Random peeves

[ssampier]

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When I'm driving down a single lane road and I have 3 or more cars behind me, I assume I am going slower than the natural flow of traffic and pull over so they can pass me. I would like to see the same returned.

I agree with everything else. I commonly have one or 2 cars behind me (rarely 3). I almost always drive the speed limit, so it's not my fault those drivers want to go 50 mph in a 35 mph zone.

 

[cybertalus]

I wouldn't go back to one of those, personally.

My personal preference is that when the alarm goes off (in my case, chirping birds), I get up. So I set my alarm for when I want to get up. Simple

My girlfriend, on the other hand, prefers to set her alarm for about a half hour before she needs to get up, and then use the snooze button three or four times.

I just can't handle that... but fortunately, I need to get up earlier than she does most days anyway, so I can wake up to my birds, then reset the alarm to Red Alert for her.

-Hyp.

Sounds like your girlfirend isn't a morning person. All the not-morning people I know do the multi-snooze thing.

My alarm clock is about three steps from the bed, so I can't shut it off and roll over and go back to sleep and be late for work like I used to do. Between that and the high volume red alert klaxon, I don't get back to sleep after the first alarm, but I still hit snooze a few times and crawl back into bed in between.

I may just order one of the gradual wakeup alarms. If it made me even 25% less grumpy in the mornings, it would be worth it. Then again not staying up until 1:40 am might help there too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I am a vampire at night and a zombie by morning.

I have an Emerson CD alarm clock, currently with Shadows Fall (http://www.shadowsfall.com/)- a metal band I don't particularly like- in it. It has 2 alarms with multiple setting options, plus snooze. The 2 alarms are set 30 minutes apart, and set to play the CD as an alarm. It is across the room from my bed.

My bedroom TV has an auto-turn on function.

I have been known to turn off all 3 and still not wake up.

In my second year of college, I had the top bunk. Once, when my alarm went off, my roomie (who had an earlier class than I) watched me jump out of the bed, landing catlike & quiet 3' away, walk 10' to my alarm clock, hit the snooze, climb back up into bed, and return to snoring in under 1 minute.

No. I am not morning people.

 

[RangerWickett]

No. I am not morning people.

When do you go to bed?

I used to think I wasn't a morning person. That was before I realized, "Hey, every night at midnight I start checking all the webcomics and the WotC Magic site, so I don't get to bed before 1 am." Considering I wake up at 7 for work, I figured that might have something to do with my sleepiness.

Now I make an effort to always get to bed before midnight, 11:30 if possible.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm a natural insomniac, so going to bed after 2AM is typical for me. Even as a child I didn't sleep. My parents took to locking me in my room at nights so they could sleep without worrying about me getting into trouble elsewhere in the house.

More recently, during a 2 month+ stint at Texas Instruments as a legal temp doing document review (a very boring job requiring no more physical activity than clicking a mouse button), I'd typically go to bed after watching Law & Order reruns on A&E that went off at 3AM...and it typically takes me 15-30 minutes to drift off. I'd get up at 6:30 to get to work for 8AM... No problemo- while I was there, I set some productivity records in my department.

(Naps were not an option, either. The department was a glass-encased section right near the elevator to the executive suites.)

Even today, when I find myself needing a little more sleep, 19 hours of consciousness is pretty typical.

 

[RichCsigs]

The speeding up to cut people off after they signal is a real problem for our work trucks. Sometimes we're forced to simply come over anyway and hope they figure it out. Yeah, we're bad guys!

Sadly, there is a cause & effect thing, as I'm sure people speeding up to block people who want to change lanes is exactly why people stopped signaling when changing lanes to begin with.

Emergency Vehicles. See it all the time. It's that same old "You're not more important than me" value system. I once watched a guy actively prevent a Highway Patrol car from passing him for more than a mile! I figured at some point the HP would simply pull the guy over and arrest him, but apparently wherever the HP was going was higher priority than some pinhead. Hope they got the guy later, because he deserved it!

My uncle used to work on an ambulance and most of my emergency vehicle peeves come from listening to him tell stories of trying to get places, especially onto highways. He even had people get so mad at him they would follow him to the hospital just to yell at him in person!

I can, however, park in a handicapped spot (using her tag)- even though I'm fully able bodied- when I'm picking her up at the mall or a doctor's appointment or whatever. (This has led to some confrontations with some people, but nothing big.)

One of the things I'm getting from this thread is a case of "Oh, I never thought of that"s. So the next time I see an able bodied person with a handicap sticker leaving their car in a handicap-parking spot, I won't be so quick to curse them under my breath.

