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Get A Grip Old Man...

Chief

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Jan 10, 2002
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Location
Edmonds, WA
I guess I'm just a psycho magnet. About two years ago I was assaulted by an old man at a festival (he was arrested) and this past weekend I had another confrontation of the eerie kind.

So I'm going to Costo to fill up on gas. There is a large RV at the pump in front of me and he is hanging out almost to the rear pump - so I need to get as close as possible to have hope that the hose will reach the back of the Av.

On the rear of the RV is one of those cargo carriers and as I creep closer it dissapears from view over the front end. Long story short - I love tap, and I mean TAP the RV. I'm horrified. I back it up - get out, look at the holder and see no damage. I apologize immediately to the man pumping gas.

Oh no - that's not good enough. He starts ranting at me about how I shouldn't drive if I don't know where the front of the vehicle is, walking in ciricles and making a big fuss. I look him in the eyes and in a soft, calm voice say, "sir I'm sorry it was an accident."

Then he roars, "no that wasn't an accident! There are no such thing as accidents!"

What? I did this on purpose. So now I go to Plan B - ignore the man and start pumping gas - no harm - no foul. Now he threatens to call the police. Now the guy pumping gas across from me starts in - seems he can't believe I bumped the RV either.

Now the old man accuses me of breaking out the back tail lights. I look at him and say sir, "I did not break your tail lights," and he roars well they're broken aren't they.

Now the manager of the Costco is out there asking the man if he wants to call the police and what can he do. Sudden the tact changes. The guy at the pump next to me shuts up, but now another guy across the way chimes in. Hey, if he broke your tail lights where is the plastic on the ground.

Now Mister RV owner retreats to the cab of his RV. The manager told me he came out because he was worried the old guy was going to take a swing at me and he has seen several fights at the pumps. YIKES! Fighting over gas pumps? What the hell is wrong with our society?

Now I've turned 180 degrees and go over to the cab where the window is 1/2 down. I calmly tell the man that I think it is best that we do call the police and get an official report. Remember, he has now falsely accused me of damaging his RV.

Suddenly getting the police isn't a good idea, I'm accused of being on drugs, and he drives off. The manager gladly gives me his name and phone number in case there is further trouble. Some time during this the opinionated guy at the other pump has left. There is absolutely no damage to my Av - I would guess the speed at impact was 1 MPH.

Some people just need to get a grip!
 
Now Chief,your just going to have to be more careful when your out in public, because you are our Chief rep. ;D. Now if you care to share your "drug of choice" while your banging into people, it could be a next mod for Avers >:D >:D >:D
 
Chief,

You are truly cursed in this world. :cautious:

I did watch a fight at a gas pump before. I was sitting at a stop light and I look over and there are these two guys taking swings at one another. After about 20 seconds Apu comes out of the store and threatens to call the cops.

He might as well had shot the guys for as quick as the fight broke up. I don't think either one finished filling thier respective vehicles. They just left as fast as they could.

To this day it would be nice to know why 2 guys at oppisite sides of the gas pumps would start taking swings at each other. Maybe they got a hold of some of the Chiefs drugs and it affected them differently >:D
 
Uh, Chief... ?No one saw your club sticker on back, did they, 'cause we don't want to get a bad rep as some kind of gang or something... ?Hopefully Mr RV will attribute the 'bad behavior' to a Sport Trak. ? >:D

Please try to avoid such public displays in the future. ? ;D

I had some geezer start up with me while I was driving my wife's Cougar with the gas cap on the passenger side. He said I was deliberately blocking him from getting to a pump and when I pointed out the necessity of being on the 'wrong' side, he called me a 'smart @ss' and got even louder! I hope I'm never that old and bitter...
 
If anyone should be taking drugs, I think it should be the old man.
WOW, to get so emotional about such a material object....
Perhaps this is all he has.
What a sad miserable old soul...

Hang in there Chief, for there are more "GOOD" people in this life then there are bad!!! ;)

Rita
 
Ya know, there's these kind of people in this world that I hope haven't bred.....

Let's hope if he has kids, they're not like him.

;)

Kim
 
It just blew me away. Worst of all is how the local yokel cops work. If he had taken a swing at me the only thing I could do is let the geezer kick my arse. If I even defend myself I'd be hauled away in cuffs too. Pretty cruddy feeling when you're being confronted by Hank Hill's father and knowing in the back of your mind that unless he pulls a knife or gun - you'll just have to take your licks.

Gladly it didn't come to that. It all seems rather funny now but I was left feeling sorry for the pathetic state this individual was in. Also have to agree that if anyone was on medication...well, never mind.

Now if you excuse me I need to go find my bong...
 
I'm with ya Chief, sux your only viable option being to just sit there and remain calm.

- Can't smack him (he's old, local cops would not see it your way anyway).

- Can't reason with him - he was beyond that.

every so often when I get in these situations I am able to get through it by playing a game - in my mind I am making the other guy even more crazy by being calm, even slightly humorous. It acutally seems to work too - guy ends up running around talking crazy smack, and me just calmly (cracking an ever so slight smile)explaining again why he is wrong, why he should remain calm as I am, and perhaps I should call his doctor and get him his meds?
 
Gee and I thought I travelled in the twilight zone! Wow we need to get that bad juju exorcised for you Chief!

