I can also "chime" in on the mechanics thing...I work for a Car Dealership currently and our mechanics get a (barely) reasonable hourly wage paid for all the time they clock in and the shop fees (ours are actually real low in comparison to most around here) are 3-4 times more than what the machanics get paid. But the hourly shop rate is also to cover utilities/taxes/insurance/tools, ect. But our guys get paid even if we are slow. But I agree most people assume that the mechanic is getting the bulk of that "shop hourly rate" and that is just not the case.

Yup. That's another very good reason I have grown to love parking at the back. I used to be one of those circlers. And the stress levels from looking for that spot that will save 10 paces was enormous. It really wasn't worth all that. But I couldn't see it back then.

People that stop in the middle of the road in their car/truck to talk to someone going the other direction in their car and have a full-blown conversation, blocking all traffic flow for other cars. I live in a small village and I drive my son to school about five blocks away. I had to wait THREE TIMES this morning while someone talked to, first, the recycling truck, then the garbage truck, then on the way back the guy that was talking to the recycling truck was talking to the garbage truck...talking for so long that I ended up doing a K turn to turn around and go around the block so I could go home and get ready for work. O....M....G

even better...people that are in the left lane and miss their street so they stopp in the left hand lane and wait for traffic to clear and then turn right from the left hand lane...uhmmmm people..haven't you heard of going up the street and turning around if you aren't in the proper lane...you're going to get someone killed doing that.

Speaking of drivers, I HATE HATE HATE RECKLESS ***:censored:s who almost hit me when I'm riding my bicycle! I get almost hit daily and I've been ACTUALLY hit twice. Luckily, I was not majorly injured in either incident (I have a pretty big scar on my arm from one of them and I had several large bruises, in addition to being in pain for a week, but no real damage was done). I have a BIG FAT headlight on my bike, in addition to a big FAT FLASHING reflector, so there is NO excuse regardless of the lighting! I abide by all the traffic laws, stop when the light is red, look out for cars, go when the light is green, et cetera! These stupid ***:censored: drivers just fly down the road like a bat out of **** and decide to make a turn while I'm crossing the street... uhhh.... if they are facing me, then they should have been looking ahead (I ride my bike in the direction facing traffic most of the time, so that all the cars can SEE ME and have NO EXCUSE), and if they're coming up from behind me to make a turn, then DURRRR, they already SAW me! DUMBASSES!

It's even worse when I'm just riding down the bike lane and someone is trying to make a turn... um... they're supposed to look both ways before turning. I hate mindless people who drive in autopilot!!!

I am and always have been a very careful driver!

However, the first person who hit me has been forgiven and turned out to be a really awesome person. She was disoriented and rushing her little weiner dog (who got attacked by a pitbull) to the vet. She's not on the jerk list... but... the rest of 'em...:censored: :mad:

For the blind jerks who speed down a semi-resident road, and dont bother stopping at the flashing lights for the pedestrians because they see no one there.

A 16 year old almost got killed in front of me and my children's eyes because he only wanted to cross the road. He was hit by the car going 70kmph in a 50 kmph zone, thrown back about 15 feet, bones sticking out of his legs, blood everywhere. He couldn't scream because he physically couldn't. His friends did it for him. Ems showed up and had to put tubes down his freaking throat and rush him to the hospital because some IDIOT (I won't mention the race) woman didn't want to slow the $*%K down!!!!!! My children and I have had nightmares all week because of this!

My children and husband finally know that even if the lights are flashing... DON"T CROSS UNTIL YOU KNOW ALL THE CARS HAVE STOPPED!!!

OK. Gotta add another one. I almost ran over someone the other evening. I turned onto my street. It's a residential neighborhood. The limit is 25MPH. I wasn't even going that speed because I'd just turned. I'm so glad. There was someone darting out from between parked cars. It was dark. They were wearing dark and within 10 ft of the corner where it is light!

Come on people. If you are going to be meandering the streets at night, wear something light and carry a flashlight. Also, if you life means anything to you, cross at the corner. AND LOOK BEFORE YOU STEP OFF THE CURB!

