No tickets please
While driving in town, I saw a man in a minivan with his wife and 2 children waiting for a spot to park in a spot downtown where someone was leaving. He just sat there patiently waiting, but then the person leaving the spot pulled out oddly, then enabled someone else coming the other way to cut across 2 lanes of traffic and park there first.
The spot stealer was an elderly couple and I don’t think that they stole the spot on purpose. I really believe they were unaware of the person waiting, and through a fluke of timing and the odd way the person leaving left, they were able to steal the spot.
Now the man waiting for the spot was hot (as I would be too). So he took off and ran a newly turned red light by squealing his tires around the intersection that was only a few yards away.
Through his anger-invoked folly, he just happened to tear (with tires squealing) through the intersection turn as a police car happened to be in the opposite lane sitting 2 cars from the light! I saw the police car and thought “oh crap”, as did the offending driver as he quickly pulled over knowing he was busted before the police car got a chance to move.
I know why the man did it, and I would have done it too if I were as young as he was. When I turned my car down the street where the man got pulled over, I saw the police man writing the driver a ticket. I felt bad for him as I could tell he was just a normal guy that got raked over the coals by bad timing and bad luck that day.
I’m pretty sure the police officer gave the man 2 tickets, one for driving through a red light, and another for reckless driving. I’m sure it’s going to cost him well over $200 dollars. Hopefully what he learned from his bad day is to keep his cool, because it can be costly, both financially and physically, especially with 2 small children in the car.
The kicker is that I would have done the same thing if the same events happened to me five years ago.
Have you learned to control your emotions in such scenarios? I did, but it took me a long time to do so.
-MR
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Yeah, my DH is naturally calm about things, and it’s rubbed off on me. Plus we always give ourselves plenty of time and life is slower around here than in the city we used to live in. I generally limit myself to grousing to a few people and forget about whatever happened.
Yeah, I know what you mean… I use to get upset and hold a grudge, but why expend the waste energy…
As for road rage, I hardly ever get mad anymore. That’s not true, I get mad, but I don’t freak out, now I just acknowledge it and move on.
When I started working after college my inexperience caused me a lot of stress and frustration at work. I would buy myself treats during break, after work, on my days off thinking “I’m having a rough day/week, I deserve this!” A lot of money was spent unwinding after work with friends.
Now that I’m older and more experienced I handle work stress a lot better and I no longer feel the need to treat myself. Now my favorite indulgence after a rough patch at work is turning my phone off.
Ah, sounds like a pretty wise move to me!
Work stress is something that just now is slowly starting to fade. If I had enough money, I think it would totally be gone.
Easier said than done, but I try!
I hear you there! I still get mad, only now I don’t overreact.
Good anecdote. Definitely agree that emotions can create problems in many areas of your life. I’m not just financial responsibility either, but relationships, sex, dieting, family… the list goes on.
Yep, there should be a “Keep your cool” class in school where kids learn to control themselves early. Help them early so they don’t make bad mistakes…
Sure i would be angry, but not enough to do something stupid. I tend to do something stupid when I am distracted. I went through a red light in San Francisco, because I wasn’t paying attention.
Yeah, I recently did that on a stop sign last year as I was talking to a car full of friends.
Luckily, the other people somehow saw that I wasn’t paying attention. That was a first for me, now I’m a street hawk with super focus anymore.
easy to blow the top off sometimes, especially in a vehicle. i have noticed that people feel they are invisible once they get inside that man made machine
I’ve noticed that too. Considering people are practically driving around in a tin can. It’s amazing how they turn, even the most meek or fragile individual act like gods in a car. But that’s an entirely different rant 🙂
Ooh, I hate when someone steals my parking spot. I am more likely to make a snide comment to the person than squeal away dangerously though.
I actually have become more relaxed about some things, but I will say, some smaller things bother me more than they used to!
I understand where you are coming from on that!
I’ve become numb to such happenings (most of the time), unless it involves my kids.
Emotions sure can be costly. Better to rely on facts.
When I was younger, I once had an opportunity to learn discretion, and why smarting off to a police officer on a speeding stop is indeed expensive.
The earlier such lessons can be learned, the better!
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