Too Close for Comfort

Today I left work on my bike about 15 minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive at my stop (the 8pm bus, that is.) I still dislike that time slot and I barely made it! This biking thing is way too convenient and is leading to slovenly behaviour. I may have to reign the use of this luxury transportation in a bit as I've gotten used getting there closer to the pickup time because the bus is rarely early and I've found that they generally will wait at a stop if they're too far ahead of schedule so I've trimmed my morning and evening wait down to about 5-8 minutes before my shiny, sleek, New Flyer brand bus rounds the corner and a smile crosses my lips.

The bus was virtually empty though, and I hit my doorstep in about 15 minutes from pick-up to drop off. When I got my bike off the rack today, I almost couldn't get the rack to release so that I could fold it back to the upright and locked position. It was kinda funny and the bus driver almost had to come out and bang on it, but the adrenaline kicked in and it finally relented to my aggression.

The morning ride, however was quite full but luckily there was no bike in the rack at my stop. I hacked around on my phone this morning and did not get any reading done but chose to play a game of Scrabble on the way home to mix things up a bit since I'd had a less than fun day at work.

Tonight I installed my flashing red light so that if I'm hit, I've got at least one more arrow in my quiver for the court room, should I end up being struck by someone talking on their cell phone.

"Did the plaintiff have any form of reflection or light present on his bike?" asks the judge as the bailiff presents the bent frame of the bike to the court, pointing at a red LED light.

"Yessah, he did."

"Was it on?" the judge continues.

"Yessah, the forensics team's volt meter reading showed that the batteries had a 95% charge under full load and witnesses saw it on."

They'd probably file a counter-suit against the property management company... and it goes on and on and on.

We've become such a litigious society. We all want something for nothing. In this hypothetical case, the defendant would probably win against the property management company because they used more twists and turns than allowed by the Department of Transportation and that such road design constituted a risk to the defendant. Not to mention the fact that they had too little tar in the asphalt and caused an atmosphere of slipperiness that contributed to the car's tires sliding into the corner that just so happened to be the corner in which I was turning on the way to work.

Forgive me for beating a dead horse, but it seems no one takes personal responsibility for anything anymore and I guess that's what you get when the work ethic fades and the sense of entitlement grows. Perhaps we all know someone who says regularly, "If I win the lottery, I will (fill in the blank.)" How about you work for it instead? It's fun to fantasize, but don't even say it if you don't play. Something for nothing. If the estimate I mentioned in yesterday's post of 400 billion dollars a year in fraud related losses doesn't tell you something about who we've become, I don't know what will open people's eyes, save for a complete collapse of the economy and even then they'll be looking for a handout. The actual number for 2008 is estimated at 994 Billion. The 400 billion number came from their 1996 estimate.(pdf)

Then you have the whole "I don't understand why they'd give me a loan for a $200k house when I make 45k a year??! They should have known better! Bail me out Uncle Sam!" situation. Perhaps the decline evidenced in our plummeting math scores have started to bear their toxic fruit in the market as a whole. Check out what happened in Washington State when they dumbed down their math curricula in this video.



Just like the girl who, the other day at the coffee shop, couldn't make change when I gave her a 20 dollar bill for a $1.06 charge. She slapped 15 bucks in my hand and drizzled out some change hoping beyond hope that I wouldn't notice. Correcting this took a manager coming out and doing some voiding wizardry on the cash register. The girl proclaimed to be bad at math. I guess she didn't notice that I didn't tip her either. I can identify, but when it's your job, you very well better know how to make change.

Kitties and puppies, that's all I have to say about that. Find one and hug it.