Look Both Ways and Say Thank You

When you live in Boulder, you are bound to encounter a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The closer you are to campus, the more people and bicycles you'll find. By now, I've gotten use to it when I'm flying around in my car. I know where the students tend to walk so I know where and when to slow down. I'm fine with the amount of people, but what I am not fine with are the people who think they own the road or who don't pay attention to where they are going. Pedestrians and cyclists have the right of way and I'll happily grant them that. I just wish more of them would look at the traffic and cars when they decide to cross the street. I can't even begin to count how many people just cross the street without the slightest glance to the left or right. Maybe I grew up in a different generation, but when I was growing up my parents taught me to look both ways before crossing the street. They also taught me that I shouldn't cross the street when a car is approaching. You can never trust the driver. When kids these days cross the street without looking both ways, are they just dumb or are their parents dumb because they didn't teach their kids to look both ways? If the people are crossing the street in a crosswalk, then I will happily slow down or stop. If you're jaywalking, well, then you better just walk faster than I can drive. And remember I'm from California, so I can drive fast!

There is, however, something that annoys me more than people who cross the street without looking both ways. What really annoys me is when you stop for a pedestrian or a bicyclist and they don't acknowledge you with a little thank you. When I stop to let a group of people cross the street, I kind of expect them to maybe look at me, smile at me, or give me a little wave of thanks. Again, this is something my parents taught me, so maybe I'm just expecting everyone else to do the same. Some people are really polite and do this. Others just walk on by. These, of course, are the ones I want to just run over.

This is all annoying and it makes me cranky. It just makes me wonder what happened to common sense and common courtesy. Maybe I just expect too much.

Current drink: Rutherford Hill 2002 Napa Valley Merlot