"You represent everything I can't have".
 

Wow, this was the reasoning for blatantly flipping me and my daughter off this morning by a person that lives in my town.


Daughter and I were heading down the street(not ours) to the main road, off to visit my mom. I see an oncoming car. No big deal until I see the driver holding his/her arm out the window with the finger clearly displayed and pointing at us. It took my brain a second to register what I was seeing. I recognized the car as being from around town and I thought "really, you are flipping ME the bird and you live nearby?"

I turned around and saw where the car turned and found it parked in a driveway just a couple of streets away from ours. I stopped out front and tooted(yes, 2 friendly beeps). A couple of seconds later a female(mid-40s I would say) comes out of the front door onto the porch. "Can I help you?".

I told her that I was curious why the driver of the Cavalier felt the need to flip me off. We didn't do anything to them. I assumed it may have been a young person but I was wrong. She replied that maybe we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I gently suggested that it's not too smart doing things to provoke people.That's when she said "well, you just represent everything I can't have".

"YOU were driving"? I asked. "Yes, but I didn't see that you had your child in the car, I thought you were
a man. I'm sorry". I replied that I appreciated her apology but explained that I am just a regular guy and I didn't understand why she did what she did.

I told her that we had been down on our luck in recent years so I understand. She apologized again and we wished each other a good day.


Once the shock of it being a woman wore off I realized that I really shouldn't have done anything but it really ticked me off as I hadn't done anything to warrant that. Heck, we even get waves and thumbs up from Corvette guys. :)

I suppose everyone has their baggage and today I happened by when this lady was thinking about hers. I hope she gets whatever it is she wants in life.

What a psycho.

I take it you were in the 1981 911SC?

Did you explain to the nice woman that an '81 SC can be surprisingly affordable, if a person shops right and spends a little money for a PPI?

We were and no, I don't think trying to explain the reasonable price of a vintage 911 would have been impressed on her.

People like that are problems that eventually resolve themselves.

All she has to do is flip off the wrong person and she'll get a road-rage incident for her efforts. Not that I approve of violence in the face of bad manners, but there are plenty of OTHER psychos out there that do.

when people flip me the bird,
I give them a peace sign right back.
Amazingly it seems to diffuse the gesture.

So this person gave you a gift of the finger ,
and you had a choice to take it, or or not....

You dont have to take every gift that shows up on your path...just sayin..

Peasants, and the gospel of envy. Sometimes, just sometimes you are poor because of how you are, you DESERVE it. Hateful and small and ignorant..

Should've said poor is no reason to be an ill mannered ass hole, if you want things to change, change your outlook, especially towards others.

I got no pity or patience for people like that, and there's lots of 'em out there.

rjp

"French Salute"

Nothing worse than a woman with a sense of entitlement..

Similar situation. About 6 years ago a neighbor came over and challenged me as to why I had just bought a '99 Miata. Mind you my wife challenged me why would I ever buy a car without heated seats and air conditioning.

It is like this neighbor thought that I had no right to buy it without her permission!
Duh. Some people I just avoid. Like my daughter says you never know what some of these people have been through in their lives.....

Maybe she was just telling you that "you're number 1".

My 10 year old told me people tell my wife that all the time when they drive past her....usually right after she has changed lanes without signaling...and such.

Funny. When I bought my '80 SC a neighbor got all in my face and said I was having a midlife crisis. Then she said how I would be having an affair next. I think it was her insecurities regarding her marriage talking. She seems to be over it now.

I was outside working on my mint 67 camaro when this hick neighbor with a 70 camaro came over- mind you I never met the guy before, only seen his POS outside- Started interrogating me asking me how much I paid for it- didn't even bother to ask my name, compliment the car or introduce myself-

I knew where he was going since he stink-eyes me all the time driving by, I can tell.

When I told him, he said "MAN THAT"S TOO MUCH!"
my answer:

"SO? I CAN AFFORD IT. GOOD FOR ME."

