Get Your Coffee Off My Car

I'd just like to remind Dr. Michael J. Fugle, DO that it's rude to put your cup down on someone else's car while you unlock your own.

I can say this to him because yesterday he did just this as I sat inside the car listening to the final moments of TAL #106, Father's Day '98, before my physical therapy appointment. I heard two men talking as they walked out, and thought nothing of it. I saw one was in a white coat, the other an older guy. Some kind of professional, to be sure, but perhaps a salesman, vendor, landlord, maybe even a patient. He was carrying a styrofoam cup and some papers. My car was parked next to this big silver SUV.

Older guy waves off the younger white coat and walks to the rear of the SUV. Then he sets his cup on my deck lid. I assumed he'd pick it back up immediately, even if he hadn't noticed me sitting there. But he didn't. He fumbled with some keys or such, then walked between the two vehicles and unlocked his. At first I thought he'd leave it there, which definitely would have made me brave enough to vocalize my displeasure as he reversed out of the spot. "Excuse me," I'd say politely, "you left your coffee ON MY CAR." Really, the embarrassment on his part would have been plenty to justify a lack of well-deserved rudeness on my part. But he didn't leave it; he remembered, collected it, and moved off. All through the ordeal, which lasted all of about twelve seconds, I tried to make eye contact with the guy. I'd have smiled and nodded (see aformentioned embarrassment/rudeness tradeoff), but it never happened. All I could see were his jacket and his papers.

Margot, the therapist, was watching from inside, I found out a few moments later, and told me who the guy was. She said he did apparently notice that my car was NOT unoccupied before pulling away. "I kind of don't give a damn," I told her, "about his coffee, I mean. What would he have done with it if I hadn't been parked there?"

Really, the nerve of some folks.