Well, I'll tell you why, whether you want to know or not :p
People suck, because on my way home at lunch, my car got stuck in the snow. It wouldn't budge. I got out and kicked the snow away from the tires. No luck. I tried pushing it, but it just kept rocking back into the spot where it was stuck. After 5-10 minutes, I gave up and walked home and got a shovel and metal traction things and walked back to the car (after shoveling a spot for it at the end of the driveway). I shoveled snow out from under it. I put down the traction things. Still no luck. More digging and the traction things again. FINALLY, success!!
And during the entire process, not one single friggin' person who drove by and saw me trying to dig my car out stopped to offer help :mad: Even the guy who made direct eye contact with me -- he just kept right on driving by :mad:
To all of you A$$HOLES who didn't have the decency to stop and offer help, you all [B]SUCK[/B]. I hope karma gets you [B]BIG TIME[/B] :mad: And I hope Santa goes right by your house on Christmas Eve and you get NO GIFTS.
On the positive side.... who needs a guy to help you get your car unstuck?? [B][COLOR=Magenta]GIRL POWER ALL THE WAY, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/COLOR][/B]
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Smoodgie, at least your safe , frustrated but safe. We see it all the time every where we go, people just taking care of themselves and not even considering helping anyone else.
We have been stuck several times up north and not having anything to help us out, we have had great success with putting our car mats under the tires by turning our car mats over so the carpet side is on the snow and the spikes are facing up. jam these under both back tires and stand back since the car will shoot them back with great force. I have stopped and helped a few people with this trick and it has worked every time.
It is so funny to watch men's reactions when I help them out and they look at me as if I grew 2 heads. 2 of our friends are big burly guys and DH was in the house looking for something, so out I come assess the situation, go get my car mats and proceed to put them under the tires, these guys are just looking at me thinking, what an idiot. I tell them to now try. Out they get. They were so embarrassed and by the time DH came back out, they were gone.
I also went and snowblowed out a neighbour whose blowing company never came to his house last year during a big storm. So I saw that he was shoveling so he could get his van in after work so I went to help him. He NEVER even ACKNOWLEDGED ME!!:mad:
What is it with people!!:hairpull:
Now on the other hand I try to find the good in everyone and not everyone here is that bad.;)
Well I live in Ottawa and I found it really hard to take the rudeness at first as I am from the East Coast.
It is very typical big city thing as far as I am concerned.:rolleyes:
I am so sorry that happened to you Smoodgie but on the other hand "way to go girl" getting it out by yourself!:D
I stopped to help a man at the end of my street who was stuck in the snow but what cheesed me off was the fact that his wife sat in the car while I was help pushing!!:eek: WHY could she get her ass out and help too??? Heck she was even younger then me and I was dressed up too??!!
I hate to say it but we are a rude society for the most part. With cell phones and etc. it is even worse.
The EXCUSE " we are too busy to say thank you etc" is pathetic really!!
Did anyone see W5 Sat evening? It was all about this. As far as I am concerned the "Friendly Canadian" is almost over.:(
I have some insight there. I Used to work for the feds here and the one thing that seemed to come up a lot is those who went to Ottawa for any reason, didn't usually like it much there unless they had a special bent for it. I already had had some sense of that since that is why we had moved there when I was a kid and my mom said my dad just couldn't take the crap at work when we were there and couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Plain and simple, Ottawa is a political town and the civil service there is very hard to take compared to other places as it is very judgmental and political even in the lower ranks. I've heard things that just make you shake your head and would never be tolerated in other parts of the country in the same jobs, but in Ottawa, it's expected. I've seen some really decent people come back bitter and hard unless they were into the smoke and mirrors of it all. I imagine that filters through the city in a lot of ways.
the people I worked with at the gov't surprised me for the most part as it seems civil servants outside of Ottawa are actually mostly well meaning, hard working people who get their hands tide by power struggles and incompetence in Ottawa. As I saw it, there were a lot of people in Ottawa who had positions of power who were not held to the same level of competence for their jobs as happens in other places, so a lot of stupidity in positions of power making the rules with no idea about what they were doing
My brother wasn't a fed, but he worked in a very large national corp and it was the same sort of thing. All about power and money, not the customer so much. It happens everywhere, just not to the same degree.
