I once tweeted (yes, I was active on Twitter before it turned into a venom filled toilet bowl) that;
“Hell hath no fury like that of a middle aged white male who has been mildly inconvenienced.”
And then last week I saw an incredibly entitled person put on an absolutely brilliant public display.
Last week while driving I saw a garbage truck backing out of a lane. All the while the truck was backing up there was the sound of that super annoying, mind-piercing beeping noise. To make everyone within the area fully aware that the truck was backing up, the driver was also sounding the horn.
It was very obvious there was a truck backing out of the lane, onto the street. So, knowing that there was a truck backing up, and valuing my safety, I stopped my car to wait for the truck to get out of my way.
And then the fun began.
A person on a bicycle cycled past where I was stopped and into the path of the truck that was reversing. Yes, the cyclist rode behind a massive garbage truck as it was backing up. They rode into the path of a garbage truck.
My grandfather used to say, “You may have the right of way, but that truck has the right of weight.”
I am sorry to tell you this, and it may not be fair, but it is the truth. Self preservation should tell the cyclist to slow down and wait. Instead, he rode around in front of the truck and tried to explain to the truck driver that the truck should stop and wait for him to cycle by.
Believe it or not, even though the cyclist was gesticulating and shouting obscenities at the truck driver, the driver continued to back up.
I have to admit, it was an inconvenience to have to wait that two or three minutes for the garbage truck to back out of the lane. Of course the time passed more quickly because of the show that the cyclist provided me. Even so, as I sat there for those few minutes, I thought about the work that the garbage truck driver had to do.
I thought about how difficult it must be to maneuver that truck down narrow lanes and into dark loading bays where garbage bins are kept. I thought about how stinky it must be have to pick up and dump a bin of garbage. And I thought about how grateful I was that someone was willing to do this job.
As I said, it was a minor inconvenience to wait for the truck to back out of the lane. I did have to wait. But really, all the cyclist needed to do was chill out for a couple minutes as the truck got out of the way. Wait. Instead, he got all riled up, raised his blood pressure and did his best to ruin someone else’s day.
I wonder what that cyclist was thinking about as they voiced their impotent outrage at being mildly inconvenienced.