As a piggyback to NightengaleShane - Bicyclists who DON'T obey the bike laws (including stopping and obeying right-of-way laws like they are a car at stop signs, using arm signals before changing lanes, etc) and almost cause accidents. I live in a town where EVERYONE rides bikes. Downtown can be absolutely DANGEROUS - the bikes all ride like they own the road, and the cars are swerving away from them and almost hitting eachother. I also live across the street from a middle school. After school, at least 10 times, I've almost hit some middleschoolers who veer across the road to the bike path on the opposite side without checking for cars coming.

OK. Let's add critical mass to that. Bringing an entire city to a crawl is unproductive and dangerous.

Wow, mandalinn, a whole town into biking? I need to live where you live!! I actually have a friend over there who goes to UC Davis. Ha! I've met plenty of bike riders down here who also don't abide by traffic laws and think they own the road. They actually irk me and I wonder when they will get hit considering they're riding so fast and among so much traffic... if they need to come to a sudden stop, they will either get thrown off their bike by the brakes or they will get knocked off by a car.

Every now and then, these people whiz by me (and into a position where they are facing traffic!) and I pray that they won't get hit :eek:

Oh. Something that bothers me is when other bikers pass me just to slow down and ride in zigzags, making it near impossible for me to safely pass THEM! I obviously have no problem with people passing me on my bike because they are legitimately going faster than I am (though it is also admittedly rare, with the exception of those "I own the road :devil:" types), but if they're going to ride like a drunken toddler, then maybe they should stay where they are and let me ride away.

YES! PLEASE add Critical Mass to that.

A woman's car got literally encircled and when her van hit one of the bikes surrounding her, they threatened to sue her for assault with a deadly weapon.

It is so pointless and ultimately allows the riders to make themselves feel superior to everyone else. And it does nothing but make people mad.

Gotta add another one. If I'd been out of my car, my militant mouth would have taken control of me.

People who find it funny to drive slowly behind an elder person in a parking lot then lay down on the horn to scare them. The person was not in the middle of the lane. They were walking from the handicapped space towards the door. They were off to the side. I was on the verge of following them and yelling at them. My common sense took over. There were several of them. They could have had a gun or something.

If any of the old people collapse and someone gets the tag number, I hope they'll call the police. I personally feel that if that old person had a heart attack and died, then the jerks laying down on the horn should be charged with attempted murder or manslaughter.

I'm on a roll today.

How about people who don't bother to look? They just open their driver's door. How many of us have had to swerve to avoid taking that door off? It really infuriates me when they are standing on the outside of the car and don't bother to look for oncoming traffic.

I live in a neighborhood where the houses are very close together, although we have decent sized front and back yards. There are lots of teenagers in the neighborhood, and what I hate is that they walk in the middle of the road. Oh and then they see my car coming and they keep walking in the middle of the road and I have to drive on the wrong side of the road to get around them.

Oh I got another one. The people who "inch out" into traffic trying to take a left hand turn, effectively blocking one whole side of the road of traffic so that someone will feel bad and let them take the turn. Guess what - I don't feel bad and I don't let them go! ;)

ohhhh I so have one....didnt even think about it until bikes were mentioned....especially since where I live now it isnt an issue.

When I lived in California and the roads/highways were extremely busy all the time I always hated when motorcycles pull through the cars who are waiting to go. I mean come on. We are all in grid-lock here and just because they are smaller, they weave between cars/trucks/buses and get to the front of the redlight or whatever so they can go. IMO that should be ILLEGAL!!!

I dont know how many times I got the crap scared out of me when all of a sudden there was a motorcycle next to me!

StillTryin - this is legal and legal for a reason. Cars have cooling systems that work regardless of whether or not the car is moving - that is why you have coolant in your engine. Motorcycle engines are air-cooled...they overheat if they don't keep moving. The reason "splitting lanes" is legal in CA is because, if it weren't, motorcycles would constantly overheat in traffic. So be kind to the bikers splitting lanes! They aren't doing it to cut ahead, they are doing it to keep their engines running!

