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I feel all warm and fuzzy now...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Nettdata, Jun 4, 2010.

  1. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    While driving home from work a few days ago, I saw a little old lady (late 60's?) sitting in her car along the side of the road. The car had a flat, and as I went by I saw her sitting there with both hands on the wheel, looking more than a bit stressed out. I pulled over, backed up, and spent the next 15 minutes changing the tire for her. (Hell, any given race weekend I change more tires than most do in their entire lives, so it's not that big of a deal).

    She said she'd been there for almost 20 minutes, and nobody had stopped to help. She was afraid to get out of the car due to the traffic (anyone who's been on #1 Eastbound out of Vancouver during rush hour can relate), and she didn't have a cell phone. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, until I came by.

    I'm glad I stopped, and was more than a little pissed that I was the only one to do that.

    Still, it made my day, and I'm glad I was able to help.



    FOCUS: What good deeds have you done for others? Did it bite you in the ass?

    ALT-FOCUS: Ever had a time when you should have helped out someone, but regret it? Would you do it differently now?

    ALT-FOCUS: Ever been in a situation where you could have used some help, but never got it?
     
  2. Frank n Beans

    Frank n Beans
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    It always amazes me how people can just ignore those around them. I can't count the times you see some old lady at the grocery store trying to reach something on a top shelf, and all the people just walk right past her. It seriously takes me about 5 seconds to get it for her and the thank you is well worth it. I know it's not as big as pulling over to change a tire, but it's even worse because if they aren't willing to do that you know they'll never help with anything else.
     
  3. whathasbeenseen

    whathasbeenseen
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    I try to be consistent about helping women I see with flat tires. Ive done this a number of times and never regretted it. I figure since I don't live nearby my mom or sister that I hope someone does the same for them. Its not hard to be kind to people, doing simple things such as the poster above or opening a door, etc.
     
  4. JPrue

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    A couple of years ago I was in a Portland, ME during rush hour when my car's transmission gave out at a traffic light. There were cars everywhere surrounding me and a line of cars behind me at the time, and here there I was helplessly stalled in the left hand turning lane. Drivers are honking their horns and angry at me, which added to the stress of being stranded while trying to catch a bus to MA for a Red Sox game that night. For 10 minutes I stood on the median in uncomfortable disbelief and sarcastically laughing at the situation at hand, when finally an older gentleman pulled up behind with me in a Dodge Dakota. I thought he was going to try and help me push the car out of the way, but surprisingly he offered to push my Taurus up on the median with his truck. It alleviated a lot of stress for me since I was now out of traffic, and I was blown away by this man who offered to use his own truck to push a stranger's sedan out of harms way.
     
  5. Sherwood

    Sherwood
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    Last year while digging my car out of the snow, I saw a young lady who couldn't get her car into her driveway because of the buildup of ice and snow at the bottom. Thinking it's a good idea, I take my shovel over, chip away the ice, and spend a few minutes helping her get in. This isn't complicated, it's not that great of a deed, it's just something you should do.

    Right. Or not. Because then she grabs her shovel and starts helping me, and will NOT shut the fuck up. No matter how many times I tell her I don't need (re: WANT) her help, she just stood there moving snow around and annoying me.
     
  6. TX.

    TX.
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    The Mad Pooper

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    I was powerwalking to my car after class (it was absolutely pouring and I didn't have an umbrella), and I heard a girl hyperventilating. I stopped to see if she was alright, and it turned out that she missed the last shuttle to the bus station and her cell phone wasn't working. The station is about 5 miles away from campus, and the weather was pretty shitty. I wouldn't feel safe walking that far at night in a storm. So, being the halfway decent person I can be sometimes I offered to drive her to the station. She looked like a hobo because she carried about 5 bags with her, and she refused to put them in my trunk. She looked like she hadn't showered in days and for a second I really wondered if she was homeless. Anyway, she got in the passenger seat and held all of her crap on her lap. It came up to about eye level. As we're driving to the DART station I notice the worst smell coming from this girl. It was a mix of tuna, cat pee and dead babies. She couldn't stop babbling about driving down to Galveston and talking about her friends as if I knew them. This girl literally flipped a switch. When she got in the car she stopped sobbing/hyperventiliating and talked my freaking ear off. She reminded me of Ignatius J. Reilly, and for a second I wondered if she had a knife in one of her bags. She was that creepy. We finally got to the station, I dropped her off, and got the heck out of Dodge. As I drove off I watched her lumber with all of her bags to the bus. I don't think she ever thanked me. Helping her didn't kick me in the ass, but she was one of the strangest people I've encountered.
     