He shook his head and drove off.

A few months later my buddy with a 70 Camaro was at my house- a 10 Sec car and it's beautiful. Same neighbor just marches onto my property and starts yelling at him about "how he drives it" and yelling at us like we're a couple of kids- It took me a second to grasp what happened but he marched onto MY property and started yelling at us.

Steamed on it for a few minutes, jumped in my 911 and drove over to his place and said "DON'T EVER EVER COME TO MY PLACE AGAIN LIKE YOU OWN IT, YOU'LL REGRET IT" Then I called his house a dump.

He called the cops, and the cops came over, I told the story- THEY LAUGHED- cop agreed neighbor's place= dump. Complimented all our cars.

Sometimes, you need to introduce reality into their lives. Fire back.

rjp

"You represent everything I can't have".

My response would have been, "yes you can if you're willing to work for it and take a few risks like I did".

Yep, that's not a ME problem it's a YOU problem.

rjp

Was she hot? No, scratch that, if she was she would not have acted like that unless the finger was an invitation!

I wouldn't have bothered turning around and giving the twat any more of my time. Why let what some idiot that I've never met ruin any more of my day?


Life's too short guys! ;)

Many view the same thing differently.
They could view an older pcar as an 80's stockbroker status symbol, or a DIY vehicle with specific qualities.
There are a lot of other nice vehicles people have spent their time and money into turning junkyard scrape into showpieces.
All the same respect from me.

Few years ago, I was at a VW Bug show and started talking with a dude. Complimented him on his ride, asked some questions, and mentioned I had an old pcar.
The guy turns around and literally yells into the crowd "HEY JEFF! HEY JEFF! THIS HERE GUYS GOT A POOOOORSHA".
Looked around but didn't see anyone. Someone there with similar interests?
Turned back, and he's giving me an ugly face.
WTF....?
I thought about educating him on VW history, or mentioning a 21 window would be worth many times my car, or that the Grateful Dead made stupid money in paraphernalia sales, but just left.
You can't fix stupid sometimes.

Ironically.......her gesture demonstrates what SHE considers important in life.......money.

Clueless.....

HAHAHA... This is how you should handle people who for whatever reason are idiots.

Lowering your expectations also helps. ;)

gold!!!

Could have told her to take a midol and change her pad, or go get laid. Regardless it's a sad state of affairs.

If no one ever talks to some one about inappropriate behavior - they will never change. I way how likely they are to listen, and how likely they are to know, but do what they did anyway. Sometimes a few kind words can make a change. Sometimes you'll find a brick wall, then move on.

With women(or men) in the world like that they have a sense of entitlement, they likely do not have many friends. Ignoring them I find is the best way - less wasted energy. Also it is sad for your daughter to witness her acting like that.....

Guys.....this is NOT a case of entitlement.

It's a case of GREED and the misconception that money equals happiness....

Well, after my wife gave what-for about confronting the person, she thinks it's funny that someone would be jealous of us.

It could have went bad and I won't be doing anything like that again. :(

This. Plus she's obviously a moron, her comment was about a $20k car max. Would she have had the same reaction to a new Ford Fiesta? Don't argue with idiots, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

No matter how far down you are, there is always someone else looking up to you.

Hard times are tough.

True...always tough when a little one sees humanity for what it is instead of what it should be. Wait till she catches her first adult authority figuer in a blatant lie or worse. Learning tools. My Son has collected many in the past 5 years - bright and shining examples of the absolute rediculousness of people. First time was tough, now its become a true study of the human condition. While there are cases of adults and authority figuers achieving the status of 'truly respected' sadly there are those who fall very very short. So be it...

LUCK?

I think of it this way. Visualisation helps me understand complex ideas.

