random acts of kindness... not!

so yesterday we had a mildly annoying thing happen on the way home from grocery shopping... there was a random piece of metal in the road and i drove right over it getting it stuck under my car.  this thing made such a grueling, scraping sound as i drove that i had to pull off the road to figure out how to get it out from under my car...

clearly, there was no way we were just pulling this thing out, that baby was WEDGED IN like a middle-school geek's underpants after a good teasing by the school bully... no, this required lifting the car off the ground, and since superman was nowhere to be found (thanks for that, man of steel) i opted for the jack, which was in the trunk with the spare tire, underneath an entire week's full of groceries, and other "trunk stuff" that lives in my trunk.

we proceeded to unload the trunk full of groceries (and other "trunk stuff" that lives in my trunk) onto the sidewalk so i could try to find the jack i have never used, ever...  once i found the jack, i had to try to figure out how to use it (why don't they put instructions on those things?)  so there we are (me and my kids - ok, fine, they're teenagers, but that doesn't sound as dramatic), on the side of the road with all the groceries and "trunk stuff" strewn about the sidewalk...  and i'm on the ground trying to figure the damn jack out, which i finally did, but that's not the point of the story...

what is the point of the story, you ask?  let's go back to the title "random acts of kindness... not!"  that's exactly what i got from the grown man who walked right past me (on the ground, next to my car, obviously a total fail at using a jack), my two kids, and all our crap, on the side of the road... that's right, he just walked right on past... he even had to walk on the grass to get around all of our crap... did he stop and ask if we needed any help?  nope.  did he even glance in our direction as if to find out if we might be silently pleading for some help?  absolutely not... he was a genius at avoiding eye contact... this grown man... is chivalry completely dead?  all of you dudes out there, i ask you, if you were the ones walking past this scene, would you stop to help?

now, i don't mean to just pick on the male species here, because about 16 years ago, i was in a situation where a member of the fairer sex had a chance to provide me with some assistance and simply drove away... here's what happened...

my now teenagers were somewhere in the neighborhood of 9-10 months old and we (me and my kids) had just finished up some shopping at costco... my son was in that place in the front of the cart meant for kids to sit, and my daughter was in the back of the cart with all of our purchases.  i rolled the cart up as close as i could to the car, popped the trunk, and started tossing in the industrial-sized packs of... well, everything... and in the blink of an eye my daughter took a nose dive between the cart and the car and landed flat on her head on the pavement.  yes, i was completely FREAKED OUT!  there were no cell phones, at least in my universe, and i had two babies, one who just fell on her head (which, if you know her, explains A LOT! :)  as i was picking her up off the ground, i started looking around to see if there was a pay phone somewhere (not that i had any idea who to call) and there, in the next row over, was this woman looking right at us... i caught her eye, we made ACTUAL eye contact, and then she just got in her car and drove away... did she not just see my baby fall on her head?  did she not see that i was alone with two babies, one of whom just fell on her head??  now, i ask you, how do see something like that and not immediately go running over to help?  how??  i have no answer... i am, to this day, baffled by her behavior.

the moral of these stories is this (insert here that slow, soothing music you always hear at the end of Full House when Danny is about to explain the "lesson" of the episode to DJ and those other two girls):  if you cross paths with someone who might need help, and they look as sweet and innocent as me and my kids do (i couldn't keep a straight face saying that, but whatever) at the very least, stop and ASK if they need help... that is all... thanks for listening... rant resolved.  #notafanofmeanpeople