Sunday, January 6, 2013

Red Lights, The United States Post Office, & My Shit Day


For me today has been one of frustration. I've been snappish, impatient, sarcastic, and a little mean. Long story short I have been an ass-hole.

I didn't plan to be, but some days the world just annoys the shit out of me. Here are just three things taken at random from a list of thousands that have just driven me insane today.

#1 Red lights:

I think California, at least in the San Diego area, must receive gazzillions of dollars in federal funding for stop lights, or, the Legislature must just simply think that no one in California is smart enough to read, obey, and understand a fricking stop sign.

I live less than 3 miles from lots of areas for shopping, and I’ll kiss your ass if I don’t get caught at 12 fricking lights between here and Food 4 Less.

Now I’m not talking about just a simple red light either, and I’m not talking about just at intersections. I’m talking about full scale controlled left and right turn, put the fricking car in park, and enjoy a cigarette stop lights.

Now I live in Santee, not LA or even Down Town San Diego, but these light don’t have timers to turn them to flash at like 3am on a Tuesday morning and they don’t have sensors that might detect you are in the only moving vehicle in a 5 mile radius. Oh no, that would just make too much sense; but I’ll tell you what they do have on them, Cameras.

So when you decide to just go, because it’s the middle of the night, and you want to get home, and you have to piss like a race horse, and your hair is graying, and your mind turns to death, and you have have already had to sit at the stop light so long that you are actually wondering if you have time to run a hose from the tailpipe to the cab so you can just die, instead of live in agony one second longer, the police will have your tag number and mail you a citation.

#2 People that won’t go when the light finally turns green.
It doesn't bother me when people here text, tweet, check e-mail, make calls, write letters, watch a Netflix movie, look at porn and pull one off, place stock orders, read magazines, paint their nails, drink coffee, or just roll their windows down and visit, at the stop lights… G*d knows we have plenty of fricking time. But what does bother me is when the light finally does change they are so engrossed in these other activities that they don’t GO!

GO! GO! GO! The fricking light is green, I’m almost out of gas, my taxes are due in less than 3 months, PLEASE FOR Goodness SAKE! Can you just put the fricking car in gear and GO?!?
Alas, most times they have lost their focus, and right after the light turns yellow they will begin to go, abandoning me, along with all hope for a better life, to repeat the cycle yet again.

THE BASTARDS!

#3 The United States Post Office.

Today we wanted to send off a letter. I know it’s Sunday but the lobby at the Post Office is open and I know they have a vending machine, and I have a credit card so the Mrs. and I are off to get a stamp. 


Sounds pretty simple isn't it?

Well this vending Machine is something else, it’s about the size of a refrigerator, and has a touch screen, with what seems about a 5 minute lag. It goes something like this.

Press Start to begin.

I press start, nothing happens, I wait, still nothing, I look to the Mrs., still waiting, shrug my shoulders, wait some more, roll my eyes, waiting waiting, turn to walk away, and the screen changes.

Are you mailing a package or letter? It asks.

I choose letter, and press the screen.

Nothing… wait, wait, wait, still waiting, wait, scratch, shuffle my feat a little to relieve the risk of blood clots, wait, wait, still waiting, wait……….. and

Does your letter contain explosives, acids, alcohol, chemicals, or any other toxic substances?

Wait another half of a lifetime…. Finally.

Please place your envelope on the scale, and type in the destination zipcode.

Do you want insurance?

Do you want a return receipt?

Are you mailing more than one letter?

Would you like to send it certified?

Would you like to send it next day air?

(There are at least 40 or 50 more questions that I can’t recall. Are you imagining a 5 minute wait between each question? Because there is one. I think I started to black out a little between the questions, it was torturous, like waiting in a foxhole cramped and wet, as artillery comes closer and closer, having to maintain radio silence and afraid to stick your head up because of sniper activity.)

Finally like the pitch black sky turning a slightly less inky shade of black with the coming dawn, I begin to realize we must be getting close to the part where I can scan my fricking credit card. This laggy, appliance sized, blue, monstrous, piece of tax payer purchased, shit, has finally determined that my total bill is .47 cents.

I’m ready! We’re almost there.

Of course the machine can’t charge the card for less than one dollar and forty three cents.

“Fine” my wife and I proclaim in unison. Sell us 2 or three stamps, we will just carry home what we don’t use.

But then the machine tells us that it actually prints shipping labels and would like to know what size we would like 1.43 cent shipping label to attach to our business sized envelope.

Now honestly, this is what we pay for? This is the service that the USPO gives to it’s customers? Honestly I can’t wait until the Post Office is bankrupt, it is nothing more than an example of every single thing that is wrong with the US Government. Honestly I think I would have been doing Santee, San Diego, and The United States of America a huge service, had I just doused the building in Kerosene and burned it to the fricking ground.

Finally we just left.

This is how my whole day has been.
JS

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