I agree with everything else. I commonly have one or 2 cars behind me (rarely 3). I almost always drive the speed limit, so it's not my fault those drivers want to go 50 mph in a 35 mph zone.

That's why I chose 3 or more. I figured one or two, it could just be people who like to drive fast. Three or more probably means I'm going slower than the other people who drive in this area. Also it's just a safety issue, as three cars behind me getting antsy usually leads to dangerous situations (tailgating, weaving, passing at wrong times, etc.). Better to just pull over than have them cause an accident that could involve me.
Plus my grandfather died because a slow driver wouldn't let my aunt pass him, so that's always in the back of my mind too.

Even today, when I find myself needing a little more sleep, 19 hours of consciousness is pretty typical.

Man, I thought I was the only one! For me it doesn't matter how tired I am, I just can't seem to fall asleep before 1AM. And I even have gone so far as to make sure I don't intake any caffeine after 5PM too.

 

[LightPhoenix]

People who stop at the top or bottom of an escalator and just stand there, so no one can board or disembark from the escalator without running into them.

You should go to Washington, DC. They're almost viscious about their escalator etiquette. It was one of the most awesome things I saw there.

 

[Chimera]

Oregon coast for the day, on winding two-lane highways through the mountains. At numerous points there are passing lanes where the width of the road permits. On at least 3 separate occasions, a driver who had been tailgating our car (different driver each time) waited until the passing lane was about to end before choosing to pass us. On a couple of occasions while my fiancee was driving he sped up to prevent other drivers from passing, because otherwise they would have cut us off when the road narrowed back down to two lanes. :\

[...]

Same is true for merging onto a busy freeway. But no, at least here in Oregon, everyone has to be 'in front', which means you can't let another car get ahead of you.

But it kinda sounded like your BF was doing the same thing there.

Oh yes, I remember the mountains of Oregon. Drove through about 6 years ago. People drive really slow and back up a whole line of cars behind them, then 'torch the rocket' so to speak when people finally have a chance to pass them, thus preventing anyone from doing so.

That and the really really slow trucks and motor homes all driven by illiterate morons who could never read the turn-out signs. (Translation: You're driving slow. Pull over in a turn-out and let everyone pass you!)

People who stop at the top or bottom of an escalator and just stand there, so no one can board or disembark from the escalator without running into them.

Or walk into the big vendor room at Gencon and do the same thing. CRASH! Ok, any big room in a public space. Wake up and notice the rest of the world around you, people!

People who stand right in front of the door to an elevator and then start to board the minute the doors open, without waiting to see if anyone needs to get out.

I've been yelled at by people who have crashed into me when the doors opened. Sorry, but I was standing just inside the doors hoping to get off. Perhaps you should look first and try showing some courtesy, eh?

People who wait at the bus stop for 5 minutes but don't get their fare ready until they actually board the bus.

Or who dawdle while their stuff is being rung up at the store, and only AFTER the clerk tells them the amount, do they suddenly remember that they have to actually pay for the stuff and start looking at how they're going to do that.

 

[bodhi]

But no, at least here in Oregon, everyone has to be 'in front', which means you can't let another car get ahead of you.

Y'know, I understand people who want to go fast. I think they're stupid if they're weaving in and out of dense traffic (which often does them no good), but I can understand wanting to get where you're going. I don't get the ones who don't want to go fast, they just want to be in front of you. So they speed up to cut you off, just so they can slow down to 5mph below the speed limit in the left lane.

I, too, have seen this a lot in Oregon (PDX metro area). I've also seen it a little in California (SF Bay Area), and hardly at all in Hawaii (Oahu).

People who stop at the top or bottom of an escalator and just stand there, so no one can board or disembark from the escalator without running into them.

So run into 'em. Seriously, if you stand right where people are literally being expelled by a mechanized system, you're asking to get body checked.

People who wait at the bus stop for 5 minutes but don't get their fare ready until they actually board the bus.

Along similar lines, people in front of you in line at fast food places who wait until they're at the head to think about what they want to order.

And, since I work at a copy shop, people who wait until they're at the counter to figure out how many copies of something they need.

 

[bodhi]

Or who dawdle while their stuff is being rung up at the store, and only AFTER the clerk tells them the amount, do they suddenly remember that they have to actually pay for the stuff and start looking at how they're going to do that.

Ooh, ooh! People who realize they have no cash, and want to put a 50 cent sale on a credit card.

Maybe it's just me, but before I go somewhere to spend money, I check to see how much money I actually have.

Whee! I like this thread.