Don't be this guy...

nolaegghead

So I called up my buddy today who recently moved back to New Orleans from Lafayette.

His girlfriend for the past 8 years is in back in NOLA, having moved recently to live with her mom as she's in a terminal situation from years of brain cancer treatment. 

He's a mechanical engineer who just switched jobs from a Lafayette company that did water treatment for oil exploration to a new job at Waterford Three nuclear plant, on a team that is going to develop some automation to effect rod removal from the reactors.

We go way back.  Anyway, we talked today and he was on the road back from Houston.

He was resurrecting a pilot plant for an old customer from his previous job as a side project.  This plant makes a hypochlorite with a ceramic membrane with a fairly neutral pH. 

Yadda yadda, we chatted about stuff and he told me...hey, I have a f-ed up story about this morning.

He was leaving the hotel in Houston, got on a road with 4 lanes in each direction.  No traffic.  Soon after he pulled into the left lane, stopped before a traffic light, that happened to be green at the time, to plug in GPS coordinates to his destination.

No cars in sight, 4 lanes, no people in sight except an old guy and his wife queued up to cross the street at the intersection where he pulled over.

So the guy starts yelling at him, waving for him to go through the light.  My buddy rolled down his window and said "there's no traffic, I'm just plugging in GPS coordinates, cross if you like (even though the light was green for my friend, zero traffic out).

Guy starts yelling back, cussing, freaking out and approaching his car.  My buddy yells, dude, get the **** away from me and (he's in his 30's and brash) flicks the bird at the guy.  Continues to plug in his coordinates in GPS.

Crazy old guy continues to approach his stopped car, lifts up his shirt to display his weapon.  His wife is horrified and in tow.

My buddy yells, "hey dude, I'm here working on a system that kills the Corona virus, and there's literally no one on the streets and you're assaulting me."  He drives away.  Perturbed. 

The line between logic and civility, and fear and impulse is fragile.

Editorial Content:

Just like when we all grew up and watched horror movies where there was always "that one" guy or gal that was freaking out in some harrowing situation...and the audience was all lead to believe to think this idiot will get himself and/or others needlessly killed by making a bad situation worse....this actually happens when a small minority (I would hope) of people get scared.

So what I think, and it's probably normal in the spectrum of human behavior, is that we'll see some people freak out and make things needlessly worse, and others (not in this particular story) lackadaisically carry on in an equally irresponsibly manner.

Looking retrospectively at the group here on the forum, I'm proud to say most people here are more reasonable than the old man in this true tale.  But there are a few who are predictably the old man (you know who you are, as you will troll flag this).  I just want to say to those people, take a moment and not succumb to emotion and fear, as a small number of people can get themselves and a disproportional number of others killed.  We are a first world country, we need to keep it together. 

Thanks for the TL;DR read, if you made it this far.

td66snrf

@nolaegghead   I guess whoever flags everyone goes to bed early since you haven't been flagged yet. Since I retired I'm in no hurry anymore. 

lkapigian

Good Read, Thanks Carey

WeberWho

Maybe 8-10 years ago I had a guy pull a chef knife out on me at a bar because I went and ordered a beer near his seat that he wasn't even sitting at. The bar seats were empty. I didn't take his lip and he pulled a chef knife out on me. Than his homeboys came in and started talking trash. I had a couple of my army friends out with me that evening which made his homeboys look not so tough when they came walking up. Both groups just walked away. Turns out our girlfriends went and talked to the police officer outside the bar. Turns out that the other group all had warrants out for their arrest. My friends and I weren't going to say anything as no punches were thrown and never got physical. When walking out of the bar the one cop said, "A few of those guys are going to go to prison for awhile". 

People are crazy in general. They might have an extra short fuse nowadays. Stay home as much as possible and enjoy it!

HeavyG

Every day in 'Murica there is an incident with someone carrying a weapon that looses their cool and feels compelled to flash or pull out their gun.

We should all probably start wearing bodycams that we can instantly turn on and record such incidents and turn the footage over to the local police department. Folks like that forfeit any rights they might have to own weapons.

thetrim

Always good to have a few Army friends in tow @WeberWho!  I'm glad you didn't get stabbed! There would've been a few less totally kick ass smoker rehabs in this world!

alaskanassasin

typical engineer, he can wire a fission plant but doesn’t understand how a stop light works.

WeberWho

thetrim said:

Always good to have a few Army friends in tow @WeberWho!  I'm glad you didn't get stabbed! There would've been a few less totally kick ass smoker rehabs in this world!

You're too nice @thetrim! 

