Isn't it creepy when you encounter such a disturbed person? Ewww! But your story reminded me of Kathy Bates' character in Fried Green Tomatoes beating the crap out of the young girls' little car with her big ol' boat. Glad nothing like that happened, tho, since it wasn't a movie! I'm also kind of glad the timing wasn't such that I would encounter the driver of this parked car: As you can see, it's parked, nobody in it. It's barely partway into the spot where the cart corral lives, most of the car is in the aisle. There were maybe 25 cars in the whole big lot at the time, plenty of choices. That's my cart on the side, I couldn't get it into the corral with the car parked like that. Probably good they hadn't tried backing in to this spot! I don't think gender has anything to do with the ability to drive a car, but statistics show that males cause the most accidents and a higher average repair cost per accident.

In about 1980 or 1981, Texas had a horrible heat wave. The temps did not go under 100 degrees for something like 27 days. Although we lived in the southwest area of Dallas, & driving was torture, one night after work my roommate wanted to go to Prestonwood Mall, about a 45 minute drive. She was insistent. We hadn't been in that air-conditioned mall 5 minutes before someone called, "Evie!" It was an old classmate from her high school in Clovis, New Mexico! ........ ........ An old friend told me that she sometimes has those spur-of-the-moment changes of, uh, plan? heart? mind?, but hers are usually of the dodge-the-bullet variety. She thinks maybe it's her guardian fairy angel godmother. One day, she said her car "just turned in to Baskin-Robbins", she didn't know why. So she & went in & bought a carton of milk. might as well... Got back in the car, resumed her journey, & saw, less than a minute down the road, a car just like hers smashed into a tractor-trailer rig. The paramedics were cutting away the car to get the driver out. still gives me chills.

To the "Ubiquitous List", you must add Pittosporum "Wheeler's Dwarf", used extensively as ground cover, to the absolute delight of mice who adore eating the cambium layer and girdling the stems so large chunks die out of the centers; Euonymous in every mildewy shade and shape; Escalonia, virtually always kept sheared within an inch of its life so you never know what color the blamed things FLOWER; and my all time "hate with a purple passion plant", Dietes grandiflora. Guaranteed to always look ratty and nasty, much worse and more of an eyesore than any type of out of place Liriope or Lily Turf. Dietes are made even more obscene when sheared and pruned into cubes by City "gardeners". At least the agapanthus don't self seed everywhere like the bloody Dietes do. An elderly friend had spent time in South Africa and Australia and had become enchanted with the "most exotic looking tropical" he encountered everywhere. He tried describing it (NOT a plant person), but I figured the best way was to take him to the nursery so he could see if he could point it out. Yup, Dietes grandiflora! He wanted his front planters "updated", and it thrilled him immensely when I produced gallon after gallon of the awful things from the local Home Depot for $3 a piece. At least they are something he CAN'T kill! But, then, that is why ALL of these things are ubiquitous, NO ONE can kill them. Have you other Southern Californians noticed how the huge stands of Bird of Paradise which used to grow in every yard have seemed to disappear? I see them in older areas, but they are conspicuous in their absence in many neighborhoods. Kim

Isn't that just the most frustrating thing? We Freecycle and offer free on Craig's list quite a bit, with the same struggle, Patti ... NO_SHOWS! We live out of town, so I don't feel it's fair to people to just set something out on the driveway and say "first come gets it," but I'm about at that point. Tough cookies if they have to drive extra miles, I'm tired of penning up the dogs, sitting and waiting ... and waiting ... for someone who doesn't have the decency to show up when they say they will, or call and tell me they're running late or can't make it. Oh! and the ones who want me to DELIVER a free item to them, because they don't have gas money????? It's one thing to want something large and you don't have a truck ... but a bag of clothes? Will you bring it to me because I can't afford gas? GET REAL.