  7. Roxanne

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    One time I was driving and noticed this little white dog on a very unsafe road near my house. I thought maybe his owner was around and I just couldn't see them, but when I slowed down, the dog started wandering into oncoming traffic. So I opened my car door and the fluffy thing beelined for me and jumped right in.

    I called the number on the collar and no answer, so I left a message that I had found their dog. Since I was on my way to the grocery store, I took the dog with me and when I arrived, the owner called. I told her I'd found him on a bad road and the owner replies, "Oh yeah, he does that haha!" Then she said she would meet me at the grocery store in five minutes.

    Forty minutes later I'm still holding this annoying Maltese, along with my own dog who is freaking out that I've adopted a new friend, and waiting for the owner. She finally pulls up in her Mercedes and the quintessential wanna-be MILF (but isn't hot) steps out. She takes the dog and says, "Yeah I was cleaning and he just went right out! He loves to wander. Okay well see you later!" Then she drives off.

    I imagine the warm, fuzzy feeling I got right then was the simmering rage as I imagined punching her for making me wait nearly an hour without so much as a 'thanks for your time.'

    Seriously though, I love doing nice things for people. The other day I helped a Japanese man work the parking meter, and he thanked me so profusely I was nearly embarrassed. He had been trying to get it to work for twenty minutes and no one stopped to help him figure it out, so he was very grateful. That felt nice.
     
  8. Decatur Dave

    Decatur Dave
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    Disturbed

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    When it comes to karma, my name is Earl. Any chance I get to score cosmic bonus points I jump at, and about this time last year I had it bite me in the ass. I was living in Atlanta and just found out a little Dave was expected, and his mom was in south Georgia. With only a few months left on my lease and a job I was tired of, I was getting ready to pack up and leave town to tend to little Dave and his momma. I ran it by my roommates and with there blessing I began looking for someone to take over my room and part of the bills.

    About this time a stripper friend of mine came rolling back into town with her youngin' and was staying at her grandparents house. I'd been friends with her outside of the club (I've only seen her naked in the bedroom) for several years. Out of nowhere she starts bawling as we're having a drinks at my place. Turns out her uncle lives there with them too, and she's been warned he's a pedo, and she's worried about her kid. "Move in here till you get on your feet." I slept on the mother fuckin' couch and payed her share for two full month so she could get her GA stripper license and start saving money, while living in my room with her kid. I leave town with two full months left on the lease. I feel great about myself. I helped a kid and a friend. The lease will be wrapped up nicely. I can go tend to the baby bump of kid that I was lied to into conceiving. Life is good.

    Four weeks later I get a call. She didn't have any money and roommate number two ran off to be with her BF who just got out of jail... Those two roommates both left the state and the third said 'fuck this' and moved back home.

    I still get letters from the collection agency for that months rent.
     
  9. lust4life

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    ALT-FOCUS: Ever had a time when you should have helped out someone, but regret it? Would you do it differently now?

    One evening, I was sitting at the bar getting hammered as usual when my wife called my cellphone. She was at the store with our girls and her car battery died and needed a jump. I told her I'm sure the store had a set of jumper cables and could help her out. That's how much of a selfish, self-centered asshole I am when I drink, and that's one of the reasons I don't drink today. I'm still no paragon of virtue, but my program of recovery is grounded in altruistic action, and I strive to live each day according to those principles. Suffice it to say I do everything differently today.
     
