Sunday, April 22, 2007
Good Citizen
I had written a post a few days ago about a guy I saw deliberately throw a soda cup in a parking lot planter. I was pissed. I was going to write to you about it to see if that pissed you off too. Someone thoughtlessly throwing trash on the ground in a parking lot when they were going to pass by a trashcan on the way into Best Buy anyway.
Then today happened.
Our day started off lovely. We decided to take the Jeep up 4 Peaks. Here, here's a picture of what 4-Peaks looked like a few months ago, just for reference in the story. Oh wait, what? Blogger is being stupid AGAIN and won't let me post pictures?!
So anyway, our drive was gorgeous. All the desert flowers are in bloom right now (again, can't post pictures, but I assure you they're lovely. Visit my Flickr account later) and the weather was perfect. We drove for about an hour and a half, then turned around and headed back towards home. The mountain was pretty busy by then so travel was a bit precarious. And most of those dirt bikers and quad-riders were under-aged and stupid, so we went extra slow. Before we were all the way off the mountain, we decided to pull off on a side road for a little lunch. The dogs were happily chasing huge ants, we were munching on sandwiches and enjoying the breeze and the view... Perfect end to the trip.
Next thing we know, we're hearing gunshots from over the little hill we're parked next to. That was enough to get us packing up quickly. THEN we heard bullets zinging by us and the car. FUCK! I'm freaking out, we're both yelling, but the guys shooting can't hear us through the hill, the gunfire, and their hearing protection.
I should do an aside here to say that it is not illegal to shoot in the desert where we were. It is, however, the responsibility of said shooter to CHECK THE FUCKING AREA HE'S SHOOTING INTO.
I'm screaming, Ryan's yelling at me to calm down, the dogs are confused and running crazy, I'm yelling at Ryan to run down the road and make them stop. He high-tails it down the dirt road and I'm alone trying to get the freaked out dogs in the Jeep. Then there's even MORE bullets zinging past us. I can hear them ripping through the air! ZING! So then I'm ripping the dogs out of the Jeep and running for cover behind some rocks.
Excuse me for the cusing, but I was f'ng scared as sh*t at this point.
Ryan finally got their attention, and just in time because he'd already reached for his gun to fire into the ground to get their attention.
I'm telling you people, once they stopped shooting I was shaking so hard and I was LIVID. I've never felt so mad in my whole life.
I am all for people's rights to bear arms. We have guns in our house for protection and often go to the range to keep up with our skills. But for the love all things! And to make matters worse, those assholes were with THEIR TWO SONS. Now what lesson are they teaching their children here? Shoot where you want without checking to see if its safe first? I hope they were MORTIFIED that they had been so stupid and irresponsible in front of their children.
Man, its been like 3 hours and now I'm all worked up again just writing this.
When I finally got back in the Jeep I was shaking so hard and I was so mad that I physically had to cover my eyes with my shaking hands when we drove past them so I wouldn't be tempted to jump out of the car and freaking wring their mother fing necks.
Again, all for guns. USED RESPONSIBLY. Assholes.
THEN, after Ryan and I spent the WHOLE way back talking about how no matter how you try to be a good, responsible person, some idiot can always come along and do one stupid thing and it affects your life...... this happened:
We decided to blow off steam by doing yard work. Again, an aside: I live in a pretty decent neighborhood where the neighbors are so friendly to each other that often I'll get home on a Saturday and someone has already kindly moved my trashcan back into my yard after pick-up. ANYWAY, I'm cleaning up dog stuff and find that our backyard neighbor's punk ass kid has had a party and one of his dumbass friends has thrown a freaking beer bottle into our yard and it shattered in our rocks.
At this point in the day I'm just so DONE with people. Ryan, who is the calmest person I know, is too evidently. He marched over there, picked up every piece of broken glass in his bare hands and leaves the yard. I have to yell after him and run to keep up to figure out that he's going around the block to confront them. And when we got over there, the kid (maybe 18-19 years old) opens the door and pot smoke comes rolling out. No his mom isn't home, and no he has no idea who could have thrown the beer bottle. Oh and by the way, not a single person in the house drinks beer and his friends WERE drinking last night, but not at his house. The fuck? The kid freaking lied to our face! The other houses around us are owned by MORMONS you moron.
Seriously, I'm telling you, I can't understand people. Why can't everyone just be respectful of others?
I have no good way to end this. Its a vent, I know. But seriously...
posted by atpanda at 4:03 PM
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About Me
- Name: atpanda
- Location: Mesa, Arizona, United States
I'm Amanda. I'm an engineer in an industry full of men, a professional wedding and family portrait photographer, a firefighter's wife, a traveler, and a dogMa.
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9 Comments:
the world is full of idiots........
I'm glad you're OK after the gunfight incident. I'd have been face down on the ground. I also probably would have wet my pants.
As far as the kid throwing parties... we all did it, but it was the morons who got caught. Tell his parents.
I'd have gathered up the broken glass, put it in a shoebox, attached a note to his parents, and given it to his Mom and Dad. It's also not too late to do that now, except for the shoebox and glass part.
Glad you made it through the gunfire! Sheesh! I had a bf who hunted and heard a bullet whiz past his head. I woulda been out of there right then. He stayed.
BTW, I'm nominating you.
someone in the car in front of me today threw a receipt out their window. aparently litering is becoming quite the rage.
personally, i would have walked up and decked one of the guys. in front of his kids. that would have driven the point home i think
I would have been very, very upset also. I am just so glad they didn't hurt you guys!
OMG I WOULD HAVE FREAKED! I can't believe that happened. I would have wet my pants and not been able to smell it on the way home because I would have been in complete shock. I am so glad you are okay!
I'm not sure what I would have done with the shooting incident. That's unbelievably scary. I, too, hope those guys felt about a 1/2 inch tall for not taking proper precautions.
The bottle incident would have ended one of two ways in our household:
1. The bottle parts would be picked up and lobbed back into the offending neighbors yard;
2. If we'd have gone over and smelled the pot smoke, I would have made a call to a guy I know on the drug enforcement team. Give him a heads up to keep this kid/house in their radar.
I'm glad you, Ryan and the dogs are all okay.
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