This doesn't apply to stopping at LIGHTS, though - there is no reason for that, your engine isn't going to overheat in the time it takes you to sit at a stoplight. But in freeway traffic, it is legal for a reason.

I have this problem almost daily. This bloke who works in the same building as I do owns a motorbike and thinks he can weave in and out of traffic as he pleases because he's going to be late for work. He nearly ran into us once as we were turning right (like turning left in the states) on a two lane road, we nearly came to a standstill in an intersection because he decided his brakes were faulty.

Then he did it again on one of the most narrow roads in all of the WORLD, went straight between a lorry and a car going the opposite way. I have his bike plate written down, and I've also..done some pretty...uncouth things to it.

IE, a bird shat on my newspaper, so I wiped it on the guy's bike seat...

that's what you get for being a tosser and leaving your bike uncovered
:dizzy:

:rofl: :lol: !!!

I hope a bird poops in his face while he is riding his bike :D

I want to add to the jerk list and my comment above the woman who opened her car door to try to block my dad from splitting lanes because she didn't think it was fair. He very nearly dropped the bike when he swerved to avoid her open door.

What a... um... it starts with a c and rhymes with "hunt" ;) (referring to that lady in mandalinn's last comment)

This reminds me of when I'm running, and pushing my son in the stroller no less. There's like a 6 or 8 foot shoulder and I run facing traffic. I keep an eye out for any cars coming out of side streets. Now I WISH they'd keep an eye out for us! It never fails. Nearly every day I meet up with someone turning out of these side streets, they keep looking back at the oncoming traffic while turning...INTO THE SHOULDER! I stay way back and wait. I've often thought I'd have to climb the guardrail with the stroller somehow because they just keep driving forward still on the shoulder and don't realize they haven't actually gotten out into the road yet. Then they look up and are all shocked that someone was there. Putzes!

I hate that with anything, cars, shopping carts....

When you're going through the store and people go wizzing by with their carts, cut right in front of you then stop to look at a display just as they cut in front of you...

Makes me wanna slam the buggy into their backside and see if they feel THAT in the morning. :mad:

But ::sigh::...I'll think it, just never do it. The most they get is an under my breath "how rude!"

And that last brought to mind other rude shoppers...

The ones that practically push by you, putting their hands right in front of you to push clothes around a rack when you are standing there looking through those very clothes. HELLLO! Did you not SEE me? You had to. You had your hands right in front of my face. A couple more inches and you'd have drawn back a nub.

That's when you drive behind them slowly... then blare the horn and scare the bejeezez out of them :)

People who can't, or won't, park in a parking stall properly. I'm sorry, but the lines are there for a reason. You aren't supposed to pick and choose which ones you are between or over!

I stopped taking my indoor only cat to the vet because they are insisting they clean her teeth the next time she comes in. She's 17, high strung, underweight, has some kind of eye twitch. Every time she goes in it's a major fit, you can hear her protesting out on the street. If she's made it 17 years without having her teeth cleaned they're going to stay dirty until she dies. She doesn't need the stress. And because I've taken this stand this particular vets office has deemed me an unsuitable cat owner forevermore.

And, because this is the second time in 18 months this has happened, the jerks who just "happen" to drop sofa's on the freeway. You'd think you would notice the load you are transporting just disappeared, guess not. My bad for not realizing sofa's on the freeway are a factor to contend with!

I don't do this kind of thing very often but I have a bugaboo today.

It's the fellow who calls the nurses station once in a blue moon all imperious like and demanding to know what we are doing for his 90 y o mother. "Is she having tests, is she getting therapy ...?"
I'd like to say "Why don't you visit your mother and ask her how she's doing? And while you're at it maybe you could spring for a toothbrush and tooth paste? a comb maybe????"

