Weekend Drivers, the Bane of My Existance

Today I had to do a fair bit of running around, getting groceries and that kind of thing. I have come to the conclusion that the people who live around here seem to switch their brains off on the weekends.

You get all kinds, from the people that drift from lane to lane without bothering to either look or signal, to people that drive everywhere at 40 kmh. The best though, is when you have a combination of slow people, people who think they are Mario Andretti in their 87 Honda Accords and people who think that the lines on the road are only suggestions as to where they should drive.

I don't profess to be a perfect driver, I have made mistakes in the past, and I will continue to make mistakes too. However, I have learned from them, and I don't drive around completely oblivious to everyone around me. People seem to think that just because their driving record is clean than they are great drivers. Problem is, they just haven't gotten caught yet. How many accidents have they caused because they have pulled out in front of someone, and then drove away without even noticing the chaos they have left behind them?

My personal favourite are the meanderers, you know the ones I mean, the people that suddenly decide they MUST turn right immediately, cut 3 people off as they go across 2 lanes of traffic, then make a right against a red into oncoming traffic. Don't these people even see how much danger they put themselves into? I'm sure that Rich has had more than a few calls to accidents like this.

My job involves a lot of driving around Toronto, and the more I see how people drive, the more I am afraid to back the car out of the driveway. It's not that people are stupid, or even careless, they are just off in their own little worlds, and they don't notice anything around them. Changing lanes in front of a transport truck that is going the speed limit when you are doing perhaps 80 on the 401 is not such a good idea, since the truck would need a lot more room to stop than a car. You could find yourself underneath the truck if you do that too often. All you need to do is look around you, and let other drivers know what your intentions are before you do it.

Oh yeah, and by the way, just because you turn your signal on doesn't mean you now have the right to cut people off. Sorry, had to get that out there.

Enough of this diatribe for now, I have more driving to do later today.

Wish me luck.

To the lady who lives next door...

Well over a year ago I moved out of the dismal apartment that I had lived in and watched slide downhill for two years, and moved into a very nice basement apartment here in Burlington. Apart from having an "interesting" landlord, things here have been really great, it's a quiet neighbourhood, away from traffic, and I have great neighbours.

The lady who lives next door to us is a senior citizen, and she has been living on her own since her husband died, before we moved in here. We often chatted over the fence in the yard, usually about the weather, our respective cats, just about anything under the sun really. During the winter, I would shovel her driveway and sidewalk without fail, and in the spring, she would give us advice about the garden, so it seemed like a fair trade to me :)

About a month ago, I noticed she wasn't around outside all that often, and that her daughter was over quite a bit. She hasn't been out gardening, and there have been more and more relatives over at her house. I haven't been brave enough to ask any of them if she is ok or not.

Just the other day, there was a lady there speaking to a couple in the driveway, and I hadn't seen any of them before. The one lady doing all the talking seemed to be a real esate agent. I am starting to wonder if my neighbour has gotten sick, and can't take care of herself anymore.

I doubt she will read this, but I still want to say I hope she is doing well, and that I miss our chats over the fence. Good neighbours are hard to come by, and I hope that she is safe and well, wherever she is. I hope I see here soon, planting more flowers in her garden...

Too good to be true....

Since my last entry, I have decided to go the used car route, but it's proving to be a little frustrating. It seems that lots of people want to unload cars that will cost way more money than they are worth to get into running condition.

Whenever I think I am getting a good deal on a car, I start to get excited about it, but then the voice of reason takes over, and I start wondering what's wrong with it. Why is it so cheap? Has it been rolled? Will it explode the second I drive it off the lot? Arg.

Oh well, back to reading the Auto Trader....

Attack of the Killer Car Salesman

Since my car has sadly passed into the great beyond, I spent my Saturday checking out new cars to lease. While I enjoy checking out new cars, I do not usually enjoy dealing with salesmen, or saleswomen, whichever the case maybe. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised, the salespeople are pleasant to talk to, informative without being pushy, etc. Other times, more often than not, they are overbearing, loud, pushy and obnoxious.

The first salesman we encountered on our travels yesterday was very nice, knew what he was talking about, knew the car, and was totally not pushy at all. He came with us on the test drive, and I actually didn't mind that he did. Although I was not completely sold on the car, I would give that particular salesman extra consideration just because dealing with him was pleasant.

The second one we went to however, not so good. The sales guy was much younger than I, and was very very very very eager to make a sale. We took a walk around the lot, looking at different models and that kind of thing, but they didn't seem to be in any sort of order, which was annoying. The whole time we were walking around though, this sales guy was watching us through the window, like a vulture. It was kind of unnerving.

When we decided to go in, this guy opens the door, and attacks us, "HI MY NAME IS...." He tells us we are welcome to his fine auto dealership, at which point I wanted to ask what would happen if we weren't welcome, would he leave us alone to look at the cars? He wants to know what kind of car we want, what options, lease or finance just as soon as we walk in the door. I don't think I have ever had a salesperson get in my face so fast in my entire life. I literally looked at the car I was interested in for about 30 seconds before he was pulling me away to crunch some numbers, and he had an offer to lease form already out and ready to fill in. Alarm bells were going off in my head, and red flags were waving, let me tell you.

Once we got back from the test drive, this guy really turned on the hard sell, saying how he used to work for the competition, so he could trashtalk them, everything he said and did was obviously part of a pitch. All of this was delivered in a booming voice. When it was made clear to him (again) that we weren't buying that day, he tried to play the urgency card, "Well, today has been a slow day, so my boss would be more willing to deal today, I don't know if she will be next week, probably not". Ok, look pal, I used to work with a bunch of salesmen, I know the routine, and that was probably the clumsiest way to create a sense of urgency in a customer. Also, telling me you don't care if you sell cars, you just wanna make your customers happy is complete and utter bullshit, since selling cars puts food on your table. Are you telling me you don't care if you eat? What turnip truck do you think I fell off of?

I would like to say that I dealt with a salesperson at the third dealership we went to, but alas, no one really bothered to talk to us so we left.

The last person we dealt with was very similiar to the first, asked a few questions about us without being nosy, asked us what kind of car we were interested in, gave us time to look, gave us space to talk together, that kind of thing. Not only that, but the car was amazing too, so we shall see what happens. I will keep the general public informed as to what car we wind up getting.

So ends my little tirade, I'm sure there will be plenty more as time goes on.

John

First one ever

So here it is, my first blog entry. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time now, and this morning, I woke up and thought to myself, "You know, today I will start a blog".

Ok, it didn't really happen that way.

I read an entry that my friend Rich wrote yesterday, and I was inspired to create my own, and instead of just thinking about it, I actually did it, which is a big thing for me, as anyone who knows me will tell you. I tend to think about things for a long, long time.

So, we shall see where this goes, and I intend to have fun with this. It's nice to have a forum to vent :) I am looking forward to seeing what comments my opinions generate over time.

TTFN
John