Thursday, March 6, 2008

The lesser evil


So we got our VW Passat used from carmax a few years back and have found that VW Passats have alot of electrical problems (the mechanic also said they see alot of them in VW cars in general). Not usually big things, but annoying things that cost money. First, a couple of years ago our dashboad lights started randomly working and not working and a year later our tail lights stopped working and now the most recent problem is the blinkers don't work. At all. So we haven't gotten them fixed yet and the other night I was coming home from work at 8pm and was almost to our neighborhood and a pickup was coming up on me fast and I automatically turned on my blinker (which didn't work of course) and started to turn and the driver rolled down the window, flipped the bird and shouted something I couldn't hear but got the meaning of. So, I can see why the driver was annoyed but thought to myself - really do we have to flip the bird and yell? He could have just honked or something. Anyway, Greg suggested I should start doing the manual turn signals out the window with my arm when I have to drive that car just until it gets fixed. Then my automatic thought was - I think I'd rather get flipped off. hahaha. Would people even know what I was doing or pay attention? Hmmm, which would be worse, getting flipped off or doing manual turn signals out the window with your arm? That is this weeks poll....

8 comments:

Kimberly said...

Definitely arm signals. I got flipped off once (totally not my fault, just heavy traffic and a Type A in a big hurry) and I felt terrible all day long. I guess my feelings are/were easily bruised so that's me. But it might also be safer.

Unknown said...

Yeah, It would be safer and it hurt my feelings too, but then I guess it WAS unintentionally my fault so I let it go. Isn't it amazing what a little hand gesture and an angry face can make you feel like?! Maybe the moral to the story could be NEVER flip anyone off ;)

Anonymous said...

I would understand your arm signals. I've seen people in cars do it before. And I understood. Also, when I am feeling road-ragish I generally shake my fist in fury instead of flipping any birdies. It seems to aggravate the situation just fine.

Alice said...

As long as you were wearing your Skittle nails, then I think the arm signals would be very effective. I don't know what they mean, but I think most intelligent people in the general public probably do. I'm just a college graduate.

Unknown said...

Hehehe! That made me laugh alot Alice. If I wear my skittle nails I might look forward to doing the hand signals. You ARE a smart college graduate!

Ali - We'll call it the fist of fury :) hehehe

Rich said...

Erika was pretty tempted to give the bird to a few of her doctors as they came in every 2 hours and held up fingers - how many do you see, over and over.

She's like, next time they come in and do that - I'm going to give them the bird and ask them how many they see!!

*Of course, she was on tons of drugs that point, but still - extremely hilarious.

I think the best thing you could do is to yell back at them. Then, you can relieve their guilt because you were mean in return...and you can alleviate your feeling bad because the yelling serves as kind of a catharsis. So there you go.

Unknown said...

That is hilarious Erika. I would want to do that too if people kept asking me that!

Rob said...

Maybe you should use one of those big foam hands people hold up at football games, you know the ones with pointy fingers and all. After all, we want to make sure people see your signal. And you can get one of those classy suction cup figures that drops its pants or flips the bird or something and stick it in your window, just in case they still honk their horn. That would be a very classy and effective solution I believe.