April 17, 2009

Priorities

OK...so yesterday I left work and was driving to class. Yay to me for almost being done! Of course, it's taken me like 20 years since high school to finally get a college degree but that's beside the point. I have the Army as an excuse for a great number of those years, anyway. I digress further...

I'm humming along, jamming on a new band I just recently found and smoking a cigarette...had the window down and man, it was gorgeous out! I pull up to a red light in the turn lane behind this Grand Marquis, which wasn't too old and looked pretty nice. I could certainly hear the thumpety-thump-thump (and rattle, rattle, rattle that so often accompanies amateur install jobs) that was eminating from the trunk area. Paying closer attention, I notice that the trunk is TAPED shut. There is layer after layer of clear tape caked over the seam of the trunk and the wheel wells on either side, with the bottom layers obviously weathering and fraying at the ends. Looked like the owner just slapped another layer or two on top of the old ones when they got bad.

Paying even closer attention to the details, which I am really good at by the way, I notice the trunk was obviously jimmied open with a pry bar or crow bar or something of that nature. Now, being of a reasoning mind and hearing the obviously loud stereo coming from within, I came to the very logical conclusion that this owner had been burglarized at some point in the past for what was more than likely...his OLD stereo. As I thought about this, I became a little upset. Why, do you ask? Hell, I don't even know really...but this was my thinking on it:

This person obviously had their stereo ripped off or at least their car was severely damaged as someone TRIED to steal it (to be fair, I guess the owner could have done it himself, if he really needed in the trunk and for whatever reason, could not figure out how to do it in an easier fashion)...and this person, whether through insurance or their own means, decided it best to replace the stereo and NOT fix their car. And, then I thought...maybe they live in THAT bad of an area that they realize fixing the trunk will not matter anyway. Someone will steal it again, so they might as well just leave it more accessible.

Hmmmm...I don't know for sure, but I just think some priorities are all out of whack in this world. I would think fixing your car, so you don't turn an otherwise very nice ride into something more along the lines of a "white trash" or "hood rat" vehicle, would take precedence over making sure you could out-blast all of your unknown neighbors at the stop light. It makes me think of a loser step-dad I had (yes, I've had multiple) who would spend our last $20 on a bag of weed, when our pantry was down to beans and, well...beans. I just don't get some people. My wife says I'm just becoming a crotchety old man. She's probably right.

2 comments:

  1. That does sound a little crotchety but I understand it. One of our friends had his back window shattered and whoever it was, stole his stereo and then three days later someone else busted into his *already open* truck through the side window and stole all his change out of his ashtray. I don't know about people sometimes, but it wasn't that nice of a truck anyway. He kept a mattress in the back... just in case... I don't know why I told you this. Anywho, your observations are top notch.

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  2. So, I'm wondering..."just in case" of what exactly? LOL I mean, I'm pretty much a perverted horn-dog so my mind immediately goes to "just in case he scored some fine booty and pulled over off some gravel road to fight off mosquitos and plow some ass in the back." But, I guess it could be "just in case he needed to crash out in the back, if he got too drunk at the bar or something" too. Not as good of a visual for me though...sorry.

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Throw me a rope!