Ramblings of a Tampa engineer
low angle photography of green palm trees during daytime
Photo by Jorge Vasconez / Unsplash

While driving home from work I got stuck at a red light not more than 500 meters from the turn into my apartment complex. As the light turned green, I accelerated but not much at all opting instead to turn on my turn signal and slowly take my turn into my complex. Apparently I greatly upset the car behind me who instead blared his horn, swerved around me and gave me a middle finger.

Which caught me off guard greatly, because a blaring horn in the darkness wakes anyone up. Apparently slowly breaking to take a right hand turn with a turn signal is no longer allowed. According to this driver, I should take my turn at 45mph. At first I thought my blinker was perhaps broken, but after parking and testing - that was not it. With this incident, I decided to rant about everything that bothers me around Florida.

People who bulk order food in line.
It seems with just my luck that coming into Chipotle or some sandwich shop will put me behind someone that is ordering for their entire business office or extended family of 15 people. There is a reason call ahead orders and/or online ordering exists, please use it people! Its such a slap in the face to everyone waiting in line as you order an endless list of things that you read off your phone.

People who talk on the phone while ordering food.
On Friday of last week, I watched a girl in front of me attempt to talk to a cashier while talking to someone on the phone. It was beyond annoying and I wasn't even the cashier! It would be such a more peaceful experience for the customer and cashier if the customer wasn't also trying to yell into her phone.

People who suck at parking.
This one is tough to rant about, because you never really know if someone else started the bad parking and the person you are talking about was forced into that position. However, too many times I see a car obviously parked over the line. Swallow that pride and back out and re-park. I've done it multiple times out of fear of getting door-dinged so I'm absolutely centered in my spot. No one is going to judge you for taking the 10 seconds to reverse and fix that parking.

People who trash our beautiful beaches
A common pattern for me is to head out to the beaches early and jump in the kayak. Start a slow trek out to an island and relax the afternoon exploring with a little lunch. It always blows my mind of the conditions of the beach when I return. Cups, beer cans and the random assortment of trash liter the beach. There are trashcans on the beach everywhere, I just don't understand how people can trash something that looks so beautiful every morning.

People who leave shopping carts in parking spaces.
I see an empty parking spot towards the front and I pull towards it, but unforunately a shopping cart is hiding there. I have to park 3/4s of the way, get out of my car and then complete parking my car once the block has been removed. I look down the row of parking spots and there is a cart return 3 spaces down! Who is lazy enough to push a cart into an empty parking spot instead of just taking it to the return?

I could probably rant a bit more, but those are some things that annoy me and most of them can probably be applied to any part of the world.

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