One thing that has been difficult for me to get used to about living in Houston is all the gigantic pick-up trucks. In New England people mostly drive four wheel drive station wagons and hatchbacks. Yes, there were a lot of SUV’s because they are popular in general and because some of the better ones still have four wheel drive, but on the whole, you didn’t see a lot of pick-ups. When you did, they were working trucks, and typically of a reasonable size.
But here in Texas, people drive pick-ups like some women show off their wardrobe. Huge, bulging, loud, chromed out, emblazoned with almost any kind of macho nonsense you can imagine — and those are the trucks driven by women! With the guys it only gets worse. They never signal, they never use their mirrors, they use their size as a weapon (and an excuse), and they guzzle gas like you would not believe. Most all of them have single occupants, and the backs are so polished and clean it is clear they never have, and never will, do it a lick of work as long as they exist.
Recently I had the good fortune to be invited by a friend to spend a weekend in San Antonio playing some of the disc golf courses out there (which are far more interesting and challenging than what we have in Houston because Houston is so flat and treeless). We thought it would be fun to be able to stroll and eat at The Riverwalk of an evening during our stay, and so we booked our room at hotel which is right there beside the canal. Being basically downtown, this tight arrangement required a parking garage.
Unfortunately, we chose a weekend during which some kind of an event was going on, and the hotel was booked to full capacity.
More unfortunately, this demonstrated that this particular parking garage was insufficient to handle the vehicles created by a full capacity crowd in this hotel.
Worst of all, we arrived late Friday night, and were probably some of the last folks to check in for the weekend.
When we got around to trying to park our car, we began to dread the situation. Cars were illegally parked all over the garage. Our only hope was that many of these were clearly too big to fit in the very tight parking spaces provided. We hoped this meant lots of empty spaces which our very reasonably sized vehicle would slot into just fine.
Sadly, this was not the case. There was only one vacant slot in the entire 8 tiers of parking.
This one.
Lousy Parking Job
And no, I’m not blurring out that license plate, because that is actually the whole purpose of this post.
What you can’t quite see, because it is so worn out, is where the line is which indicates that the spot next to the columns has ended and the second spot has begun. Where that line is, in fact, is the inside edge of that passenger side rear tire. At the front, it was actually several inches to the left of the inside edge of that tire.
In other words, the big, tough, cool daddy who drives this behemoth was so concerned about their capacity to exit his over-sized vehicle without smashing the gigantic door into the (even larger) SUV to the left, that they left 18 inches clearance on the driver’s side, which required that this land yacht be well beyond the yellow paint on the passenger side.
But who cares, right? They got to park, and they were able to ease their frame comfortably and easily out of their vehicle. What difference does it make that they spoiled the last remaining parking space in the entire building?
After all, it will never come back to bite them, will it? They’re in a hotel. They’ll be gone in two days and no one knows who they are or how to find them. Right?
Oh.
Wait.
Their place of business is on the side of the truck.
So, what I did, is that I snapped these pictures. And if you can’t quite see the license plate in that top one, here it is.
Missouri 5FL 237
When I got home from my trip, I looked up Finley Engineering and I used their contact us page to inquire as to whether or not they would like to see the photos of the way one of their employees represented their firm while at this hotel.
Apparently they don’t care, because they never answered me.
So, please be aware, and please share with everyone you know, that this is how Finley Engineering wants the public to see them. As a big, ugly, under utilized pick-up truck that throws its weight and size around like a weapon and not only doesn’t care about the inconvenience this may cause to others, but is unconcerned about the impact such behavior might have to their reputation.
I urge you to share this post often and with many tags, hash tags, hyper links, and self satisfaction.
Either you, or someone you know (or someone they know), does business with this firm. I want as many of their customers and business partners as possible to become aware that this is the kind of people they’re working with. Arrogant, self-involved, disinclined towards matters of reputation or customer service and above all, rude.
This is poorly done. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
The golden rule of proof-texting is “always have at least three citations”. Here’s why that’s true:
The very next verse says
You didn’t read the post very carefully. I did tell them their fault between they and I alone. They didn’t listen. That’s why i’m gathering my witnesses with evidence!
Not to mention that “brother” in the context of that passage specifically means fellow Christian, it is not a colloquial for “neighbor”. This is clear because if the brother does not listen to the two or three others you bring along, the very next verse says “tell it to the church”.
This is not some universal commandment to exercise discretion in all matters of dispute. It was a precise and narrow commandment to avoid making disputes which were particular and specific within the church into public matters. In short, it is about not suing your fellow parishioner or having them arrested if the matter is one that can be handled privately and quietly.
But ultimately, none of this matters, because we aren’t talking about a person! We’re talking about a corporation. Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, businesses are not people. No “brother” of mine sinned against me.
The very spinal column of our economic model in this country is that well informed consumers make reasonable decisions about who they will and will not do business with based on all possible evidence. Boycotts and public actions are the center piece of making it work. If you want to do business with rude, apathetic companies, feel free. But if you know a business is rude and apathetic and you keep that information from me in the name of not shaming someone or avoiding hurt feelings, you do me a disservice by hiding that information, rather than them a disservice by making it known to me.