Having grown up in metro NY and then working for a short time as a police officer I got to see a good cross-section of the wackos out there. I avoid them when possible or try to get away with a minimum of fuss. Just like with road rage, I try not to get upset because:
1) the other person may be crazier than me and
2) they may have better weaponry than me. :eek:

(BTW, no I don't usually carry any weapons)
 
gojira-san said:
1) the other person may be crazier than me and
2) they may have better weaponry than me. :eek:


Remind me to avoid NH :rolleyes:
 
Chief,

You have to be an insurance man's nightmare first it was the rake from no where then the .............now the AV......RV bout.

You could fill the CAFCNA mag with your own stories of woe.
 
Chief said:
I guess I'm just a psycho magnet.
I think you might be! And a road debris magnet, rock magnet, off-road speeding white Ford magnet, red Kool-Aid magnet... and the list goes on...

You sure do seem to attract more than your share of problems.

Remind me not to stand next to you during a lightning storm!
eyepop.gif


-- SS
 
ShapeShifter said:
I think you might be! And a road debris magnet, rock magnet, off-road speeding white Ford magnet, red Kool-Aid magnet... and the list goes on...

You sure do seem to attract more than your share of problems.

Remind me not to stand next to you during a lightning storm!
eyepop.gif


-- SS

Well back on Columbus Day 1984 I took a hit through the phone line that burned my hand, arm, and sent me sailing across the room. Guess I should play the lottery. Of all of them the biggest give me a break why does this happen to me was the damn rake on the freeway. Why couldn't that rake fall out of the sky onto that old creeps head. Now that would have been funny.

I'm just convinced that somewhere, out there, in the National Archives is a picture of US troops during the Civil War. In that picture is a spitting image of me and in that image I'm kicking a dog while eating a piece of candy I stole from a baby, standing in front of a house I just burned down. Yup, I'm living out that bad karma of my past life! :D
 
flynhigh said:
Remind me to avoid NH ?:rolleyes:
No worries about NH flynhigh -- the worst road ragers I saw was when I used to commute to Boston. I-93 out of Boston at night could be like a scene from Mad Max at times...
 
gojira-san said:
No worries about NH flynhigh -- the worst road ragers I saw was when I used to commute to Boston. I-93 out of Boston at night could be like a scene from Mad Max at times...

Agreed. Driving in the Boston area is an adventure. Of course that's where I learned to drive so driving with me is an adventure too. :rolleyes: :cool:
 
Wow - that was some crazy experience at the pumps. And they're worried about people exploding from static electricity? ???

A couple years ago I almost saw a fist fight at the local gas station. It was an argument between a customer and the owner. The customer, with a huge wad of bills, stated that he had paid. The owner did not agree and would not let him leave. The argument got VERY heated, and soon both people were shouting at the top of their lungs. The owner slammed a bunch of bills down on the hood of a car trying to show that the customer had not given him the proper amount of money. I bolted out of there as fast as I could. Unless the cops showed up, I'm pretty sure that it escalated out of control.
 
Hey Chief...I'm on your side but how old is "old" to you? My neighbor calls me old man, I just tell him if he is lucky he too will live this long !! ;D
 
Chief said:
It just blew me away. ?Worst of all is how the local yokel cops work. ?If he had taken a swing at me the only thing I could do is let the geezer kick my arse. ?If I even defend myself I'd be hauled away in cuffs too. ?Pretty cruddy feeling when you're being confronted by Hank Hill's father and knowing in the back of your mind that unless he pulls a knife or gun - you'll just have to take your licks.

Gladly it didn't come to that. ?It all seems rather funny now but I was left feeling sorry for the pathetic state this individual was in. ?Also have to agree that if anyone was on medication...well, never mind.

Now if you excuse me I need to go find my bong...
Chief, I am beginning to worry about you - we may need to setup a contract with a protective service for your public appearances >:D
 
Chief said:
Well back on Columbus Day 1984 I took a hit through the phone line that burned my hand, arm, and sent me sailing across the room. ?Guess I should play the lottery. ?Of all of them the biggest give me a break why does this happen to me was the damn rake on the freeway. ?Why couldn't that rake fall out of the sky onto that old creeps head. ?Now that would have been funny.

I'm just convinced that somewhere, out there, in the National Archives is a picture of US troops during the Civil War. ?In that picture is a spitting image of me and in that image I'm kicking a dog while eating a piece of candy I stole from a baby, standing in front of a house I just burned down. ?Yup, I'm living out that bad karma of my past life! ? :D
Funny you should mention Karma - the new software has a Karma option - shall I turn it on when we convert ???
 
Saw this article earlier today. Since the Chief posted about his experience with an enraged person, and the other post about AVs in the news with that unfortunate accident with an AV and a Civic... here's one road rage incident where a Civic forced an S-10 off the road up in Nova Scotia. Luckily no one was hurt. The article is Road rage blamed for truck in ditch

There are some seriously crazy people out there... :cautious:
 
The only way to combat crazy is with crazy itself...you shoul of started speeking in tongues and running around with your head a tickin'...now that woulda been funny. ;D >:D
 
BlancheTheAvalanche said:
?
? WOW, to get so emotional about such a material object....


Rita

Ummm, I think you just described me and my 2035 model year Avalanche* (that's the year I officially become a senior citizen and enter the world of Medicare and AARP)


*fortunately, it comes with a force field as a standard feature.
 
Today's road rage incidents make me wish I had a truck like the one in Tango and Cash. If I recall correctly, it was based upon a GM truck as well. :)
 
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