Wrong side of the bed

I am constantly amazed at some people's ability to view any interaction with another human being as an opportunity for conflict. This morning on the train to work, a guy was standing in the bike rack area, which isn't a problem, since there weren't any bikes on at that point. Well, when a bicyclist got on at a later stop and asked the guy if he could move over so the bike could be placed in the rack, the standing guy completely threw a fit and couldn't believe that the bicyclist would have the NERVE to ask him to move. Words were exchanged and the guy standing beneath the bike rack just told the bicyclist that there were other bike racks on the train and to use one of them. Like it would have incovenienced the guy to move 6"!

Although that reminds me of an incident at Fred Meyer. When they'd just installed those self-service check-outs, we decided to give it a try. We didn't notice that the limit was supposed to be 10 items and we probably had more like 20. (I know, don't you just HATE those people!) Well the machine was giving us grief, not scanning correctly, or we didn't have the stock number for the produce, or whatever. Needless to say, we were getting anxious, as we could tell the overseer clerk was giving us the evil eye. Well finally the clerk came over to give us some help and pointed out that the machines were for 10 items or less and a completely exasperated, yet nonplussed Margaret looked at her and said, "Well there's TWO of us!" The clerk didn't have a retort, so left us in peace while we checked out. Score one against the machine!