Your life is a sphere. It's multi coloured and it floating in a room with no way for you to see in. So you can't see the sphere and what it's doing.
You do things everyday which affect which way it "turns". The problem is you don't really know which way it's turning until some time passes and then you realise something you did a long time ago affected the ball in a big way.
So then you back track a little. Take some time and do something different to see how it affects the sphere.
Some more time passes and things are going good, then great... So you keep doing the things you know work and cut out the stuff that doesn't.

It's not LUCK. Luck can seem real but you can affect your luck. Even a person with modest means and opportunities can live a wonderful life and be successful.

This "lady" took her frustrations out on you because she really doesn't like her life or were it's going and worst of all she can't see a way to make it better.
I feel sorry for her...

it's like the wind blowing against you....you wouldn't get mad at it would you?:)

wow, people suck every bit as much as I thought

Being confronted like this by a stranger isn't going to make someone change their ways. All the OP accomplished was letting someone waste part of his day, potentially endanger himself and his daughter, and teach his daughter that its ok to let stupid people bug you.

Stupid people have stupid ways, its not my job to try to teach a stranger manners. Like I said, life is way too short to worry about the perceptions of others. Teaching your children that at a young age will get them way farther in life than making them think they are defenders of the universe out to correct everyones misconceptions. SmileWavy

Sid, I don't think he exposed himself and his daughter to any danger. He said he stopped out front, so I interpreted that as meaning he stayed in his car (probably still running), and this woman came to her door and they talked across the yard.

There are, of course, other scenarios that would not be a good idea because they'd present obvious potential for danger.

I also think he may have accomplished a bit of mutual understanding because she did apologize and I bet she won't do it again to anyone.

His daughter witnessed her father being very diplomatic and didn't see him as the loser in this.

I agree with you fully on this. I don't know his daughter's age, but this calls to mind the incidents on the news about teens and pre-teens getting bullied and caring so much about what others at school think of them that they are miserable or commit suicide.

One more thing we should all be able to take from this, and this is not to PARF this thread up. But based on the reason this woman gave for doing what she did, is anyone surprised given all the utter rubbish spewed by certain political figures in recent years?

Stuff like:

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

"Everyone needs to pay their fair share."

"It's us... the 99%... versus the super rich 1%, so we are forming Occupy Wall Street!"

"Candidate XYZ is unbelievably wealthy and is dodging paying taxes... he has millions stashed in banks in the Cayman Islands."

"We need to spread the wealth around."

It's The Politics of Envy and it's an old leftist meme meant to stir up resentment and abject hate towards anyone who is better off than you.

Mine is an "orb" and I like the way you put it! Sid has it right, I wouldn't have given her a second thought...

So going back and doing a few donuts on her front lawn is out of the question?

Yeah....shouda burned a huge swastika in her front lawn.....

Last week we had a block party. The maladjusted people either did not show up or if they did people avoided them. The only way I think that the socially deranged can be changed is by group intervention(family, close friends) run by a counsellor or put them on drugs to make them zombies......

If people cause me stress because they are angry I avoid them... I deserve better.
If you are married to an angry person or have a friend who is angry, a combination of the above two solutions is necessary to have some semblance of peace!

Well done on going back and talking with her Wayne. For whatever reason you did, showed a little that we are our brother's keeper. not popular in our current Me culture.

This is an interesting story from the OP. I see these threads often where someone gets the bird while driving their pride and joy and is shocked and later pissed at the unprovoked act. But it is rare that we hear of a follow up. The reason, "well, you just represent everything I can't have", is both sad and telling. A lot of these people flipping "us" off are probably just jerks. But I have to imagine if your hitting your 40s and 50s and you come to realize a nice shinny cool car will NEVER be in your garage (unless you win a couple of scratch-offs), has got to be very sobering and frustrating. You can argure all you want about choices and work ethic. But doesnt change the fact that a lot of people just dont have the tools available to get out of their crappy box. On the other hand, you dont have to be able to afford a nice car in order to have good manners and common sense.

The comment about explaining the cost benifits and affordability of an older 911- hilarious!