Nature of Humanity and parking spots

It's now about 6am on a cold snowy morning. The day after a record setting snowfall in the area.
I write this now, because I can't get back to sleep - for fear of worrying about my truck.
Let me explain...
I live in an apartment complex with a parking lot.
When it snows of any reasonable amount, the parking lot becomes a mess.
The reason being, is that the complex sends a plow around to clear the streets - that sounds good right? Well, what it does is - it plows the snow up and blocks in every person parked in the parking lot. Now here's the thing... when you have to dig out your car (or pick-up truck in my case), there's no place to throw the snow. You have to walk the length of your car for every shovelful and dump the snow in front of (or behind) the vehicle. It's a real pain.
In the years that I've lived here, I've seen people, who are either lazy, or inconsiderate, or just plain both do the following... rather than walk that car length, to dump the snow, they simply throw the snow behind (or in front of) the car next to them! I don't see it happen often, but at least once every major snowstorm.
Now, this brings me to why I'm writing this...
I woke up around 4:45am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I happened to get up, and look out my front window. Wait... let me back up here a minute... I dug out my truck early in the morning yesterday. I have a 4x4 truck - aka 4-wheel-drive. So as a benefit of that, I don't have to spend too much time clearing out the snow behind my truck. I'm able to drive over most of it - within reason. So that's what I did. I cleaned off the sides, the snow actually on my truck, and most of the snow behind my truck.
Ok back to this morning...
I glance out the window, and see that someone has dug out the back of my truck, almost clear down to the pavement! Wow! Was someone that nice to me? helping out a fellow neighbor? As I was sitting here, trying to figure out who that neighbor was... it hit me... The SUV/Van next to me, is completely plowed in - and I realized... They didn't dig ME out to be nice and neighborly, they dug ME out for REVENGE!
I remembered as I was digging out, my neighbor came out too and was digging out his car (I think it was a Prius). I put 2+2 together and saw that the vehicle next to me was a blue/black SUV. That's when I realized... the guy who dug his car out this morning, came back to "his" spot, and someone had taken it. I know, I know... it's not HIS parking spot, but it's like an unwritten rule in apartment complexes that if someone digs out their car, it's "their" spot. Some people put up folding chairs, to "mark their territory" as their spot.
As someone who has been in that exact situation, I've been pissed off too! The nerve of someone taking your spot, after you spent hours digging it out, is beyond frustrating.
So that's when I realized what happened. He's a younger guy, I think there might be a couple of roomates there, and while I didn't see this happen, I can garauntee you they probably were angry, and decide to teach the guy a lesson, and RE-shovel him back in.
So now, I put 2+2+2 together and think - wait a minute... IF the guy comes out later today and sees MY spot empty, and his spot full - he's going to think that I was the inconsiderate person who just moved my snow to behind his vehicle! Would he take some sort of revenge now on my vehicle?! Would he "key it" with a nice long scratch?! Would he smack his snow-shovel into the side and possibly dent it?! Ugh. So these are the thoughts now running through my head, and preventing me from getting back to sleep.
Now, I'll have to try and keep a 24 hour watch on my vehicle to see how the guy reacts, and possibly confront him and try and explain, "It wasn't me!"

The joy's of living in an apartment complex.

Update: All was fine. I decided to go back to bed and not worry about what might happen. In the end, nothing happened, and when I checked out my window around noon, there was a different vehicle parked there, and some heavy equipment had been brought in to actually remove the snow via a backhoe.