You must live in WV. I swear I think it's the only state that doesn't require you secure your load. Well...I think they DO require it. Just the numbskulls here either don't think it pertains to them, or never got past 6th grade and can't read the law. When a pickup is pulling off on the shoulder of the 70 mph interstate to pick up the huge Little Tykes plastic playhouse (right in the middle of the two lanes and is the width of one lane), it's a disaster waiting to happen. And I can't believe that a cop never sees them on the interstate with no straps on their junk. :mad:

I agree...people that leave their loved ones to linger in nursing homes and never come to visit make me mad, too. It's like they're left there to be forgotten about :mad: ...until their guilty conscience gets to them and they go all postal on the phone.

I used to be annoyed at bikers weaving & taking the breakdown lane in stop & go traffic on the highways, but when I heard it was legal, why it was legal, and also learned it's a safety issue for them (It's much more dangerous for a person on a bike on a highway in stop & go traffic than it is for a person in a car.) I realized the need for that law outweighed my annoyance.

It should never happen on a regular street when stopping for a light or a stop sign, though. That's just being rude.

Okay...I have to add cashiers at the grocery store who feel the need to yak. not to me but to her friend/neighbor/cashier. I wasn't in a hurry yesterday when buying groceries, and the cashier was nice enough, but...I wanted to tell her to stop yakking with the other cashier and do your job.They just kept farting around. I didn't though...just thought it. This was at Wal-Mart, but the other grocery store I go to is worse. There will be a group of 4 or 5 laughing and carrying on while trying to check people out...very annoying at times.

Also, people who pull out in front of you like they are in a big a$$ hurry and can't wait 2 seconds for 2 cars to pass, then don't bother to speed up to the speed limit, yikes! Just poke along...

I need to add my two neighbors who yell out cat calls at me when I am leaving my apartment and when I am coming back. I hate that! Ok you think I am cute; now stop it no one wants to be harassed in any way when they are just going about their business. :mad:

The jerk who I thought was my very first friend, for controlling me, and treating me like dirt during our so called friendship knowing that I was naïve, and for deleting me on his page and blocking me so I can never talk to him again after I stood up to him for the first time; with him knowing that he was my first friend, that I did not want to get hurt again and that I was emotionally fragile. How can someone be so cold, just so cold? :(

Ok, I need to add THIS STUPID man who got a web site done by me. He never gave me any accurate database information, so I only got the layout done with a shell of a database :mad: Now, he's posting ads in the newspaper and online requesting a web developer and offering $2,000 :eek: $2,000 was the TOTAL cost of the project and the site is half done. He already DID pay for the half that has been completed, BUT when I asked him for more information, he never called me! I tried to call him COUNTLESS times and he never, ever returned my calls! :mad: Now, some lucky little b@$tard is going to get more money than I did and have a much easier job than I had!

Adding to the cashiers...

The one who thought putting a plastic LUNCHABLE in the same bag with canned goods was a bright idea. So back it goes tomorrow, crushed package, crushed crackers, crushed cookies and all. Idiot.

Ask and ye shall recieve!

The DENTIST stopped me yesterday and asked me to help him make a list. Later in the afternoon he brought a lovely bunch of stuff for his mother.

What's sad is that while reading the ANTI-jerk list, it only brought to mind two other jerks. It really seems like more people act like jerks than not.

Someone mentioned those people who apologize for calling the wrong number. I get one of those in about 20 wrong number calls. That's ridiculous. What the heck is wrong with people that they can't just say "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me"..."I dialed the wrong number"? Got a guy who called the other day and was TALKING to someone ELSE when I answered. RUDE for one. Then after I'd said hello twice, he realized someone was on the line and turned his attention to me and said "Hello?" So I said hello the third time and he hung up. I called him right back. Caller ID is a wonderful thing. Got his voice mail. Some business man! I left him a message that for someone who sounds so professional, he acted so rudely in hanging up on a wrong number.

Then someone had mentioned being nice to those in the service industry. I'm nice to anyone, sometimes even when they're not being so nice, but I have my breaking points. Two recent times...