  10. katokoch

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    FOCUS: What good deeds have you done for others? Did it bite you in the ass?

    Hell yes one did last year. I was in Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts up to being an Eagle Scout so the whole "Do a good turn daily" thing has been ingrained into me.

    Fall semester ended last year with a sloppy snowstorm. It was shitty enough out for Metro Transit buses to slip and slide bad enough to run into trees along roads. I was walking from my apartment to the bookstore to return a book I had rented. Since I had only a half hour to get there (and anyone that went to Minnesota understands how massive the campus is), so I didn't have lots of time. As I was approaching Dinkytown, I saw a van stalled in the middle of the road- on 15th right before the 4th street intersection. A really bad place to have car troubles because there's a ton of car and pedestrian traffic moving through it all day, and the snow made it especially worse.

    Since nobody was around the van, I decided to go ahead and see if they needed a hand. Turns out it was a Somali immigrant with a shitty van that died- I tried starting the van and checking everything I knew that could possibly cause such a problem. Since we were pretty close to a parking lot, I figured we could put the van into neutral and push it into the lot. I explained to him what we were going to do and had him sit in the driver's seat and crank hard on the wheel while I pushed. Because of the snow and the incline we were on, I wasn't making any progress. I took my backpack off (it was distracting me) and threw it down and gave pushing one more effort. Nobody else decided to help so I was the only one helping this guy. Needless to say, I got nowhere and yelled for him to hit the brakes and put it in park.

    I looked at my phone and saw that I had 15 minutes to get to the bookstore. Luckily, a truck pulled up and they offered to push him into the parking lot. I decided that was good and said goodbye. I got to the bookstore with barely any time left and as I pulled my book out of my backpack, I almost shit myself. My (rented) book was soaking wet. I fucked myself over by throwing my backpack on the ground to push harder, as moisture seeped through the bottom of my backpack and into my book. They didn't accept it. Instead of simply returning the book and being happy, I was turned around. There went $150 at a time when I was running out of money and needed to sell textbooks to have enough money for rent. Shit.

    At least the van was gone when I walked past that intersection on the way home.
     
  11. Sleeves

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    One that comes to mind was a night were me and a couple friends were watching tv at about 1AM and there was a huge snowstorm, i mean like a crazy amount of snow. We woke up and the driveway had a pile of snow larger than our cars. (Thanks snow plow workers). Anyways we look out the window and see that this middle aged lady was stuck in the snow so the 4 of us went outside at 1am and helped this lady who lived down the street from them. Nothing to heroic but we did get an 18 rack out of it which was pretty cool.
     
  12. kuhjäger

    kuhjäger
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    Ever asked a crying girlfriend/wife what is wrong?
     
  13. lostalldoubt86

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    Once I year I would go with this organization http://ihmnew.marywood.edu/4.SponosredInstitutions/4IHMFriendsofthePoor.html on their trip to Washington DC. At the end of the trip, we would go to an amusement park. Around the end of the day, one of the kids ran out of tickets. I had quite a few tickets left, so I gave her a few of mine. I thought I would feel good about this, but 1. the girl didn't thank me, and 2. she hunted me down 5 more times that day and kept asking me for more tickets. Before anyone says anything about me being a spoiled bitch, keep in mind that I was 11 and we were in an amusement park.
     
  14. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    When I was on tour with Lilith Fair, I'd always be given a bunch of front-row-centre tickets for any VIP's that might show up unexpectedly.

    Quite a few times, at the start of the main show, I'd just walk around the back of the crowd and find the "oh my God it's Sarah and she's the best!" kind of fans, and give them the tickets.

    Basically, they'd go from being a mile away and not being able to see shit, to having Sarah and guests basically sing TO them for the night.

    That was always fun, seeing the little girls' heads implode.

    Mind you, you'd be fucking surprised at how many people thought you were scamming them and tell you to fuck off before seeing the VIP/BACKSTAGE/CREW laminates we were wearing.... then they'd come begging "oh, sorry!!!!" Ha. Had your chance... blew it.
     
