Outside
doing some assorted bits of work around the yard.
Car
coming down the road. Slowly. Couple of people inside. Blinker
on. Every indication you might imagine of being lost.
They
passed by, went a bit further down the road, pulled into a driveway
and used it to turn around, and then crept up toward me.
It
moved along as you might expect. Windows went down, car came to
a stop, and the call came out from the passenger.
The
question they had was whether I knew where a certain address was
located. For about ten seconds we went back and forth, with me
trying to gather some additional information because I didn’t
know the address but could tell they were close.
Let’s
hit pause for a moment to establish some fundamental facts in
the scenario.
First…
they were on the right road for the address they had.
Second…
I don’t know any of the house numbers on my street. Never needed
them.
I
know the names of those around me, but never needed to send them
mail… never really receive incorrectly delivered mail… couldn’t
tell you which direction of the road is headed away from the heart
of town… and so on when it comes to all the indicators of street
numbering systems.
All
of that in play, it was really evident that they should have been
looking for the home directly across the street.
How
did I know that? Well…
Imagine
if I asked you where 5000 Pleasant View Road was located, and
you lived at 4999 Pleasant View Road. Even if you don’t know the
street numbers, well, duh… it should be on the other side of the
road (the whole odd-even-numbering thing), and, with one number
differing, the darn location is really close.
Basically,
they asked me for 5000 Pleasant View Road, with me living at 4999,
and there are literally no houses on the opposite side of the
street for quite some distance in both directions.
So,
I asked them to hold on for a moment. Told them it had to be the
house across the street, and if they’d wait I’d walk over to check
out the number on the roadside mailbox. They said fine.
I
took ten steps… and it was going to be quite a few steps, since
the driveway for the house isn’t right on top of ours… and they
left. Pulled away. Headed down the street away from the house
I had pointed out and back in the direction that had come.
I
was too stunned for a moment to move. Shook my head for a second,
watching the flashing light from the still engaged turn signal
drift away, and then then continued on to the mailbox. (By that
point I had to know if the address was correct. It was.)
Back
to work. Grabbed my rake and moved along. Got five minutes of
work done when…
A
car was approaching from the distance. Passed my house, turned
off the road and up the driveway across the street.
And…
for me… yeah, rude.
Not
in any particular common sense of rude, mind you. But more in
a pet peeve sort of way. It bothers me when people ask questions
but have no intention at all of listening to the response. Bothers
me even more when presented to someone willing to go a few steps
out of their way to offer assistance.
When
considering this particular scenario, I don’t want to drive too
far down the road exploring potential answers when… literally
and figuratively… the answer is there directly across the street.
However, I think it’s worth understanding what it means to ask
a question. They’re not all rhetorical. Some of them are stupid.
And when asked by the ignorant, they can be outright rude.