Ok  – some of you may know what that means.

For those of you that don’t…

On long road trips, Lisa will often get on the Reddit Ap and read the section where people post an experience and then ask, “Am I The Asshole?”

I’ve often wanted to post a few of these, but I can’t because the person I have a situation with will know it’s me, and they’ll also know the situation I’m referring to, and that would be awkward.

I now have a situation where I can ask – Am I the Asshole?

Here’s the situation:

I worked all day at a house in Bridgeville.  Now, it’s about 5:30pm and I was across the street from our house at another house and I needed to carry a few 2x4s home and I also had a skil-saw in a heavy plastic carrying case.

I stood the 2x4s up (8 feet long – 3 of them) and leaned them back on my shoulder to carry them.  I had them on my right side with my right hand forward keeping them balanced on my right shoulder.  Then I bent down and picked up the Skil-saw to carry with my left hand.

A bit heavy but manageable.  I crossed the street at the crosswalk and then headed up the street about 40 yards to my house.

It’s only 40 yards, I can do it.

With each step I took, the 3 2×4’s shifted slightly and by the time I got about ½ way home, they were no longer neatly stacked, but had shifted.

I considered the situation, and thought to myself, I only have a bit left, I can keep them balanced enough to make it the rest of the way.

But to the observer, I was struggling to keep these boards on my shoulder while carrying the skil-saw with my left hand.

I look ahead and there is a person coming my way in a motorized wheelchair coming towards me.

It was hot, and I’m carrying 2x4s on my right shoulder and carrying a skil-saw with my left hand – can you picture me?

The wheelchair, or I guess it should be called a motorized scooter kind of thing kept coming, and at kind of an impressive rate of speed.

The scooter passed my driveway, which is where I was to turn and kept coming towards me.

Now, I know this is a disabled person (being in a motorized wheelchair/scooter), but as I was obviously struggling to keep my load balanced, I assume this person would be looking ahead and maybe shift to their right a bit to allow me an easy passage by.

Nope.

Turns out it was an older lady and she wasn’t stopping or altering her path down the middle of the sidewalk for nothing or nobody.

Upon realizing she wasn’t going to be a cooperative fellow pedestrian; I was forced to get off the sidewalk to my right to allow her to pass.

To get off the sidewalk to my right, I had to go up a slight incline on my right and the boards were balanced on my shoulder on my right.

As she passed, without even acknowledging that I was forced off the sidewalk – I loudly said, “Oh, excuse me”.

Now – I am not without compassion that she has had a difficult time of it.  She was older, slightly overweight and being in a motorized wheelchair I am sure she struggles with her mobility.

But, in this instance, I think she could have either:

               A – moved slightly to her right to allow a smooth passage, there was plenty of room.

               B – perhaps stopped so that I could have carefully navigated my path around her

               C – if nothing else, slow down a bit making sure we didn’t collide or cause me to stumble with my load carefully balanced on my shoulder.

Moments before this happened, I walked by my neighbors house on the way to my house, and he was sitting out front.  After the incident and after I put my 2x4s away, I went back to my neighbor who was still sitting on is porch, and he said, “Did that wheelchair just run you over?”

No – it did not.

BUT – a little bit of common courtesy would have gone a long way to ensure both of us made the exchange safely.

End result was that she made it safely down the sidewalk past me and I too made it to my destination.  I did take great care on having to go up the incline on my right, with the 2x4s balanced on my right to not allow them to fall and land on or hit the wheelchair and/or lady.

However, I do feel that even though in a wheelchair, motorized as it was, she should have taken some measure of responsibility to ensure the safe passage.

Or, am I the asshole?

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