Deal with it

As I stand in the checkout line of Walmart waiting to pay for one of those "insane" deals only makes me realize that after fuel & time did not make it worth the deal. At all.

It makes me wonder about how many other times a seemingly great deal ends up costing us more in the long run. I remember quite a number of years ago, I saw a small boat motor for sale in Peterborough. At the time I lived about 45 minutes north or Toronto and so just the driving time alone would be at least 2 - 3 hours to go pick this thing up. And then there is the return trip. So in reality, I would have spent about $25 in fuel and of course my time to pickup something that retailed for about $50 cheaper than other places. Why did I feel it was worth it? I think it is partially because I felt that I "found the deal" and I wanted to take advantage of it. It was mine for the taking. If people ask, I could say "Hey, I got this boat motor for this much money! And they may look in awe but the fact is, it cost me a lot more than what I mentioned, all summed up.

There are GOOD deals out there. Many times they are few and far between. Can't do much but sit and wait for them to happen, or perhaps you could be proactive and look for them, but it begins into that vicious cycle again---lump in the time you spent looking for the deal into the final cost of the deal. It might not end up being a deal at all!!

What....the....hell?????

I don't ask for much from fellow motorists around me when I'm driving. I mean, if you want to blare your stereo or have your girlfriend hanging their feet out the passenger window, fine. Whatever turns your crank and I really don't give a crap. Then, today, out of the blue, this fellow beside me pulled right up to the bumper of the car in front of it. The light turned green and as soon as it did so the guy tapped his horn. Being about 6 or 7 cars back from the intersection, didn't start moving for a few seconds after it turned green and that it absolutely obvious, but the chap insisted on taping on his horn.

First thought - he did it by accident. I drop it, went about listening to my music. Next intersection - my god, the same thing???

Now things like this shouldn't irritate me,but it did. This fellow was an obsessive lane-changer who was trying to jockey his way to the front of the rolling crowd not realizing that it's rush hour on our way out of the city and it's not really going to be possible.

And so he ended up behind me. Not sure how, I wasn't in any real hurry but I deducted that he was just being stupid with some of his traffic moves as I later noted, which really were idiotic.

And here we are, approaching a light turning yellow. I slow down but I think he was expecting me to run it because he certainly wanted to and almost ended up eating my bumper.

The light turned green and no sooner had it done so that he taped on his horn. I paused for a moment then began to move ahead. He noticed a gap between cars and shot into the other lane to try and overtake me. That's fine, I have to pull onto this on-ramp anyways to catch the highway and as I did so, he pull across 2 lanes of traffic and hit the gas to try and merge in front of me on the ramp, but it was like it was happening in slow motion because his movements were so predictable. I continued on the ramp and I knew he wasn't going to make it without having to slam on his brakes and fall in behind me otherwise he would have hit the median. And that is exactly what happened. At the last minute you could see the nose of the car dive down as he hit the brakes then he swung in right behind me.

We entered the highway and as I expected he swung right out into the middle lane of the highway will pulling away and a pretty good speed and so I left it at that. Then I saw him pull into the far left lane (the "hammer" lane) and he probably felt good about the fact that he was passing everyone and whatever he had on the go, well he might just make it on time. I guess it was that pride and joy - the satisfaction of knowing that you are making headway that also makes you lose sit of the fact that you just fu**ed up. He flew right onto the 407 Toll which consists of barriers so he cant swing across the lanes to get onto the regular highway where I was. The only thing you can do is pull onto the shoulder and backup to where the split begins. Except that is illegal and dangerous as hell, but hey, maybe he will just honk his horn... LOL....

I guess it's proof that patience and keeping you cool pays off because I know that I was ahead of him and yet I was driving normally. Refreshing.