The guy who came up to me was trying to come off hard in front of his homies. I ordered a drink near his jacket that was laying on a bar stool. Mind you not one person was sitting at the bar. He started chirping that I needed to go order my drink down on the other end of the bar. I told him I'm going to order right here and I'll move after I get my drink. He apparently didn't like that. If I remember correctly it was his friend that came up to me with the knife. My one Army buddy walked up as he was flashing the chef knife. It was probably the drinks in me but the knife didn't even phase me. I remember saying something like "really?" or "seriously?" A few more words were said between us and both groups went our separate ways. We had no idea our girlfriends went and talked to the cop. I mean who hauls around a chef knife? Some crazy peeps out there...

My plan is to spray the smoker with a couple coats of high heat paint this afternoon. I'm looking forward to get that smoker back to looking like a smoker once again. 

buzd504

WeberWho said:

thetrim said:

Always good to have a few Army friends in tow @WeberWho!  I'm glad you didn't get stabbed! There would've been a few less totally kick ass smoker rehabs in this world!

You're too nice @thetrim! 

The guy who came up to me was trying to come off hard in front of his homies. I ordered a drink near his jacket that was laying on a bar stool. Mind you not one person was sitting at the bar. He started chirping that I needed to go order my drink down on the other end of the bar. I told him I'm going to order right here and I'll move after I get my drink. He apparently didn't like that. If I remember correctly it was his friend that came up to me with the knife. My one Army buddy walked up as he was flashing the chef knife. It was probably the drinks in me but the knife didn't even phase me. I remember saying something like "really?" or "seriously?" A few more words were said between us and both groups went our separate ways. We had no idea our girlfriends went and talked to the cop. I mean who hauls around a chef knife? Some crazy peeps out there...

My plan is to spray the smoker with a couple coats of high heat paint this afternoon. I'm looking forward to get that smoker back to looking like a smoker once again. 

Who carries a chef knife?

nolaegghead

buzd504 said:

WeberWho said:

thetrim said:

Always good to have a few Army friends in tow @WeberWho!  I'm glad you didn't get stabbed! There would've been a few less totally kick ass smoker rehabs in this world!

You're too nice @thetrim! 

The guy who came up to me was trying to come off hard in front of his homies. I ordered a drink near his jacket that was laying on a bar stool. Mind you not one person was sitting at the bar. He started chirping that I needed to go order my drink down on the other end of the bar. I told him I'm going to order right here and I'll move after I get my drink. He apparently didn't like that. If I remember correctly it was his friend that came up to me with the knife. My one Army buddy walked up as he was flashing the chef knife. It was probably the drinks in me but the knife didn't even phase me. I remember saying something like "really?" or "seriously?" A few more words were said between us and both groups went our separate ways. We had no idea our girlfriends went and talked to the cop. I mean who hauls around a chef knife? Some crazy peeps out there...

My plan is to spray the smoker with a couple coats of high heat paint this afternoon. I'm looking forward to get that smoker back to looking like a smoker once again. 

Who carries a chef knife?

A chef?

nolaegghead

So my friend's GF has terminal brain cancer and I get troll flags.  Some people are going to rot in hell.  I'm ok with that.

YukonRon

nolaegghead said:

So my friend's GF has terminal brain cancer and I get troll flags.  Some people are going to rot in hell.  I'm ok with that.

Some people just have no other purpose in life. Much like the dung beetle, never knowing how shîtty their life actually is.

EagleIII

A lot of crazies out there.  Everyone take a breath, and be careful!

Fred19Flintstone

IMO, your buddy should not escalate the situation to the point the crazy bastid felt the unreasonable need to brandish a weapon.  He should have driven through the intersection when he saw the poor dumb bastid get out of the car and advance toward him.  There are crazy M-Fers everywhere.  The current unprecedented times bring that out in some people.  

YukonRon

Was involved in a very similar situation yesterday at a gas station. It was a situation that had potential to get very, very bad over absolutely nothing.

Nobody antagonized anyone. It just escalated.

thetrim

YukonRon said:

Was involved in a very similar situation yesterday at a gas station. It was a situation that had potential to get very, very bad over absolutely nothing.

Nobody antagonized anyone. It just escalated.

Did someone ask you what your "Butt Blast" t-shirt meant?

thetrim

Is it ok to pick our boogers during this time?  What about eat them?  I'm guessing No on both even with constant hand washing.

buzd504

thetrim said:

Is it ok to pick our boogers during this time?  What about eat them?  I'm guessing No on both even with constant hand washing.

The picking is much more hazardous than the eating.  Do with that what you will.

YukonRon

thetrim said:

YukonRon said:

Was involved in a very similar situation yesterday at a gas station. It was a situation that had potential to get very, very bad over absolutely nothing.

Nobody antagonized anyone. It just escalated.

Did someone ask you what your "Butt Blast" t-shirt meant?

It was more insane than that....a man who had lost it totally, and a young woman, because she turned and crossed a couple lanes while he was at least a quarter mile out. I was caught in the middle and could not get out.

It went nuclear immediately when he slammed on his breaks and turned around and came into the gas station.