On a most recent road trip, traveling on the multi lane interstate highways, I discovered a most annoying fact. These roads are set up to make getting from point A to point B quicker, easier and for the most part, safer.
Some sections of the interstates have more than just two lanes for the flow of traffic to travel, at times there are four lanes or more. The lanes to the left were intentionally purposed for vehicles to pass slower moving traffic in the right lane or lanes. It probably would not matter if there were ten lanes of traffic flowing in one direction because there would still be those folks who have come to the conclusion the passing lanes were meant for them and them alone.
We've all encountered them. The car that slides into the left hand lane, sets the cruise control and never moves from that spot. The ones who, no matter how close you get to their back bumper in an attempt to make them move over, they ain't movin'. This usually leads to having to find a spot in the right lane traffic in order to pass Mr. and Mrs. Steadfast and sometimes leads to several hand gestures given while passing said vehicular occupants.
I encountered this many times on my journey. I did not give any hand gestures along the way though. I was much too busy hanging on to the steering wheel, in the 10 and 2 position, wheeling a packed to the max minivan as fast as I dared. I had discovered early in the trip that glancing to the side meant the van was going to follow, regardless of how tight my grip was. I knew if I ever lost control of my top heavy sled, it wasn't going to be pretty. There would be stuff strung for miles. As I thought of that scenario, I wondered if maybe I would land in one of the two rocking chairs crammed in the back.
Didn't these left lane drivers know I had a mission? Didn't they care? Obviously not, but I thought that having something like a giant bullhorn, to blast while riding their bumper, might be kind of fun.
Being in a large metropolis area offers so many more places to shop than the one big box store back home. As I made my way to the check out lanes, in a store I had rarely shopped in, I noticed they offered an express lane. The sign above the lane read, "10 or so items".
I'm not sure what has happened in our society when it comes to this 'being offended' stigma. Yes, it would be pleasant to never have an unpleasant encounter with someone but, the reality of that happening is somewhere in outer space. Why couldn't the sign just read, "10 items or less"? Was it for people who cannot count to 10? If so, why not just put up a sign that reads, "This lane for people who cannot count past 10".....but I guess that would mean if they couldn't count, they couldn't read and then there we are again, offending somebody.
Putting up a sign that says 10 or so, is like telling a child they have ten minutes or an hour to get their fanny home. The whole point of even offering the directive has flown right out the window. Where do we draw the line?
So, I'm standing in the express lane with my five items. The lady and her daughter ahead of me had obviously drawn the line at somewhere around 30 items. The young checker took her time as she methodically picked up each item, studied it, scanned it and placed it in a bag. The lady shot me a look as if to say the checker did not know what she was doing. I smiled back and waited patiently. When my turn finally arrived, the checker smiled, asked me how I was, quickly scanned my items and was done in about 30 seconds.
I think she was irritated at the lady because of the amount of items she had brought through the express lane. Being a young employee and probably needing her job, she surely was not allowed to turn someone away for bending the rules to the point of breaking. As I left, I thought about that bullhorn again. It could hang above the beginning of the express checkout lane, equipped with a scanner. As soon as it scanned more than ten items......well, I think that would be fun too.
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