strange neighbor

I'm confused with how to deal with this topic...
On one hand I want to appear neighborly, and on the other hand I want nothing to do with this guy...
Story: For the past 7 month (perhaps a year?) I've had a new neighbor that lives a few doors down from me (not sure exactly which apartment he lives in). He's a strange looking fella... skinny, blond hair, perhaps in his mid 50's, though I suspect he might be younger than he looks, and that his 'life experiences' have aged him prematurely. He kinda looks like an ugly version of Tom Petty (I know, that's not saying much, apologies). He has an odd habit... he walks the parking lot almost constantly with shorts and no shirt on. I'm not sure if he's on disability, but I don't think he works, and he walks with a strange limp - not to mention about 1/4 the speed of an average walking pace. Well, I've passed him in the past, and I always try to keep my distance from him. Just one of those 'gut feelings' that I can't explain that the guy's bad news. Well, about 2-3 weeks ago, I cracked... I walked out to take my garbage to the dumpster, and he was out strolling. I finally acknowledged him just by giving him a "head nod" as if to say "hey, what's up" without actually saying the words. Boom... that's all he needed for an invite. A few days later he approached me as I was headed out somewhere, and proceeded to tell me that he used to have long hair (which I do - what's left of it anyway). He went on to say that he had long hair up until one day when some strangers stopped on the side of the road thinking he was a girl - so he cut it off.
Um... great. You're telling me this why? Are you calling me a girl? Are you trying to say you're 'cooler' than me cause you cut it? I didn't get it, nor did I wish to find out. I simply laughed, nodded, then went on my way.
Tonight, he cornered me again...
He asked me what I did for a living and what hours I worked, because he noticed my vehicle in the parking lot is always out there in the morning and that I usually come home late. Yes, I said, I have odd hours (without telling him what I did for a living). Then he said, "Oh you mean you work the 'lazy a$$' second shift?" - Um... yeah I said, if you say so.
So now he's basically called me a girl, and a "lazy a$$" - how's that for neighborly?
Actually, I guess I just answered my question. I think I'll go back to ignoring him. If I just have to 'nod' and acknowledge him and leads him to insulting me - I guess the answer is pretty obvious. But I'm not that type of person, so I'll continue to fight with this internally - AND I'm also aware too that this is 'twice' now that he's spoken with me, and with each time it will get easier to bring up things to talk about. Ugh.

Karma is calling...

Ring Ring - Karma is calling.

This little story is going to haunt me for some time now until I can find a way to rectify it.
This past week I was on vacation. I went to the west coast to visit family and take in the sights and sounds of sunny California. I had an awesome time (as always). (One of the highlights was seeing a press conference with Arnold "The Governator" himself! It was a situation we just sort of lucked into by chance and it was pretty cool. I hope to post photos soon.)
But the story is this...
As I left California I had a connecting flight in Phoenix AZ. I arrived at PHX only to learn my flight had been delayed an hour. I didn't let it bother me at all, and took the time to eat my sandwich (that my sis made for me with some extra surprise goodies) at the little kids table that happened to have some old Popeye cartoons playing. (it was funny actually, here I am sitting on these little stools meant for kids eating my lunch and watching cartoons, and behind me was another TV with a story I was hearing in the background of how a man was recently shot... I conciously made the effort to tune it out, and enjoyed my Popeye.)
After lunch, I wandered over to my gate, and sat down to wait. As I approached my seat, I looked down and saw that someone had dropped a $1. Cool! I asked the guy sitting one chair away, if he lost a $1 - the expresion on his face was priceless. It was as if I wanted to come up with a story about how it was his, but his mind just froze so he said "no". I asked the other guy on the other side of me, if it was his, and he just said no. Woohoo!
But then... As I was sitting there, I noticed a small black object under the chair across from me. It looked like it might be a cell phone but I wasn't entirely sure. I wasn't ready yet to get down on my hands and knees to go reaching for a piece of plastic trash like off of some luggage or something. Just as I was getting up the nerve to crawling for it, this young guy walks in front of me and sits down. Ugh, I really don't want to ask this guy to move now, just so I can crawl under his chair. I sit patiently and wait for him to get up. The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's a cell phone. The kid across from me was a strange one. He was dressed in a skull shirt, had a big skull metal belt buckle on (that he was mighty proud of cause he was polishing it and meticulously tucking in his shirt so it was visible.) He had on some Skull "Van" Sneakers and carried around two drumsticks covered in electrical tape. The kid also had a heavy brow which gave him a neanderthal look, with messy blonde hair. He proceeded to start taking stuff out of his small duffle bag. mostly clothes. He seemed oblivious that I was watching him closely, or for that matter, that there were even other people around him (it was very crowded for some reason). This kid fascinated me, and disgusted me at the same time. As he was dumping his clothes on the floor, he picked up a pair of underwear (presumably his!) and smelled them! Who does this? Sure, I might have picked up a shirt that I had laying on my floor when I was a teen to smell the pits to see if it was dirty or clean, but underwear? No way. He repacked his bag, then proceeded to really dig his finger into his nostril like there was no tomorrow. Not just once either. I was thinking to myself, does this kid have any social skills at all?!
He then bends over to pick up more of the clothes when he lets out a 'gasp' and grabs the cell phone! I was like a deer in headlights! What do I do now? Do I confront this mentally unstable guy? I watch him, in the hopes that he'll do the right thing and turn it into the desk for "lost and found". He starts looking all around. Then once he's sure no one is looking he opens the phone and starts pushing buttons (didn't make a call). I still didn't know what to do, and then realized I had let too much time slip by to say anything. I SO wanted to just say to him "I saw that, and hope you'll do the right thing and return the phone." But I didn't.
Shortly later, he picked his stuff up, and walked over to the wall near his gate and sat down and started playing with his drum sticks. I thought maybe he was drumming along to the music playing on his ipod... then I realized, he didn't have any headphones in. He was just "air drumming" like crazy.
Eventually, they announced that the flight he was waiting for was transfered to a different gate and he got up and left.
I so wanted to tell someone, but chickened out for fear of getting involved.
All I could imagine was how some innocent person was going to have all sorts of problems with their lost phone. Possible billing issues if the kid decided to run up the phone bill, or worse yet, get all the contact information out of the phone. I felt really bad for not doing the right thing, and acting faster when I saw it.
I fear now that someday that karma train will come around and get me back for this. As I was sitting in the airport wondering how it would hit me (ie: would I lose my phone now too?!), I thought - wait a second... if I believe in Karma, then that means the person who lost their cell phone must have also done something wrong! So the karma train was gettin back at HIM and not ME! :)
I know I still should have acted sooner or said something, and this will haunt me for a long time now.

