Walking and 7-Eleven suck

Just to let you know how hard this challenge (yesterdays post) is going to be for me, I was going to go walking today after work, you know, kind of a warm up before the challenge starts tomorrow. About 2 o'clock, at work, I got stuck outside in the pouring rain as a sudden storm hit and I was on my forklift trying to get some things inside. I was drenched. I wasn't all that concerned with being wet since I was getting off in half an hour anyways but when I got home, I helped the wife put the ice maker back together (she was trying to figure out why it stopped working) and I still planned on going but do you know what ultimately prevented me from going? My socks were wet. Yup, there you have it.

My thought process was at first, I'll just go for a walk in my work boots (they look like tennis shoes/sneakers) so I don't have to change my socks. Then my though process was, it probably won't be good to walk in wet socks, I'll probably end up with blisters or something. Then I was thinking, but I don't want to change socks just to go walking and then take them off to shower. So I just didn't go.

Do you see how easy it is to talk myself out of going? Do you see how hard it is going to be to do this challenge?

I'm going to give it a go though, we'll see how well I do.

If you follow me on Twitter, or should I say, if you actually read what I tweet because I'm sure the majority, if not all, of my followers don't even know I exist, then you saw this tweet earlier, and I shall explain here.

On my way home, I took an alternate route than I normally take. Because we got blasted with rain, the road I work on floods and I mean floods. I have seen cars get stalled trying to drive though it. So I took the back route out to avoid that and I needed gas, so I hit the 7-Eleven that I pass by. Normally I hit, what we call, the Smith's Food Mart which is on my usual route. It's been there for years and I tend to me loyal to places that never give me any problems. Plus they have greasy gas station food that I love (Pizza Puffs). Yummy! I'm hungry now.

Anyways, I went to 7-Eleven and inserted my card, put in my pin number and it said cancelled by cashier. In other words, they run a certain amount on my card at the start to make sure you can afford gas and I didn't have enough in it. Now, I was only going to put $10 in, for one, I get paid Friday. Two, $10 will last me a week because for the most part, I drive back and forth to work and that's pretty much it. I only work 4 miles from work, 8 miles round trip so I don't use much gas. Since mid-February, I have only gone 2625.7 miles.

I absolutely hate the fact that these places do this. I understand they are protecting themselves from thieves but you know what, don't punish me for the criminals out there. I understand, but it doesn't make me happy. So I got in my car and drove off. I do pay at the pump because I don't want to go inside and pay. I don't want to roll my windows up, take the keys out and lock the car when I should be able to scan my card and never leave the area around my car. Not to mention, people suck so if I can avoid a few, I'm out. I drove off and went to Smith's, which is a Phillips 66 station. Put my card in, put $10 in and left.

For the record, do you know how much I had in my account when 7-11 denied my card? $65 was my balance. My car won't even hold $65 of gas at the current cost. They must be running it for $100 to see if you deem worthy for their gas.

I will be avoiding 7-Elevens from now on.

Nice guys finish last

I hate being the nice guy.  Yeah, I know, I’ve referred myself as an asshole on occasion, but I’m a nice guy.  I respect those around me as long as they’re not doing anything to me.  When I’m turning onto another street, I avoid crossing the turn lane if nobody is there so the light doesn’t change, I don’t cut lines, I let people out when I know it’s hard to get out on that road, I’ve offered to help people with their groceries.  I’ve taken grocery carts from handicap people outside stores so they don’t have to push them all the way back in. Just yesterday, one of the assholes I’m going to mention below dropped something on the sidewalk outside her apartment, her hands were full so I picked it up and handed it to her.  I hold doors for people, I’ve watched people drop cash and told them so they didn’t lose it.  My kids are not allowed to run down the halls or play music loudly at all because we are in the upstairs apartment.  I’m always on time, usually early, because it’s disrespectful to make someone wait on you.  I’m a nice guy.

Unlike these true life assholes who never respect anybody and think they are above everyone else.

          

I included a compass to make it easier to explain these assholes.  You see the orange blocking half of the road and then a little further down the whole road?  Those are blocking the road for construction, it is completely blocked off, you can’t get through but the problem actually lies on the north/south road.  You see the train tracks that run across it (black), there are constantly trains crossing it.  They run into a huge rail yard just north of the picture so when they cross, they usually cross very slowly.  There is a stop light at the corner and it lets one side go at a time.  The cars coming from the north get pretty backed up at certain times of the day.  If you want to go straight, it may take you a couple light changes to get through the intersection and your chances of hitting a train rise with each minute you sit there.  So while all the good people sit in line and wait their turn, the assholes will get in the right lane, turn right (heading west) then do a u-turn so they can turn right again back onto the road they were just on.  They do it when there is a train blocking the tracks as well, they basically jump the line.

I’m the nice guy who sits in the line waiting to go through the light, I take my turn like most everyone else.  Or I’ll go left to the underpass but it’s a few miles down the road.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought about doing the u-turn thing, and I wouldn’t think twice about doing it.  It’s not the law that scares me, it’s the fact that it isn’t fair to everybody else if I get to cut the line.

This happens all over the place.  People getting in turn lanes and going straight beating out traffic.  People who stay in lanes that are ending all the way to the last second until they have to force their way over.  People are assholes, put them behind 2 tons of steel and they think they become invincible assholes.

Here at our apartment, I deal with assholes on a daily basis.  I have the luxury of calling them my neighbors.  Whether it be my neighbor in the next building and his stereo, the lady below us with her 50 kids who slam the door every time they go in and out, to the special breed of asshole who lives right next to us.  We deal with their stereo on a weekly basis but what’s worse is what you see above.  Those first 4 parking spots are marked handicapped.  The blue Tahoe and the black Monte Carlo belong to them, and they are far from handicapped.  Unless not knowing how to wear your pants at your waist is considered being handicapped now.  The apartment below them is a group home of sorts with 3 handicapped individuals who have a rotation of nurses that come in and stay with them.  They deserve the handicap spots (the other 2 cars are theirs), not the asshole neighbors.  The really pathetic part is that we have a handicap placard for Cheri and even she refuses to park in the spaces because the nurses need them.

Apparently they think if they destroy the handicap sign, then it’s ok.  I couldn’t tell you how many times they’ve replaced it.  I’m so sick of living here, I need a house out in the middle of nowhere with no one around.  I’m really starting to hate people.

I want to say I believe that you get what you deserve.  But I’ve seen a lot of good people get hurt who didn’t deserve it.  I’ve also seen more assholes continually getting away with being assholes with no retribution.  It gets old.  I’m a nice guy and I’m trying to raise my kids to be the same, but I wonder if I’m doing the right thing.  The way this world is, the assholes continue to take from the nice people.  Maybe I should raise my kids to be assholes so they can survive this world.