Sunday, September 22, 2013

I Have No Words…and Then I Do

The new iPhone came out this past week.  Between the lines and the fights, it’s all just appalling – it’s A PHONE for goodness sake.  However, I am seething about THIS.  I can hardly stand the news anymore.  It does something to your psyche constantly being inundated with stories of “regular” people who are morally reprehensible.  Everyday we are faced with snippets of these people; whether driving in the car or standing in line.  People who behave extraordinarily bad.  Our society seems to be morphing into one that is inconsiderate and doesn’t care about anyone but themselves.  It breaks my heart.

Yesterday, I was driving across town when a large, white plastic bag, sailing through the air, headed towards me.  It looked like a flying carpet whipping around in the wind.  At first, I was a little nervous as it was large enough to obstruct my view if it landed on my windshield.  Luckily though it veered to the right a bit.  But instead of covering the glass it wrapped itself around my car’s antennae.  I was going at a pretty good clip so the bag held it’s form tightly, causing a vibrating sound off of the antennae.  It also looked like a I was driving down the road with a giant white flag attached to my car. 

The next traffic signal was in sight so I figured once I slowed or stopped the bag would unravel itself.  As I decelerated, I passed a shopping center with cars pulling out onto the street.  There were a few glances my way,wondering what I was doing driving around with a white “flag” I’m sure.  Once the car stopped, the bag drooped but stayed wrapped.  The wind was blowing the ends of the bag around so I rolled down the window thinking I might be able to reach across the passenger’s seat and grab it.  But with the seatbelt on I couldn’t reach it.  I thought about hopping out quickly and running around to the other side to get it.  I wasn’t sure I’d have enough time before the light changed, plus my destination was nearing.  While I contemplated all of this, a car pulled up along side of me.  It was a car I had passed.  I had just been trying to reach it when the driver looked over at me.  All of a sudden, he opened his car door, walked over to the passenger’s side of mine, and asked, “Do you want me to…” pointing at the bag.  At first I was shocked.  Someone jumping out of their car at a stop light has the familiarity of a car jacking, frankly.  But I smiled, nodded, and thanked him as he unwrapped the bag, rolled it up in his hands, and took it back to his car.  The light changed and we drove on.

I had been headed to a party when this happened.  I must have told the story 2 or 3 times last night with varied responses, but all expressed a surprise over a stranger acting in a kind way.  When we are so often inundated with poor behavior, it’s refreshing.  This man probably has no idea, but his small gesture made my day.

12 comments:

  1. The Market Cap of Apple is 424 billion and change. It is an absolute monster. But the thing is I don't know anyone with an iPhone. Yes I know people with the Mac's.
    I think they made a fundamental error when they didn't make a variety of models to allow people to aspire. What they did was make a market fora product they didn't make allowing Samsung populate the space where 90% of the people reside. Now, when they've decided to ship a plastic version the people who would have bought one 4 years ago view it as cheap tat compared to the Samsung.
    You cannot help but think of the airlines, where the rich who they were carrying went learjet and the rest went Southwestern.

    On the other. Are you telling me a guy went and helped a cute chick and didn't ask for a cell-number. :-)

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    1. Ha ha. Right? What a jerk! No, that wasn't the point. :)
      I have one and I really like it. I went from a flip phone to an iPhone back when it was only the iPhone 3. I don't know any difference. Those who have gone from a blackberry or droid to the iPhone have all said they're much happier with what it can do.
      Along with the launch of the new phones this week they updated the OS. It looks very different. The reviews of it say it's because they have been trying and possibly failing to compete with the galaxy, due to costs vs. features. I just downloaded it today and it'll take some getting used to because I'm not really liking it right now.
      The cost is outlandish. Signing up for a contract reduces the cost greatly, but when they come out with a new one every 6 months or so, you're stuck in a 2 year contract so if you want to upgrade you pay an arm and a leg to do so. I refuse to do so, so I'm always 2-3 versions behind until I can renew.
      My mom's iPhone was stolen when she was in town. Even with the police report, they would only replace it for $499, which was discounted because the new ones were coming out in a week. It's ludicrous. Good point about making the cheaper version now. Especially since we all know they probably cost pennies on the dollar to manufacture.
      The funny thing about the lines and fights is that if you just wait a couple of days you can walk right in and buy one off the shelf.
      As I've mentioned, I'd like a macbook, but I just can't justify the cost. I just can't.

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    2. The new one is €760 or $1027.75 but most won't allow prepay at all and then it depends on the plan. Mostly though the plan is over €70.

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    3. WHAT?!?!?! That's crazy. Is that because they are being sent over from the US(like the ass in the article) or is that from an authorized retailer? No wonder you don't know anyone who has one. Here,I paid about 20% of that by signing a contract with a service provider. My plan is a bit less than that with unlimited data. In the last couple of years they have started charging for data by usage. Since I'm locked in, it's a good value.

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    4. US ?, are you having a laugh. China. But no it's a rather nasty game played here in Europe in general and Ireland in particular.
      At one point Dell products were fully 50% cheaper in the US and Canada, the same with HP.
      But in this case I think it's a dead horse they are flogging for unless Apple can knock the socks off with something new they are on the same road as Blackberry and Nokia. Their price point was 60% too high and it opened the way for Samsung and Google's Android system.

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    5. I'm sorry, I didn't mean where are the phones from as in manufactured, but rather are they that expensive in the regular stores or is that the cost when sold by a third party. The guy in the article wanted to buy a lot because he can sell them overseas for $1000 a pop. Do you guys have access to them at a regular cell phone store or the apple store and they are still that much? Or do those who have them get them from a third party like on ebay or something? It totally blows my mind that they are that expensive on the retail market. It sounds like all your tech is like that? How can they expect to sell anything when it's three times as much in the European market, especially since you all can find out what they cost here? Ya, why would you all buy them?!?! I wouldn't.
      Why is that? You would think tech companies would be falling all over themselves to sell that stuff. Do you have different brands that sell over there and are more reasonable?

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  2. As for i phones...I could care less...as for that man...what a dick!

    As for the bag incident...YES! I teach my students about Random Acts of Kindness and how good it makes both people feel. The kids I have had for 3 years now always tell me the nice things they have done.

    As for the degrading of society...parents are to blame...their children can do no wrong and get away with murder!!

    Happy Monday!!

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    1. Ha! Your last two paragraphs made me laugh. Yep, the poorly behaved adults are raising poorly behaved kids. I once watched a tank-driving-mom cut someone off while driving down the road, almost hitting the other driver. That driver honked his horn to not get hit and the tank-driving-mom blew passed him with BOTH mother and young daughter flipping him the middle finger. It totally ruined my day.
      As someone who worries about other people, almost to a fault, that behavior just turns me on my head.

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  3. Just when you think the world has gone to hell and there are no good people left, you meet a stranger that helps. Guess it's God's way of giving us back our hope.. makes us want to pay it forward and the cycle of good restarts.

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  4. Would you not have gone to a college to recruit plausible buyers of Apple product.

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    1. No no, not recruiting, just curious. Trying to remedy my own narrow-mindedness. I had assumed the market was the same.

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