Venting...

Well, how do you work this blog thing again? It's been a long time. In fact, just today, (somewhere on the intertubes) I saw someone proclaiming the end of blogging! That Twitter has taken over (and that in a year or two, some other service will replace twitter = gasp). I have to say based on my experience, I don't think I'd go that far as to claim the end of blogging. I think it still serves a purpose, and (like this post) sometimes you need to have more than 140 characters to put out to the world.
First off... Happy Halloween! It's always been one of my favorite "holidays". I don't really celebrate it though... although this year I bought myself a .99¢ tiny pumpkin on a whim. But I don't hand out candy or anything like that. I live in an apartment complex, and to me, it's just not the same as a neighborhood. (old man alert) Back in MY day, we used to have to walk blocks and blocks (miles?) to get a good haul of candy. Nothing like wearing a plastic mask that his just legally shy of putting a plastic bag over your head, because the 'air holes' to breath through are large enough to prevent long lasting brain damage from lack of oxygen. Not to mention how you usually ended up dressing for the chilly weather, but never failed that by the third house, you were sweating to death! Ah... Good times :)

Ok, onto my rants today...
I pulled into my bank this morning to make a deposit, when MUCH to my surprise, they had changed the name and all the signage on the building! What the?! I pulled into the drive-thru and asked the 17 year old girl, is this still "my bank"? She said yes. I said "Is all my money still here?" She said yes. I asked "didn't they send out some sort of notice?" She simply shrugged her shoulders. Nice customer service there huh? I hesitantly gave her my paperwork, and they did deposit it, and from talking with my sister who went through a similar situation, It wasn't like this was uncommon for the days we live in. But still. So after I drove away, I asked a few friends and family members if they knew about the name change, and perhaps I just didn't pay attention? No. two people I talked to, had no idea either. k, now I'm a little miffed. I decided to pay the branch a visit on the way home to ask some questions (and basically to give them a hard time about not telling me). I got a bit more of a shoulder shrug, but still it was a half hearted explanation. Basically, they made it sound like "Oh, the bank sent out some notices in the recent statements that maybe you threw them out without looking at them". (I just got home and went through my recycle, and no - no notice!). I asked them for a 'copy' of this mythological notice... and big surprise, they didn't have any. After taking up about 10 minutes of their time, it basically came down to... we did it, nothing changed other than the name, and we're sry you didn't know about it, is there anything else I can help you with?
I'm not mad enough to withdraw all my money and switch banks over this. Too much of a hassel, and I suppose they know this. But still... just 'burns me up' that this is how banks and financial corporations treat their customers today. We're just peon's to them, and they could care less about us. I noticed... all 5 of the people behind the desk today were under the age of 20. That's just sad.

Rant #2...
I know, this is getting long. I'll try to keep it short.
I've got a new enemy. I'm kinda proud, that overall, I have no personal enemies in my life. I still hold a few grudges against some people (like from 20 years ago, that I never see anymore). But as of last week, I have a new enemy. My neighbor. It is ashame in a way. I wasn't close or anything like that, but I always helped her out. I called and stayed with her the time she locked her self out of her apartment, I helped her carry heavy furniture in for her, I even tried to fix her computer, and I've never asked her for anything, except one time long ago, I asked her to turn her music down. Well, that's what triggered all this again. Last Sat, she had people over, and from about 8pm, til 11:40 she was playing her music loud. It bothered me, but I figured, I didn't want to be a grouch about it. It's Sat night, people were over, etc... I didn't say anything. But then... it happened again on Tuesday night. I had a rough day, and just wanted to come home and relax, but instead was met with the loud thumping of Latino bongos. I went down and asked her to turn it down. She did... for about 3 minutes, then to my surprise she turned it back up again. Nice. I thought of starting up my speakers, and all, but figured, no... that's what they want is to get a rise out of me. So I didn't say anything, or retaliate in any way.
Well, I bumpped into her again tonight on the way in. I asked her flat out... why did she turn the music back up? She said "I checked with the office, and 'quiet time' is from 10am til 10pm" So basically a big "screw you". So trust me... I'll be heading back up to the office to confirm this (I suspect she's wrong). And I'll file a complaint. I also won't give her the time of day anymore. Mess with the bull, you get the horns! Some people. If nothing else, this is yet another reason, to motivate me to start looking for a new place to live. (not like I need another reason, I've got plenty). I just hate to have to spend more money to rent a place.

