and truly illustrates how stupid people are. (It would have fit in with my second driving lesson had I continued that poorly written series). Everything this day was as it usually is. I was disturbed from a dream by my alarm way to early in the morning, heck the birds weren’t even up yet; I spent an hour on the train having my sleep disrupted by elbows in my side every five minutes (the length of time it took the idiot beside my to look at the pictures in the paper); and I fought through a crowd of people way too eager to get to work just to get out of the station. Once I survived that, I was on my way to the office, walking as slow as I possibly could of course. A little jaywalking here, some alley hopping there, a jaunt through a parking lot or two and I’m at work. Seems pretty basic but on the day in question the unwritten rules of walking seemed too much for one unlucky individual and she ended up with a story to tell her colleagues.

I was approaching an intersection, walking on the right hand side of the sidewalk, (which, unless I missed a memo somewhere, is the appropriate side to be walking on, just like driving in North America) and noticed two women walking towards me. I stayed my line making it quite clear I was not going to move as I was walking where I should have been. The lady on my right noticed me and stepped further to my right and out of my path creating a gap for me to walk through. With that gap I had no need to take evasive actions and thought I would slip right through with no worries. Would you not think the same? It happens that way all the time and in fact, Hollywood makes fun of that type of occurrence a lot. The second women noticed me, thanks to her friends warning, and instead of walking straight or even taking a step to my left to ensure avoidance, this yahoo took a step to my right and ended up directly in my path. We met as she stepped onto the curb so the resulting collision knocked her backwards off the curb, arms flailing everywhere.

I sort of felt bad at first but as I got to thinking about it, I decided it was her own fault. She was the one who stepped into my path while her friend was smart enough to move. If I am walking on the wrong side of the road and see someone almost twice my size coming towards me with not indication they are going to deviate from their path, I make sure to give them a wide berth. I try not to get into that position in the first place but sometimes it’s unavoidable. By the time I crossed the other corner I was fighting back a bout of laughter.