Reverend Rant

[Rev Ed]

Yesterday evening I was heading to the local college where I teach a class and ended up behind a gal in a cage smoking a cigarette. Now, I have no problem with people smoking--I enjoy my pipe and occasional cigar--however, this gal was flicking her ash out the window.

I have never actually had burning ash from people land on me but I cannot think that is a possibility. I thought about pulling up next to her at the stop sign and politely asking her not to--after all, it is a fairly hefty fine in Washington State or I thought about telling her that some Harley rider might not be as understanding. <_< The thought of pulling up next to her and kicking her door did cross my mind but then, I am a man of the cloth and not prone to violence. Besides, you never know what type of person you may end up interacting with.

I'm sure some of you have had the same experience. Have you done anything specific, and if so, what were the results? I did think about turning in her license plate but then, I don't like narks.

I appeal to the vast wisdom of the great forum gurus.

 

[Toecutter]

She's stupid. Can't be fixed. Go around and be on your way. Pray she does same in front of LEO.

 

[Geezer]

Wow. I see this all the time. Not only do they flick the ash out the window but they also throw the butts on the road when they're done, still red of course. The LEOs around here don't seem to pay any attention to it. I made up this slogan for a bumper sticker but never actually got one made: The world is not your ashtray.

 

[FJRottie]

She's stupid. Can't be fixed. Go around and be on your way. Pray she does same in front of LEO.

+1

Ignore and go on with life. Same as 90% of all cagers.

 

[twowheelnut]

Being in Cali with rather stiff fines and penalties for butt and ash tossing out the car window, I very rarely - if ever - see this happening. What I am seeing more and more that is really start to frost me is the old windshield washer trick. You know, car load of kids in front and they start with the washers to wet-up your shield and screen for ha-has.

If you wanna get back, record the plate and turn them in as a gross polluter. Makes 'em get smogged and wastes their time and money.

 

[Ignacio]

One advantage of riding a bike is that your body shape isn't masked behind the glass of a cage. Body expression is magnfied.

As I ride by I turn to look at them, make eye contact, and then shake my head in disappointment. To some, they feel like Mom has scolded them with a Tsk, tsk, tsk....and drop their head and avert their eyes. For those, mission accomplished. Works sometimes on left lane squatters too.

The others that stare back or flip you off...well....hopefully they'll be reincarnated as lab animals to test cigarettes.

 

[Scab]

Yesterday evening I was heading to the local college where I teach a class and ended up behind a gal in a cage smoking a cigarette. Now, I have no problem with people smoking--I enjoy my pipe and occasional cigar--however, this gal was flicking her ash out the window.
I have never actually had burning ash from people land on me but I cannot think that is a possibility. I thought about pulling up next to her at the stop sign and politely asking her not to--after all, it is a fairly hefty fine in Washington State or I thought about telling her that some Harley rider might not be as understanding. <_< The thought of pulling up next to her and kicking her door did cross my mind but then, I am a man of the cloth and not prone to violence. Besides, you never know what type of person you may end up interacting with.

I'm sure some of you have had the same experience. Have you done anything specific, and if so, what were the results? I did think about turning in her license plate but then, I don't like narks.

I appeal to the vast wisdom of the great forum gurus.

Pfffft. You weren't even really mad. I didn't see one curse word in that entire post.

Now, when you can make a man of the cloth curse, then he's mad.

 

[TriggerT]

My personal best was when I was stopped at a light and the person in front of my flicked their cig butt on the ground. I put the side stand down, walked up to the car, picked up the still smoking butt, and politely pined it under the cars windshield. I am still proud of myself.

 

[Silver Penguin]

I appeal to the vast wisdom of the great forum gurus.

Since you have a direct line, you could ask for wisdom from a Higher source. The driver will be punished according to a greater law. Perhaps a lighted cigarette butt landing in her lap might set fire to her dress. That would cause her to drop the cell phone AND spill the coffee (which would put out the fire before she got burned).

Jill

 

[v65]

I appeal to the vast wisdom of the great forum gurus.

If we were perfect you would be out of business.

 

[painman]

I appeal to the vast wisdom of the great forum gurus.

Since you have a direct line, you could ask for wisdom from a Higher source.

Jill

+1. My thoughts exactly. PM. <><

 

[BobG]

I can really care less about the the cigarettes.

It is the baby diapers, fire-wood, and drunk passengers puking out the windows in front me, that frost my ***.

