Hi Everyone,
Today’s blog is a combination of a several conversations. This is what I mean.
The other day I was talking to a friend and said, “I am surrounded by all of these entitled people! The laundry, people complaining all the time of how so-and-so didn’t give them this or do that. It is really starting to get to me.” And it is true. It is. Because they are. Since people have to change their own minds, thoughts, attitudes, the only thing I can do is write.
After about 3.57 minutes of thinking of this blog, I remembered that I wrote it—in my head. This blog has been floating around my grey matter since Sunday August 16, 2015. This is what happened that day.
While on my lunch break, I walked to the grocery store. With a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, a man in an old (manual) wheelchair asked me for one. Reluctantly I pulled one out of my pack. “Thanks. You know, I asked a guy for a smoke. Instead of giving me one, he stood right in front of me, so I could watch him he pull the plastic off a brand new pack. He wouldn’t give me a smoke but stood right there and lite one up. Can you believe that? What an asshole, eh?”
Aloud I said, “Cigarettes are expensive.” In my head, I said, “Is that why you are bumming them and not buying them?” I really think he heard me say both because he responded with, “Well, if I had extra cigarettes, I would give someone one if they asked. I would give the shirt off my back if someone wanted it.” He was shirtless so he may have. “Did you want your cigarette back?” he asked. “Keep it,” I said and asked if he needed a light. He didn’t. He was gone when I left the store.
After work, I was walking along minding my own business when people began screaming, pointing and rushing into the street. Cell phones were held in the air. People were making calls too. Panicked voices were everywhere. Traffic stopped as men of all sizes ran to help a cyclist. A muscular man was beating him and his bicycle with a metal baseball bat.
As the crowds grew, the muscular man climbed back into his white SUV and sped off. Apparently, the cyclist was screaming that the SUV cut him off and that prompted him to hit the SUV which in turn prompted the muscular man, the driver of the SUV, to get out and beat the cyclist and his bicycle. The only way to know what happened would have been to review the many cameras.
As I continued west on Front Street, I told the people I met up with that we were going to miss the train if we didn’t hurry. One of them said the train would be packed since the Blue Jays game ended a short time ago. “It’s going to be loud. We won’t be able to hear ourselves and who knows who will be sitting beside us if we can all sit together that is,” one said. The other offered to pay for a car and I was not about to argue. It was nice to have some privacy, quiet.
For anyone who is interested, I am going to a Blue Jays game tonight. And Ellen Vanstone, author of Metro’s Urban Etiquette has an article in today’s paper titled, The Question: Are cyclists entitled to treat drivers rudely?
We are all entitled to something. What are you entitled to? And do you know why?
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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