Ok, rants over. See... none of the above would have fit in 140 charaters on twitter ;)

Peer Pressure

(Via OpenCulture)

What would YOU do?

Just a small story that ended well, but I have to wonder if I did the right thing...
A long time ago, I was driving home with a friend late at night, when the person in front of me was weaving on the road. We both were pretty sure that he was drunk. So I used my cell phone and called the police. It was rather difficult, because by the time I got the story out as to who I was, why I was calling, and trying to describe where we were (while moving) we ended up crossing township lines, so they had to transfer me. Long story short, they eventually caught up to me and pulled the person over.

So, yesterday, I was driving home from work, and the same thing happened. I noticed a car that was weaving into the shoulder. Ok, once, no big deal, maybe he wasn't paying attention, and just drifted. We've all done that. But after the second time, my "spidey senses" kicked in and I thought, this aint right. So first thing I did, was back off the gas and let the guy get in front of me (rather than next to me, where he could have swerved into me!). Sure enough, as a space opened up next to him, he changed lanes and was now directly in front of me (though with extra space), next thing I know, he drifts over and ALMOST smashed into the concrete barrier separating the lanes of traffic! He jerked the car back at the last minute. So, I've got my hand on my cell phone, but now I'm having a hard time keeping up with him to follow, and other cars are now tailgating ME because I had given extra space between us.
So, I decided at the last minute that I would not call the police. I didn't have the number, (I've since added it to my speed dial - a good tip for everyone). He was pretty far ahead of me now so I wouldn't be able to follow safely and provide directions as to where we were. So I felt bad, but hoped that the near miss with the medium strip would be enough to get him to sober up.
Next thing I know, I seem him change lanes up ahead of me, and he gets off at the same exit that I was. him, now's my chance to catch up to him on the side streets. So I finally get behind him at the next light, but it turns out he's headed into MY parking lot of the apartment complex that I live at. So, it doens't make sense to call the police now, because by the time they get there he might be parked and out of his car. So I follow him, to make sure he's parking and not continuing to drive. Finally, he ends up parked and as I drive past, he's getting out of the car.
So here was my dilemma now... Do I say something to this guy? Do I risk a confrontation with a drunk to let him know what he did was wrong and endangered not only his life but others?!
I decided in that split second moment, that if he's drunk, I wouldn't be able to rationalize with him, so I passed him by.
But now it's still nagging at me, as to wether I did the right thing or not. I think I did, but...
So what would you have done? confront? or make sure he was off the road and continue on.

Faith in Humanity

So every once in a blue moon, a story comes along that just restores one's faith in humanity. A story where someone "does the right thing" (that's a vague interpretation sometimes) and it simply pays off.
Today, one of those stories made it to the homepage of reddit where it caught my attention. What a FANTASTIC story.
Please read this story on NPR.
And my personal thanks to Julio Diaz.

Tech Tags: NPR Humanity Faith Mugging Robbery Social+worker diner dinner knife golden+rule

Kiva.org

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you all found a bit of peace today and enjoyed a bit of the holiday spirit today.

I was just surfing the web and somehow stumbled upon a website that I had discovered some months ago. That is: www.kiva.org. I had bookmarked it with the intent of joining and contributing to but somehow lost track of the link and completely forgot about it - until today.
I find it fitting that I re-discovered it today (Christmas) and am glad to help. Of course that little nagging voice in the back of my head tells me "this could be a scam", "people are probably misusing your intended "loan", etc... But I'm ignoring that voice for now and going ahead with it.
I just "loaned" a small amount to a woman in Uganda so she could build a section or new pig sty.
In a nutshell, the website allows people like me to lend a certain amount of money to entrepreneurs who are in need of money in order to make a better life for themselves and or for their family. It doesn't take a large donation (about $25) and it is technically a loan and not a gift. At some point down the road, the person(s) you lent the money to repays the loan, at which point you can either "cash out" or re-loan the money to someone else.
Pretty cool idea.
Check it out if you like.