Thursday, August 17, 2006

My To-Die List


A funny thing happened on the way to my pain management support group. I stopped for gas, the pump was inoperable for some reason and I asked the kid working there for help. He took the nozzle and dropped it on my foot. Those things are a lot heavier than you'd think.

I yowled and told him I thought my foot was broken. He said nothing. I hopped up and down a little in pain and said again, "My foot is broken." Still he said nothing. So I repeated myself louder, "MY FOOT IS BROKEN!!" And he walked away. The little fucker.

Just a polite "I'm sorry," even if he didn't mean it, would have gone a long way. I had to go inside to pay because of their pump not working right, so I limped in, dragging my injured foot. I had unlaced my sneaker, but the pressure from the shoe was really painful.

The kid's boss took my credit card, and by then I was really steamed. I normally wouldn't try to get someone in trouble at his job, but I told her what had happened. She silently handed me the charge slip to sign, and I limped painfully back to my car. I felt like a mean creep but I was too angry to care.

Accidents happen. I know this. But it's a sad thing when it doesn't occur to the person responsible to apologize. It makes me want to sue someone.

And if I win, we'll all get free gas forever.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I get free gas from mexican food

heartinsanfrancisco said...

do you.

jali said...

Take pictures of your foot just in case. I'm against frivolous lawsuits, but this is negligence in my opinion (I'm not a lawyer, I just play one on TV) and if there's any damage the station owner should be held accountable.

I can't believe that neither idiot apologized to yu.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

No kidding. Seems like it should be second nature to express remorse when you hurt someone.

I come from a family of lawyers, but am reluctant to put in the effort on a lawsuit. I totally agree that it was negligence; he fumbled the nozzle, which hit my foot with the added impetus of being on a coiled hose.

I knew you looked familiar, j. Which Law & Order are you on?

Anonymous said...

I remember when I was taking driver training we were told never to apologize to another driver if we were involved in a collision because this could later lead to being held accountable in court. That is, apologizing was equivalent to admitting fault. I still find it shocking, to this day, that this was part of the training course. Useless advice for someone like me. I apologize in the grocery store every time someone else rams into with their cart; it's second nature. Heheh. Somewhere between me and your gas station fools, there must be a happy medium and a little common courtesy. Sheesh.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

The misguided blind faith pedestrians have is even more bewildering when you consider that most drivers regard stop signs and traffic signals as mere suggestions which they're free to ignore, and usually do.

I've been here awhile and don't know if this is widespread or specific to this city. Where do you live?

Please do something for me, A. The next time someone rams you with a shopping cart, ram them harder with yours. I tried this once and it was wonderfully liberating. At least I stopped apologizing and now I glare at them. It's never too late to reprogram yourself. Slam two shopping carts and call me in the morning.