  15. Aetius

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    There was one time I was on a North Atlantic luxury cruise liner when we struck an iceberg and began to sink. I quickly grabbed a child and told the crew that I was his father so we could get on board a lifeboat. I'm sure if his real father hadn't gone to his icy watery grave that night he would have thanked me for saving his child. But really, the good deed is thanks enough.
     
  16. Stealth

    Stealth
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    About a year ago , it was a Saturday and I went to a local service station filled the car up with petrol and then pumped up my tyres. On the other side of the air pump was an Orange VW Beetle with a middle aged woman trying to open the car using a length of bent wire. I quickly realised that she had locked her keys in the car.

    I went over and tried to make a joke by saying ... I hope that's your car.

    She explained what had happened and I offered to help ... to no avail , I could not break into a 30 odd year old car !

    I asked her a few questions and it turned out that she lived fairly close by and had another set of keys at home.
    So I offered to take her home to pick up her keys and then bring her back .... she hesitsted a bit and then agreed.
    So , she hopped into the back seat of my car (yeah, in case I was a molester or killer of middle aged Italian women) and directed me to her house.
    On the way there , she explained how she didn't want her husband to find out what had happened as he would get upset at her.
    So , she got her keys , I took her back to her car and all ended well.

    The reason I did it .... I had the time and hey , what if that was a member of my family in a fix like that ; I'd want someone to help them.
     
  17. walt

    walt
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    Back before Thankgiving I ran into a lady who we picked up a lot when I was a paramedic. I hadn't seen her in a long time so I sat down and chatted, asked how she was, etc. She got around to telling me that she suddenly realized she had less money than she thought and was trying to figure out a way to her apartment complex, not having any family to contact. Not thinking twice I offered a ride, managed to fit her walker in the back seat and took her home. I was only a couple miles, not really out of my way, but she was so grateful.

    I saw a couple months ago in the paper she died, and somehow it makes the gesture more meaningful to me.
     
  18. Maltob14

    Maltob14
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    Focus: Please... when it comes to charity and good deeds I'm like mother Teresa without all the sluttiness. In fact, not two hours ago I just gave some poor bastard a few dollars. It really hits me when I see someone down on their luck especially like this guy was, so I try to help out. On a few rare occasions I've been out to dinner with some people and we would spot some poor bastard on the ground looking terrible. We'd all chip in buy him a meal and give it to him as we left.
     
  19. GaragePunk

    GaragePunk
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    Should still be lurking

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    I let Grandma ahead of me in the line for portaloos at a festival I was at this afternoon.

    I suppose it did pay off as she didn't piss herself.
     
  20. Solaris

    Solaris
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    This is a very inspiring little story that always motivates me to do a good deed.

    http://www.zenmoments.org/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/

    Thinking about good deeds I've done in the past, I'm not spoilt for choice which is a bit of a shame. A few times I've got between girls and creepy/dangerous guys harassing them on the street. I think once or twice two I've seen incidents where the so called 'spectator effect' occurs and I've been the one who steps in or rings an ambulance.

    When I've worked in bars, I've always gone well out of the way to return the phones I've found to the people who lost them, when company policy was to just throw them away.

    The funniest incident that comes to mind however is I was one my way to a party. On the way to the train station I passed a begar and felt guilty for not giving him anything, so I gave the next beggar I saw a pound. Then when I was buying my ticket, a guy comes up to me, obviously on Heroin or something asking for an extra quid for his bus fare. I gave it to him knowing he was lying. But then, when I got off the train, some dude comes up to me with a bike. He said becuase his bike chain had broken he needed to get a train home, but had spent all his money on his shopping which he had on his bike. So I gave him a 5er. I was only 17 too so that was a lot.

    However, two strangers I met in the chippy offered to give me a lift to where the party was when I asked them for a taxi number. I was terrified they were going to abduct me, but took them up on their offer anyway. They took me there safe and sound and I thanked Karma.