{"id":2802,"date":"2021-10-25T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=2802"},"modified":"2021-10-24T15:56:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T19:56:26","slug":"peeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=2802","title":{"rendered":"Peeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peeves<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(a Herman and Otto story)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Otto and Herman were sitting on a park bench, watching the cars go by.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere goes another one!\u201d grumbled Otto.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother what?\u201d was Herman\u2019s retort already knowing what Otto was going to say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother speeder,\u201d replied Otto, \u201cJust a bad driver that speeds on roads making them unsafe to walk on or near. Not to mention, the other drivers that do follow the rules of the road.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t a new conversation between Otto and Herman. It happened frequently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet me ask you,\u201d Herman said, \u201cHave you ever driven over the speed limit while driving a car?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I have,\u201d Otto stammered, \u201cbut I know what I\u2019m doing, besides if I drive too slow, compared to everyone else, then I\u2019m going to cause an accident when the rest of the world passes me by.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman was quick to react. \u201cBut doesn\u2019t that make you one of the rule-breakers? Shouldn\u2019t you be ticketed and fined?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d cried Otto. \u201cIf I\u2019m going slower than the rest of the cars, even if I\u2019m over the speed limit, it\u2019s the faster cars that should be stopped and fined. If that happened more often, maybe we all would slow down more and follow the rules.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman couldn\u2019t argue with that. \u201cI agree that there is a problem with speeders. I tried to hand signal some drivers that were speeding towards me to slow down while Minna and I were walking in our neighborhood. We were on the edge of the street facing traffic since we have no sidewalks in our development. What happened both times was the drivers gunned their motors and sped up faster past us. And this is not a gender issue, drivers of all genders are the culprits. I\u2019m not sure what we can do about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Otto had a plan for walking in the neighborhood. \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault if my walking stick happens to fall out of my hand in the direction of the offender\u2019s windshield when they pass me going too fast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman just sighed, knowing that Otto talks a radical game, but he\u2019s best at just complaining. \u201cWe need more cameras on the road like the red light ones, that can ticket a person via a video feed. That might at least get rid of some of the offenders.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Otto replied, \u201cNobody cares. If they did there would be more citations, which there are not. How many people do you see on the roads that are not only speeding but are on their handheld cell phones at the same time despite the fact that there is a law against that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor once I agree that you\u2019re right, Herman said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the answer is either. It\u2019s hard to believe that when we were growing up in the city it was actually safe to play in the streets. Between the paranoia of parents and the crazies out there driving uncontrollably, it just isn\u2019t safe anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As conversations go this one, as usual, did not come to any resolution. That is usually the way with Herman and Otto, though for this one they agreed more so than usual.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As they were getting up, they noticed their wives Minna and Lina walking towards them. They could hear both women in a heated conversation themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I hear one more person complaining about why we should be getting vaccinated, I\u2019m going to scream!\u201d Minna shouted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying it because it is the right thing to do.\u201d Lina tried to respond in a much calmer voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman and Otto just looked at each other and both said at the same time, \u201cNot today.\u201d One disagreement a day was enough for them so they just walked the other way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author\u2019s note:<\/i><\/b> Herman and Otto were the main characters in my A to Z Blog Challenge in 2018. The theme I chose for that year was \u201cAttitudes and Gratitudes\u201d (<\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1053<\/span><\/i><\/a>)\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you would like to read more stories with Herman and Otto start with this link: <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1087<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peeves (a Herman and Otto story) Otto and Herman were sitting on a park bench, watching the cars go by.\u00a0 \u201cThere goes another one!\u201d grumbled Otto.\u00a0 \u201cAnother what?\u201d was Herman\u2019s retort already knowing what Otto was going to say.\u00a0 \u201cAnother … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[90,177],"class_list":["post-2802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-reckless-drivers","tag-writing-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2803,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions\/2803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}