Most wash out with soap and water, but some leave a lasting impression.

Also as a man of the cloth, do you really think on judgment day that the cigarettes will come up on her list?

Man's laws are only there to appease the whiners in society.

Get on with life.

Bob

 

[S76]

If that was the worst thing that happened to me I would be considering it a really good day.

Use your 145 horsepower to take you to a better place.

 

[kansas transit]

I guess you could always pull up and spit on her windshield, but I seem to remember something about turning the other cheek. But then there is always the do unto others rule. And also an eye for an eye. I get so confused.

 

[Rev Ed]

Use your 145 horsepower to take you to a better place.

That is exactly what I did! We both turned onto a 2 lane on ramp--3 seconds later there were no more worries.

 

[RatoneMuerto]

Being in Cali with rather stiff fines and penalties for butt and ash tossing out the car window, I very rarely - if ever - see this happening. What I am seeing more and more that is really start to frost me is the old windshield washer trick. You know, car load of kids in front and they start with the washers to wet-up your shield and screen for ha-has.
If you wanna get back, record the plate and turn them in as a gross polluter. Makes 'em get smogged and wastes their time and money.

NICE!!GREAT IDEA TWN!THANKS!!Texas has started that anti smoking car program.Truly a pet peeve to me.I did catch someones cherry hot butt years ago.Almost crashed over it.Was just a tad uncomfortable to say the least.I think those passing by on I-30 were wondering what I was doing on the side of the road stripping off my jacket and clothes in a frenzy.Had one bounce off my windshield two nights ago.

 

[Ari Rankum]

My personal best was when I was stopped at a light and the person in front of my flicked their cig butt on the ground. I put the side stand down, walked up to the car, picked up the still smoking butt, and politely pined it under the cars windshield. I am still proud of myself.

Not bad.

I know someone (not me) who was second in line at a T intersection waiting to turn left. The woman in front of him took the aftermath of a 12-piece chicken dinner - bones, grease, slaw, half-eaten biscuits, half-cup of ice, etc, and threw it out the window onto the road. (You'd have to spend some time in Baltimore to *know* this is a true story, but for the benefit of the lucky ones who've never visited, I'll go ahead and point out that it's a true story.) Seeing this, my acquaintance gets out of his car (mistake 1), gathers up the vast majority of this mess (mistake 2), and hurls it back into the car, all over the driver (mistakes 3 through infinity). I can't do the story the justice it deserves, this dude is a showman when it comes to reliving the details of just how far downhill the situation went from there. Let's just say that a sequence of exchanges of that very same dinner took place at that stop sign until they'd both had enough. When my acquaintance got home, his windshield was covered in chicken fat.

One of the interchanges I hate most in Baltimore is the very eastern edge of I-70, where it dumps into the Baltimore beltway. Some of the very worst drivers in the state live just north of there, so it's a good place to die. I'll skip the story about white lining a decreasing radius ramp at 70 because a woman in a mini-van decided she'd miss her exist unless she took the motorcyclist's lane position, and move on to my most recent confrontation. They've re-engineered the ramp from I-70E to 695N to include a merge of two lanes down to one. There are HUGE signs saying merge ahead and alternate right of way. It's rush hour, and I'm at paddle speeds, sometimes fanning the clutch, sometimes dead stopped. IOW, average speeds of fractions of MPH. The two lanes are zippering together nicely. My theory is that people can sense when they are going to be in the presence of someone they'd otherwise treat rudely for an unusually long time and they switch to fake polite mode. The zippering occurs all the way up to my bike. After letting the car to my right go, there's this enormous, I mean enormous, dude in a monster Escalade with ginormous spinners gunning his engine, inches off the bumper of the car I just let in. This persists for a minute or so (we were going that slow) until I flipped up my visor, looked right up at this guy, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Obviously having provoked him with my question, he barks back, "Man, don't come at me like that. Who are you?"

Not understanding where he was coming from, and having started our conversation, I felt the prerogative to continue in the initial vein of questioning, thusly, "What are you doing?"

He flinched, revealing in his answer, quite by accident, I'm sure, that he knew exactly what my point was, as he said, "Where the rule book?"

It was a rare moment in life where you think of the perfect thing to say in time to say the perfect thing. It was even rarer for the economy of words. Just as he completed his question (and I had time to infer the missing verb) I pointed to the enormous yellow sign looming over his four--wheeled monstrosity that read "Alternate Right of Way".

To my amazement, he yielded.

Heh.