As for the bus strike, I don't know if you can hold Ottawa itself responsible. That's a ploy of unions in general and Calgary had the same thing a few years back. they strike when it hurts the most and hope like crazy for bad weather to get attention and have some pressure applied to get their demands met. What they don't seem to realize (as happened here) is they lose a lot of public support when they try and shut a city down like that. I'm not a union supporter so can be considered biased when it comes to their tactics.
It would be interesting to know where it all comes from though. Your brother sounds like many of them though with those mottos. I blame it being a government town and sure some of them do work darn hard but many don't and you often hear of the abuses of tax payers money more often than not by civil servants creating make work projects for themselves until their handsome pension plan kicks in. So that in itself is very greedy and selfish. There are a lot of unionized employees in Ottawa too and they think very selfishly I find. Case in point, a bus strike in it's 40th day I believe in one of the coldest cities in Canada.
Well Arizona, my mother would have agreed with you on that one. We lived there for just over 3 years when I was a kid and my mom always maintained people in Ottawa were not very nice (and that would be putting it mildly but then you won't find me maintaining my mom was the most objective person around either).
My brother lived there a long time and there are times since he's come back I thought 'when did you become such a hard*ss?'. To give you an example, I was having car trouble one winter night while picking up a prescription (I was sick at the time so I wasn't having a good time at all) and had called him to please come and get me. His car was right behind mine as I tried to get mine parked somewhere (the alternator was gone so it was stop, start, stop, start as it limped around trying to get out of traffic). Well my car completely died at a light so I jumped out, all by myself, and started to try and push and steer it out of the way. Everyone else in the area just jumped out of their cars, told me to jump in and steer, and got me out of the way and there was my brother, still sitting in his car right behind me. Just left it to everyone else. It never even occurred to him to help. Even when other things come up and people say, well your brother will help won't he, the answer is no, he won't unless his arm is twisted although Calgary is rubbing off on him a bit and he's getting better about it now.
I don't know if it's Ottawa or something else but he came back from there with the motto 'you never say 'sorry' or 'thank you' for anything and you [I]never[/I] volunteer to help anyone'. With other things he's a great guy, but he holds to that motto. I don't remember that from living there, but I guess it happens.
I think it's Ottawa people. :laugh:
They don't exactly have a pay it forward mentality. Yes, I'm generalizing but after mingling with the natives for so many years and then going to other ciities it can't all be a co-incidence.
i had to add to this smoodgie....my niece is going to university in Ottawa, (im not saying its just people that live in Ottawa) her first year. Last night her and her friend attempted to head back home for the weekend, didnt even make it out of the city and had to pull over as they had no heat in the car, she called her boyfriend who happen to be at our house at the time, he gave them instructions on what to do, however they continued to struggle and in the meantime people were walking by the whole time and one guy sat contently watching them. Finally this woman came along and immediately asked if they needed help and got the cap off for them. In the end the problem was minor, just some ice froze in the fan. My niece was so upset and shocked at how many people just ignored the fact they were in trouble.
smiles
janetc
very unfortunate situation for you today. You can always rely on girl power;)
you know smoodgie that is totally unexceptable and i believe there really isnt any excuse for people to behave in such a way, unless health related. I live in a small city and it just seems natural to help someone out when you see they are stuck, the same goes with snow shovelling, dh would do 5 or more other driveways and same with the other neighbours, everyone is always there to help. It frustrates the hell out of him now, as he cant push someone or do driveways. It must be this fast pace world we live in that has caused people to become insensitive.
smiles
janetc
I sometimes wonder if any of this new social networking of interfacing on computers is to blame ?
