I have to walk up a busy street to take Frannie to school, and to fetch her in the afternoon. It is a fifteen-minute walk one way, and involves crossing several crosswalks and going through a couple of stoplights. It’s not great, but it’s good exercise–I get an hour of forced walking on school days. And Strudel is usually happy going for a ride in her strolly.
The last crosswalk light on the way there is broken, and always flashes red now. There were some workers there recently, fooling with the intersection, and I think they screwed it up.
Yesterday I was crossing with the green light but against the red hand, which makes Seattle drivers irate, generally. They will look at your light and bust you righteously. The problem of course, is that there’s no button to push to get it to change, so we are stuck crossing “illegally.”
As I was crossing, a car was attempting to make a right. He was driving one of those monkey-shit brown rust buckets and saw me coming and tried to decide what to do. Should I punk this stroller mama? His car lurched with his indecision. He finally decided to punk me.
“DON’T WALK!” he yelled at me, as he cut me off. His hair was grey and limp and he looked like he had maybe one tooth left in his head. I wanted to shout “It’s broken!” back at him, but what good would that do? That would have deprived him of this chance to menace a lady with a baby. Then he would have to find another stroller mom to menace, and in Seattle that could take all of thirty seconds.
This is good, I think. I’m glad to see that someone is taking a stand against the scourge that is stroller moms who cross against lights.
Best comic Evah!!! Well, today, anyway.
Y’all are a menace I tell you – a MENACE!!!
Boy, stroller moms in Seattle are nice, here in TX he would likely get a hand gesture, just in case he couldn’t hear over the noise of his raggedy rust mobile.
That’s the thing. I’m NOT nice. (See title.) I think I was just too stunned to reacted. I miss honking. People look at me like I’ve poisoned a puppy if I honk. It is so passive aggressive here. I prefer aggressive.
A couple of weeks ago, my carpool buddy/co-worker and I walked up to an intersection hit the button and the light immediately turned green so we crossed–we generally wait at least 3 minutes for this dang light to change every time we cross (about 10 times a day). A Seattle cop was waiting for us to get by so he could turn and he turned on his loudspeaker and said “I know this is being picky but you are not supposed to cross against the walk sign”. We both just gave him pre-coffee fuckoff looks and kept walkin’. At least the hobos in the park got a chuckle.
Depending on when you hit the dang button you may or may not get the red hand of denial.
I love the whole “I know I’m being picky.” Silly Seattle cops.
you probably missed the Assmittens Anonymous sign on the back bumper of the rustmobile.
Ah, but now you have an opportunity to engage in my new favorite participatory sport: Punk your Democracy!
You, in your righteous role as stroller mom, can write a letter to the head of your city’s Department of Transportation, with a cc: to your City Council member and to your local newspaper(s) pointing out that said light is a menace to stroller moms everywhere AND (don’t forget this point!) a lawsuit against the city that’s just WAITING to happen the next time a stroller mom meets a rusted fender.
I’ve had to do this twice in the past six years. The first time, we got the crack hotel owner down the block to FILL THE FUCKING GIANT KID-SWALLOWING POTHOLES in his sidewalk within about four days. Very gratifying.
The second time was when our garbage company 1. did not pick up our green waste and food scrap recycling for three weeks during the hottest month of the year, then 2. refused to give us a rebate on our bill. The following week, after our city council person and the local media got involved, we not only had the earliest green waste pickup in our neighborhood, but they took $3 off our bill.
Plus, I got to be cranky and judgmental and my neighbors and family members actually PRAISED me for it.
You miss honking? Dude, I was raised here and I honk all the time. The horn is there for a reason: to warn people they are fucking up.
Seattle’s streets are a menace in general. I’m talking road repair and lights here. None of the lights are synchronized and the streets are all rutted and broken up. SJ, were you living here when Mayor Schell made a campaign promise/lie to synchronize the traffic lights? Only in Seattle.
I almost heckled “SPAWNER!!!” at a woman w/baby crossing the street today, but I thought of you and refrained.
Hey, I think you live near me! (and I’m a librarian, too. Heh. 6 years of college for this!)
Top 10 is our favorite toy hangout, too.
There’s this exit off Aurora that’s totally ripped up with construction right now, and every time we pass it my 5-yr-old says in mournful tones, “they’re tearing up our city! Don’t they know we need our city to live in?”
Amen.