Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The ugly side of snow fatigue
I witnessed something yesterday, right in front of my house, that I can't stop thinking about.
Yesterday afternoon, around 5pm, the UPS truck stopped in front of our house, delivering the final piece of our sectional sofa. The box wasn't heavy, but it was very large, so the driver (a female) had to open the back of the truck and get it out. I walked up to greet her and take it from her so she wouldn't have to haul it all the way to the door. As I'm taking the box from her, a silver VW hatchback drives up from the opposite direction and stops nose-to-nose with the truck.
As you probably know, we had three FEET of snow between two different storms last week, and the temps since have barely gotten into the 30s, so there hasn't been much melting to speak of. The county plows have hit out street, but as a result, snow is piled about waist high on both sides of the street and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. All this means that our street is one lane in most places, so cars have been taking turns on our block, waiting at the end of the block on either side whenever a car is already coming. It's not just polite. It's necessity. You can't get out of the way as there's nowhere to pull to the side.
Back to yesterday afternoon. The sees me take the box from the UPS driver and he honks his horn and sticks his head out the window and says "Why don't you pull to the side to let other people by?" The UPS woman calmly replies "There's nowhere to pull over." The guy starts raising his voice and has already left common sense behind, repeating that she has to pull to the side. (There is no side to pull over onto, remember?)
So as I am carrying this large box up my sidewalk, I turn around and say to the guy, "Why don't you back up and go around the block?" Not an unreasonable request, as he's only two houses into the block and could back up and go around in about 15 seconds (already longer than he's been sitting there yelling). His response to me was "'Cause I don't FEEL LIKE IT!" his voice raising with each word. The first thing that came to my mind was that this is the response a toddler gives when told it's time for a nap, delivered in exactly the same cadence. I shrug and open the door and carry the box in, muttering to myself as I close the door, "What a dick."
My wife looks out the window and says, "He's out of his car." And yep, he has gotten out of his car and is yelling at the woman. She pulls out her phone and starts calling someone, her supervisor or the police, we imagine. My wife opens the front door and calls to the woman "We have your back. We're watching!" The guy looks at us and yells, "Shut up!" He then proceeds to call the woman the "n" word and jumps back in his car, finally backing away and taking off.
The UPS driver says thanks to my wife and gets into her truck and drives off.
We called the police non-emergency number and give our account of what happened (along with the guy's license number), just in case he tried to make a call on his own and tried to get the UPS driver in trouble. We then called UPS and spoke to her supervisor and explained what happened and she promised to call the driver right away and make sure she was okay.
How did that escalate so quickly? He was looking for a fight the minute he pulled up. The aggression was so strong and so misplaced. He certainly showed his true colors using the racial epithet.
It's tempting to imagine responding in kind with aggression and violence, either in a Jean Claude Van Damme way and kicking his ass right there, or like Dexter and breaking into his house and scaring the crap out of him. But real life ain't like movies. All you can really do is report it, keep your eyes open, and be thankful people like that are generally rare.
Yesterday afternoon, around 5pm, the UPS truck stopped in front of our house, delivering the final piece of our sectional sofa. The box wasn't heavy, but it was very large, so the driver (a female) had to open the back of the truck and get it out. I walked up to greet her and take it from her so she wouldn't have to haul it all the way to the door. As I'm taking the box from her, a silver VW hatchback drives up from the opposite direction and stops nose-to-nose with the truck.
As you probably know, we had three FEET of snow between two different storms last week, and the temps since have barely gotten into the 30s, so there hasn't been much melting to speak of. The county plows have hit out street, but as a result, snow is piled about waist high on both sides of the street and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. All this means that our street is one lane in most places, so cars have been taking turns on our block, waiting at the end of the block on either side whenever a car is already coming. It's not just polite. It's necessity. You can't get out of the way as there's nowhere to pull to the side.
Back to yesterday afternoon. The sees me take the box from the UPS driver and he honks his horn and sticks his head out the window and says "Why don't you pull to the side to let other people by?" The UPS woman calmly replies "There's nowhere to pull over." The guy starts raising his voice and has already left common sense behind, repeating that she has to pull to the side. (There is no side to pull over onto, remember?)
So as I am carrying this large box up my sidewalk, I turn around and say to the guy, "Why don't you back up and go around the block?" Not an unreasonable request, as he's only two houses into the block and could back up and go around in about 15 seconds (already longer than he's been sitting there yelling). His response to me was "'Cause I don't FEEL LIKE IT!" his voice raising with each word. The first thing that came to my mind was that this is the response a toddler gives when told it's time for a nap, delivered in exactly the same cadence. I shrug and open the door and carry the box in, muttering to myself as I close the door, "What a dick."
My wife looks out the window and says, "He's out of his car." And yep, he has gotten out of his car and is yelling at the woman. She pulls out her phone and starts calling someone, her supervisor or the police, we imagine. My wife opens the front door and calls to the woman "We have your back. We're watching!" The guy looks at us and yells, "Shut up!" He then proceeds to call the woman the "n" word and jumps back in his car, finally backing away and taking off.
The UPS driver says thanks to my wife and gets into her truck and drives off.
We called the police non-emergency number and give our account of what happened (along with the guy's license number), just in case he tried to make a call on his own and tried to get the UPS driver in trouble. We then called UPS and spoke to her supervisor and explained what happened and she promised to call the driver right away and make sure she was okay.
How did that escalate so quickly? He was looking for a fight the minute he pulled up. The aggression was so strong and so misplaced. He certainly showed his true colors using the racial epithet.
It's tempting to imagine responding in kind with aggression and violence, either in a Jean Claude Van Damme way and kicking his ass right there, or like Dexter and breaking into his house and scaring the crap out of him. But real life ain't like movies. All you can really do is report it, keep your eyes open, and be thankful people like that are generally rare.
Labels: psychopath, racism, sofa