Our cable got hit by lightning because the cable company had never grounded it. I called in to report our cable box out and modem. Warranties covered the TV and network card. The tech support girl for the modem said she could see my modem online and that it was fine. I told her the ethernet port on the modem had been blown out by the lightning. She said she could see it. I said she could see the modem, but could she see the port itself. She swore the modem was fine. I explained I was a certified network tech. She refused to send a tech! I asked for a supervisor. She refused to let me speak with a supervisor!!! I called back and raised some cain with a super about her behavior. He assured me that they ALWAYS have to give me a super when I ask. I had her name. I HOPE she lost her job. She doesn't need to be working with the public.

BTW, the port on the modem had been blown out and they had to replace the modem. LOL

And a few weeks ago I was using the self service checkout at Wally World. The one I was at wasn't ringing up half the stuff. And the guy was just standing up front, refusing to come help. I kept punching the button and it wouldn't take. Kept trying to scan and it kept getting stuck on the "skip bagging" screen everytime, even though I WAS bagging the stuff. Eventually I grabbed my stuff and went to another register. NOW he pays attention. Does he come offer help? Nope! He goes and clears the one I was at, comes around me and starts punching buttons on the new one I had already started using, leaves it in supervisor mode and goes off to help someone else. I'm looking over at him and he's holding up a finger motioning me to wait. He comes back and starts ringing up the rest of my stuff. He STILL hasn't said ONE word to me. I ask if he can just take it back off super mode and let ME ring the rest up. He ignores me. I ask AGAIN. He STILL ignores me. He goes off to help another customer and does the finger thing twice again. I left and went to customer service. They said they'd had a lot of complaints, that he was battling cancer and having a hard time. I sympathized with his problem, but his problem should NOT become every customer's problem. They should put him on in as stock boy or something, away from customers, until he gets a grip on his personal issues. I mean I really do hope his cancer turns out ok. Have had a few family members battle with it. But they'd been already getting complaints and still left him working directly with people. THAT is Wal*Mart's fault there. They could've had a solution to that by putting him away from the public while he was working through this.

Ok, I'm done with my rant. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

I third the cashiers. Who talk to people. About everything, whilst a queue is forming and people (namely me) are rapidly becoming late and experiencing a rise in already-taut stress levels. The other day I had one discussing the exchange rate of the pound to the dollar with the person in front of me whilst more and more people were joining the queue.
Also, the guy who, whilst I was cycling down a narrow road and keeping as far from the parked cars as I physically could without going under the moving ones, waited until I was right next to his big ugly van and WHAMMED HIS DRIVER DOOR OPEN! Luckily I have good reflexes!

Grrr.....have to bump this thread.

To the JERK who shot out my rear car window this morning, thank you so much!! I loved paying $300 this morning for your jollies....right before Christmas, my son's birthday, and my daughter's surgery that we are paying out of pocket for! And it was so much fun spending the morning cleaning up glass after being up with a barfing boy all night.

I know that what goes around comes around and you will get yours for this!

I have to ad the woman at the mall today who made my mom cry!

She accused my mom of parking in the handicapped stall when she shouldn't. She actually followed my mom into the mall and told her what a b**ch she was for parking in the handicapped stall. Well my mom looks healthy, (she has cancer but wears a very realistic looking wig) but b/c of the cancer her lungs are filled with fluid. She was so rude and mean to my mom that my mom started crying.

I chased that woman down and gave her a piece of my mind and made her walk over to my mom and appoligise. After the "appoligie" she rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath "cancer, what a load of bs"

She's at the top of my list right now!

That thoughtless, uncaring and selfish person deserves to be on this list. I'm sorry your mom was so upset. God love you for doing what you did. Bless your heart and bless your mom's.

This is a reason why I won't ever judge someone parked in a handicap spot. My friend's grandmother had a similar issue. She had emphysema and didn't always "look" like she needed the spot.

You never know what someone else is going through. Just one more reason to try and be nice :) Or at least not go out of your way to be mean.... :mad: