(Send us your pet peeves, your rants against insanity, your bitches. We’re looking for what ticks you off on a daily basis. Please, no obscenity, and keep it rational. We’re not looking for things you just dislike, we’re looking for those annoyances that drive us crazy on a daily basis, things others do without any thought to the rest of the world. Send submissions to [email protected] . I’ll start the ball rolling with a couple of my own…)
Right Lane Without a Brain…
I’m shocked how often I mention this to people and get a confused look in return. Basically, I’m saying to stay out of the right lane of the freeway unless you’re just getting off or just getting on…the freeway, that is. We all seem to be aware of the right lane, left lane rule if we’re on a windy mountain road. The right lane is for driving, the left lane is for passing. So what happens to everyone when a third lane is presented? Well, in Fresno, people grip the right lane for miles as if there are military tanks and monsters coming after them if they move over.
This is how it works with 3 lanes on the freeway, people, so listen up…The right lane is for getting on and off the freeway, the middle lane is for driving, and the left lane is for passing. It’s simple. Just as simple as that mountain road 2 lane thing. So why do so many people in Fresno drive nonstop in the right lane of the freeway. You know what that does? It slows everyone down and is very dangerous on top of it. When the right laners are forced to move over, they interrupt the traffic flow of everyone else, and when the rest of us need to get over to exit, we have to fight to do it. How many of us have had the experience of trying to get on the freeway, just to have a whole line of right laners on top of us? And I can’t count the number of times these right lane no brains have been forced to move to the middle lane (I do my best to block them if I see it coming) to let someone on, only to move immediately back to the right lane again, so they can play dodge ball at the next onramp? Get out the way!
Fearless and Clueless
I don’t know when it started or how it started. When I was a kid, we were told certain things and expected to follow certain rules. One was to stay out of the streets if you weren’t in a car. We walked on the sidewalks. No one ever tried to step outside that boundary as far as I can remember, because there were simple reason for it. Roads are for cars, and sidewalks, or at least the very edge of the road, was for people. Why? Because cars will kill you if they hit you. And they’re in the right place, on the road, so what are you going to do about it. For me it falls under the same category as don’t stick your hand in the toaster, don’t hit yourself in the head with a hammer, and don’t jump over the fence at the zoo to pet the pretty lions.
Now, if I see anyone walking on the sidewalk, I’m taken aback. In my neighborhood, virtually everyone walks down the middle of the street. Any time, day or night, as if the sidewalks are unrecognizable to them, as if they can’t even imagine what they’re for. The other day two teenagers were strolling down the street, straddling the middle line. I had room to go around them, but I chose not to. I slowly drove up behind them and it wasn’t until I was literally on their tails that they noticed me. They looked back, I raised my arms as if to say "What the hell are you doing in the street?" and they just looked angry, like I was the idiot, and stepped about a foot to the side. When I looked in my rear view mirror, they were right back on the middle line.
Add to this, that now, as opposed to when the sane generations grew up, parents place their kid’s basketball nets not at the top of the driveway, by the garage door, but at the very bottom of the driveway, facing the street. It’s almost as if parents are thinking of ways to have their kids killed. I actually stopped four kids from tossing a baseball back and forth down the very middle of the street last year because two parked cars were hit with the ball. When I yelled and explained to them there was a park literally one block away where they could throw in a big open area, what do you think they did. Right, looked at me confused, having no idea what a "park" was.
Now, tell us what ticks you off…
