I will dispense with the A and B stuff. It was 20 degrees this morning and all four of my tires needed air. During rush hour, I drive to the nearest gas station which is on the intersection of a busy street and a residential street. I am approaching on the residential street, turning left. The air pump is right along the busy street, and I see an SUV sitting in front of the pump by about 5 - 10 feet, but no one using it. It took about 3 to 4 minutes for me to get the green arrow to turn left, and still no action from the SUV. As I turn left, I can see it is a woman, probably in her 50s. I then pull up behind her and wait about 30 seconds. She is far enough forward from the pump that I can pull up behind her far enough away, so that the air hose could reach the rear of my automobile. Her back window was also tinted as such that I could not make eye contact with her. No action. At that point, I considered approaching her car to ask her if she was going to use it, or if she was just waiting for someone to come out of the store, but thought she might not want a male stranger approaching her vehicle. Since she had been there about 5 minutes now, I made the decision to fill my tires, because, you know, I have a job and shit and need to get to work. About 2 minutes later she gets out of her car in sweatpants (clearly not on her way to work) and stares at me like I just stole her lunch. By the time she noticed me, she had been stationary for like 7 minutes, and I said sorry, I thought you were waiting for someone. She stared at me for another second, and got back into her SUV. I topped off the 3 remaining tires and left.
So, was she the asshole for sitting there for 7 minutes in front the air pump on one of the first very cold mornings when lots of people were going to need air, in the middle of rush hour (for DSM), or was I the asshole as a male stranger for not approaching her window to ask if she was waiting for someone or whether she was actually going to use the pump. A secondary question is should I have yielded to someone in sweatpants clearly not going to work, in the middle of rush hour, and in no particular hurry once she confronted me, or should I have apologized like I did and continue to top off my tires so I could get to the office? Admittedly, these are probably both close calls.
So, was she the asshole for sitting there for 7 minutes in front the air pump on one of the first very cold mornings when lots of people were going to need air, in the middle of rush hour (for DSM), or was I the asshole as a male stranger for not approaching her window to ask if she was waiting for someone or whether she was actually going to use the pump. A secondary question is should I have yielded to someone in sweatpants clearly not going to work, in the middle of rush hour, and in no particular hurry once she confronted me, or should I have apologized like I did and continue to top off my tires so I could get to the office? Admittedly, these are probably both close calls.