Grr.  People.

People are idiots.  We all know it, and yet somehow, we are unable to escape them.  Whether you are driving, walking, shopping, or at work, they always seem to find you.  Either that, or they are just hunting me down to make my life a living hell.  

This is a small and VASTLY incomplete listing of such occurrences.  An Ode to Stupidity, if you will.  Read, enjoy, and be afraid.  Very afraid.

When Driving:

Is it just me, or were turn signals put on cars for a reason?  Apparently, most people don't seem to think so, as you'll see them happily changing lanes (only a foot in front of you) without bothering to let anyone else know about it.  Or when you are trying to make a left turn, and the on- coming car isn't signaling, so you wait for them to pass... and you wait... and you wait.  Only to then sit and watch in horror, as they turn in the direction you were headed, and *maybe* signal halfway through their turn. Now, you are forced to drive behind them.  This leads us to the next type of idiot.

Then, of course, are people who obviously have NO freaking clue on how to use their brakes. Now, there are a few variations of this type of idiot:

• Those who get right on the bumper of who ever they are following, so that they have to ride their brakes to avoid plowing into the backside of the car in front of them.

• Those who randomly tap their brakes every few seconds, for no apparent reason.

When at work:

First, a bit of information.  I work at a Waldenbooks Store, in a small rinky-dink mall.  Since I live in Florida, the population base leans towards a LOT of elderly people.  Grr.

You will ALWAYS get a customer who is incapable of seeing the other people who are in front of them in line.  As far as I can tell, there are two versions of this type of idiot. 

• The elderly person with the cane or walker, who just yells at you across the counter to ask how much a book is, when it is printed clearly on either the back or the inside cover..

• The snobby person, who must be *SO* much better than everyone else, that they shouldn't have to wait in line.  The fact that you are X number of years older than me and make Y much more than I do per year doesn't make up for the fact that you are a complete ass.

This is another bookstore related rant, but I'm sure applies to a lot of other places, as well.  Countless times, I have someone ask me for a book... which is ordinarily OK, since that's what I'm there for.  However, these people have casually forgotten both the title and author, which are the only two ways we can look something up.  Oh, and they will sometimes say, "Oh gee, I should have written it down" or "I wrote it down, but thought I could remember it".  So unless we know the book personally --either because it's popular, or we've read it ourselves-- there is nothing we can do.  So we tell them that.  Then, heh heh, the person then proceeds to inform us that the book has a purple cover, and that the author was on TV just yesterday.   GRR!  That is like me calling the auto parts store, and asking for:  "You know, that thing that bolts on the side of the engine.  I don't remember what it's called, or who makes it, but it's round, and made of metal."  It just doesn't work.

Computers

Then, we have a category of people all by themselves... I shall call them "Computer Idiots".  These are the people who get confused when you say "click on the icon"; can never find files that they have downloaded; use the terms "Megs", "RAM", "Memory", and "space" interchangeably, even though they don't have a freaking clue as to what they really mean;   go through their root, "windows", and "../Windows/system" directories deleting files "because they needed more space" (insert any random computer term in place of "space" to speak like a REAL idiot)"; and finally, buy books like "Windows 98 for Dummies" and say that it was too confusing.  (I have actually run into each and everyone one of these.)

These are just a few types of idiots.  Think I missed one?  Have you run into an Idiot that I haven't listed here?  Then by all means TELL ME!  I will post your submissions here on this page. After you sent your submission, you will be redirected to my main page.