mikeandtim

oblivion

it is unreal how little the general public pays attention to the world around them. much of the time, it is as if they act like no other people exist. this may be most obvious while driving, as some people make no effort to watch where they are going or who else is near them. i was at supertarget last night getting groceries and right as i am about to pull into a parking spot there are two shopping carts right in the middle of the spot. this drives me crazy to begin with, but in this case, this spot was immediately adjacent to the cart depository. RIGHT NEXT TO IT. how much more effort is it to roll the cart 8 feet to the dropoff location. and then, someone else must have figured, "well, there is already one cart here, i guess its ok to put mine here too." unbelievable.

once inside the supertarget, i am walking down the bread aisle with my wife, and she is walking in front of me as i push the cart behind her. (of course i follow, i dont know what the heck is going on in grocery stores, i may as well be asleep since i assist only by pushing cart). there is a woman in the aisle about midway down, and it is already clear a situation could be upcoming. she is taking up approximately 60% of the lane width due to her cart and her 2 kids in the cart reaching for the shelves with both arms and legs like drugged up orangutans. my wife walks past her on the left and i am not more than 6 feet behind when Mrs. Oblivion steps right in front of my cart (i nearly hit her) to bend over and stick her big ol ass up in the air as she carefully and very slowly analyzes the 20 different kinds of peanut butter on the shelf. i kind of shuffle the cart a little but dont say anything, and eventually throw a foot shuffle/throat clear to alert her of my presence. the woman is rather plump and there is no way i can pass without her moving, as she is directly in between cart with orangutans and the shelf she is looking at. she does not move, look at me, or say anything. so i stand there. my wife starts to p-chuck* a bit as she notices i cannot do anything except wait for Grimace to step out of the way. the impass lasts circa 1 minute and i cannot help but giggle as she finally hoists herself out of her crouch and finally turns and sees me as i walk past.

people are so oblivious.

* p-chuck is short for "personal chuckle". that little half-snicker you get when you witness someone else take an unavoidable beating

posted by mikeandtim @ 1:34:00 PM