What annoyed you today?

[donoreo]

This was for yesterday.  What annoyed my was some very sick person that took the lives of so many young children in the US.  I was actually brought to tears yesterday while listening and reading the news.  My girls got extra hugs last night. 

[Hinfrance]

Absolutely gut wrenchingly awful Don.

I'm afraid that it won't be the last time in the US. Any country that willfully misinterprets a simple amendment to its constitution declaring the right of the country to defend itself as a charter for every nutjob in the land to be armed to the teeth can sadly expect no less.

[Beaux Reflets]

The dog got me up in the early hours -   She hates thunder and lightning poor thing; so I had to keep her company or risk a massive clean up session - Almost anything can get chewed in her stupor 

[anglefire]

Absolutely gut wrenchingly awful Don.

I'm afraid that it won't be the last time in the US. Any country that willfully misinterprets a simple amendment to its constitution declaring the right of the country to defend itself as a charter for every nutjob in the land to be armed to the teeth can sadly expect no less.

But gun laws won't stop the nutters, only the law abiding citizens - not that I think carrying arms routinely is a good thing.

[Hinfrance]

It's far too late for gun laws in the US Mark. There are so many weapons in the country no legislation could possibly be effective.

Whilst you will never be able to prevent a determined murderer with laws, if there were very few weapons available it makes it  a lot more difficult for them to acquire the means to commit their crimes.

The thing is that the 2nd Amendment, which if I recall correctly says "A well regulated militia, being necessary  to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" does not give the right for private individuals to possess firearms.

This was written in the 18th century; 'militia' means army, and 'the people' means the body corporate, ie the state. So what it actually says is that the new country has the right to maintain a standing regular army for the defence of the nation. Yeah, I know the lawyers have decided that it means something rather different, but that's lawyers for you.

I do, however, accept that there is no going back, all one can hope is that attitudes to keeping and carrying weapons change for the better.

[jinky]

People ( I`m not saying woman but it was!!!) who drive bigger cars than they know how to steer. Thought I heard this woman in Marks and Spencer`s saying she had broken down in car park and was blocking someone in. Was only when we went out at the same time as her and a member of staff that we discovered she had scraped into another car trying to park - AND IT WAS OURS!!!!! She`d left it tucked into our wheel arch as she was too scared to drive in or out and wanted a staff member to move it for her. To her credit she was honest enough to have reported it in store and hang around for us. She says she`ll settle it without insurance as it is only a scrape but the arch is dented and estimates vary from £300- 525 so it will be a surprise for her later as it has to be pulled out. I have seen so many like this in car parks where some person is struggling to forward park a tanklike MPV into a space big enough to take it with a competent driver Grrr!

Correction latest quote £725!

[Hinfrance]

Sorry to hear about your car - at least there was no serious damage and no-one was hurt.

I know our own Mark is the exception that proves the rule, but the larger the vehicle the more likely the driving is likely to both useless and inconsiderate to the point of dangerous. Just this week my wife was forced to stop on a main road because of an MPV heading at speed towards her on the wrong side of the road (which was trying not very successfully to overtake three cars and two lorries at once), and I had to wait, with a fair few others, for an inconsiderate sod to finish his shopping and remove his Range Rover from the only exit from the car park we were all in.

Good will to all men

[jinky]

Rang her up with the news about quotes tonight starting with the big quote. "That`s unreasonable for a few scratches" and she`s talk to her husband. I said bring him around to look at the dent and scrapes and that my wife was kinder than me as she was happy to go with the £300  quote from a local garage if it wasn`t on insurance. She`s likely to go that way but was still assuring me she didn`t drive in recklessly -" the space was just too tight" 

[anglefire]

Howard, I agree with you that most large car drivers, have no idea how to drive them. Goes for both men and women, but it does seem to be women can't drive around town in them, and men drive like they own the road and too fast.

Me, I drive (I hope I do anyway) with consideration to others on the road - though sometimes, I do use it's size to get out of the odd junction.

And I rarely go over 70 on the motorway - slap it on cruise and just waft down the road.

Well, I would waft if I had it back - needs the engine replacing, which is being done next January.

[Hinfrance]

Crikey Mark, so you have got to have a new engine? - that's got to hurt - I hope you managed to find a good deal on that. I've only ever had to replace a motor once, and that was a short engine back in 1974 . . not that I'm old or anything, ahem.

Don't be mean jinky, get the local man to do the job. While she may have misjudged the space, it is true that a lot of car parking bays are too small for wider cars - I often have to find three empty ones and park in the middle when I am out in the Corvette.

[anglefire]

Howard, yep its a new engine - well, rebuild of mine - luckily it didn't go a few months ago, as spare parts have been very hard to come by until recently. As for hurting, yeah, it's not the cheapest engine to change as the body has to come off to get it out.

Parking bays? Don't even go there - the Disco is wide - three adults can sit in the middle row and not be squashed - so most bays are simply too small so I try and find an end spot or ones that are a little bigger than the rest or ones miles from anyware - mind you someone will always park next to you. If its really tight, I can lift the car 2" or so and hope that the rocksliders are bashed before the doors - as they are very strong steel tubes that run the length of the car on the sills.

[jinky]

Don't be mean jinky, get the local man to do the job. While she may have misjudged the space, it is true that a lot of car parking bays are too small for wider cars - I often have to find three empty ones and park in the middle when I am out in the Corvette.

Oh we will be doing that - don`t want to ruin her Christmas. It`s just when someone is so clearly at fault I`d expect a little gratitude at goign for the cheaper job with an in warranty car rather than her saying what is reasonable and unreasonable. Through no fault of our own we ended up spending 2 hours getting quotes and will have no car for two/ three days.

As for you guys with bigger cars bemoaning the size of parking spaces it`s easy - get a smaller car or at least don`t use smaller ones as parking guides as in her case 

[Hinfrance]

I do have a smaller car Jinky - a Mercedes A Class (first generation, the new ones are gigantic!), and that's the one we usually use in town.

As for Mark's insight that someone always parks next to you when you have a wider car, even if you park at the far end of the lot well away from everyone else, that's true.

The Corvette forums call this 'dirty van suck' in their unique American way, and it seems to be true. On the odd occasion that I do use the Corvette to pop to the supermarket there is almost always a battered dirty white van parked next to it when I get back

[Reinardina]

My sister drives a mid nineties Mustang, which does not look particularly wide to me, but it has very wide doors. It's often a real struggle to get in, when someone has parked his/her car a bit close.

[hevans]

If you have a wider car, there are usually reserved spots conveniently near the door with snazzy logos that demonstrate they're for people that need more space (that's why the person in the logo has such a long right arm - to demonstrate how much more space they need - oddly, it also indicates that they can touch the back of their knees).



WAMT, or rather this month...

• 1. found a speeding ticket "invoice" that had been "filed" by the mother-in-law when she was over looking after the kids. It was from October - the period for complaint had passed when I finally found it. It couldn't have been us, as we were on holiday at the time. The wife sorted it out yesterday, it was a fault in their automated registration reading software. But the additional aggro wasn't appreciated
• The ignition in our newer car (2008 model, only 50000 km on the clock) failed last week - again, just in time for the Xmas festivities. €450 to replace - managed to get a discount from the garage as the car was still newish.
• My UK bank has (stupidly) removed the country from my address, and so all letters from them are arriving in a very hit or miss fashion as the UK post office tries to work out in which country I live. Joyously, one of them was about numerous fees they were charging me because I hadn't responded to their previously letters promptly. Spent a {sarcasm}pleasant{/sarcasm} hour on the phone to them.
• our youngest has a high fever
• I'm still haven't won the lottery
• The mother in law