I was Dumbfounded

So I go to the grocery store yesterday to get a jar of nuts. I always have to have something to munch on at my desk, and Planters Dry Roasted Lightly Salted peanuts were the only thing that would make me happy. I paid and walked out of the store with my glass vessel of briny little treats firmly in hand (only they were lightly briny, to be exact). What happened next would shake what little faith I had left in humanity. Or at the very least, it further enforced my firm belief that Americans are largely careless and lazy despite their alleged prosperity.

I got in the car and watched in what seemed like timeless slow motion. An older gal, say 60, pushed her shopping cart out to her car. She took her bags out of the cart, and placed them into the rear of her Subaru Forester then closed the tailgate. She pushed the cart about three steps away from her car, then let 'er go so it would roll to the adjacent curb. Not an uncommon occurrence, really.

But the kicker is, the parking lot gently sloped. And the cart rolled lazily in a beautiful arc right into the side of someone else's car. I still cannot believe this lady even let the cart roll in such close proximity to someone else's vehicle. Here's the best part. As she let go of the cart and sent it on its tragic journey, she immediately turned away as if dropping a child off at pre-school for the first time. "If I let 'er go, and just don't look back, then it won't hurt". BAP! The cart hit the car. The lady ignored it for a second. Then she realized what happened and that someone might have seen her. After already committing herself to ignoring what happened, she must have felt deep inside that what she did was wrong. OR FREAKING STUPID!

She turned for a moment apparently to go pull the cart away from the violated car. You could hear the words "aw screw it" in her mind as she got in her Forester and drove away.

It gets better. There was a cart corral not more than 25 feet away. So to this lady and all my fellow Americans I say:

Walk. Walk. WALK your lousy cart back the extra few feet to the cart corral. Burn off a couple of french fries. It really really isn't that hard. I promise. I always do and I can sleep a bit more soundly at night just knowing that no innocent vehicle endured any trauma as a result of sheer laziness. Please join me, won't you?