(not us !! - we excluded) ;)
Texting. Cell phones, computer. Not much one on one to face inter action.
:confused:
I used to drive a little Honda years ago and it was terrible for getting stuck in the downtown streets when they never plowed but I always managed to get people helping me out even when I didn't ask for help. I'm not so sure people would help me now these days. People seem to not even notice other people these days. Many of them are rushing around, mostly speaking into a cell phone. I saw a middle aged man today in a store having an argument with someone on his cell phone. It was very uncomfortable having to listen to him.
I find people don't really care what anyone else thinks anymore.
that is unfortunate. Don't let that stop you from stopping again.;)
I actually was one of those people who stopped and helped a woman who tripped as she was exiting a building. She snapped when I asked her if she needed help. I was so shocked at how crabby she was.
Well that sucks. My guess is some people wouldn't be able to help, some might worry they'd get dirty, some might think they just don't have time, some have no clue about helping people. Still not much help. That's one thing about urban compared to rural. When you are stuck in a rural situation usually help is the first people who see you as they know what it's like to get stuck. In cities people just seem to think you should call someone or something.
BTw if there is one thing I learned living in N. Ont. it's to carry things like mats, towels, something in the car to throw under the tires that will stick on the snow a bit. You don't have to dig out if you have something that the tires can grip and move over. I've even gotten out of large drifts using pieces of wood (like branches), it just has to be something the tires can move on. I also carry bags of sand and have had times when the roads are icey and not cleared and just thrown sand in front of the tires to get me moving off an icy spot. I never understood this pushing, rocking stuff as even throwing mitts under the tires has gotten me out of some bad jams.
Meanwhile if that was one of your little cars, you might want to pack some extra weight into it for some winter traction. Bags of sand are good for that and for using when you need them. I usually carry mine wrapped in garbage bags so if I do have to rip them open they don't make a big mess (and there is an old pair of gloves in the back with a little pot so I don't wreck my leather gloves with the sand).
I have to say I had some real pride one time when it was horribly icey here and everyone on this long hill we were all trying to drive up were sliding and stuck and just going no where. There was no way to just back down so it was a mess. There I was all dressed up for work, spike heel boots and all and I just cracked open my trunk and started spreading sand in front of my tires. I had to do that about every 30 feet or so, drive a bit, spread sand, drive a bit... and at the beginning there was a lot of giggling coming from the men who were telling me to just stay in the car, but it didn't take them long to line up behind my car and follow me up the hill. I thought that will teach them for giving me the 'a girl will never get out of this by herself' type attitude.
YES -- pay it forward. And what goes around, comes around!!!
I don't know if it's so much people living in their own little worlds, as people just not giving a crap about anyone else.
Kudos to the young girl who stopped to help you -- a lot of ADULTS could learn a thing or two from her!!
To be honest, our snow blower scares me :eek: I clear the driveway the old fashioned way :)
Even though I'm still ticked off at the apathy of those dumba$$es who drove by, I feel pretty good that I was able to get unstuck by myself. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it, but I guess it's not altogether a bad thing to be stuck in a situation every now and then and figure out for yourself how to get out of it :)
that is terrible Smoodgie. I can relate totally. Last spring I fell on a street when I came out of a store with my hands full and missed the last step. Anyway, long story..short...everybody walked by me staring as if I was some crazy woman. Finally after at least a dozen people had passed me..a young girl stopped to help me. But, I tell you I was in shock at the reaction of people. I think that people are in their own little worlds just rushing through. Sad, really!! :rolleyes:
I am glad you got out and you are right. GIRL POWER BABY!!!! I actually just used our new snow blower to clear all this snow out of our driveway and I did our neighbours driveway too. Last year he used to do ours once in awhile so I figured with a new snowblower it was pay back time. That is all we can do....pay forward.