Coffee Dump
Why do people expect someone else to clean up their mess? Years ago a friend was smoking on my back porch. When he finished he flipped his cigarette onto the sidewalk. I asked him to get it and he said no, that we pay people to pick up our garbage, and he was leaving it where it landed (off my back porch where I had to look at it until someone else picked it up). Our condo fees paid for lawn service, not bad habits, including cigarette butts left behind by people too lazy to throw them in the trash.
One morning as I made my way to get coffee I was driving through the busy parking lot looking for an empty space. Once parked, I opened the door and stepped into a large splat of black coffee. It was too late to move to a different parking spot. The damage was done and cars were circling the crowded lot.
The person who occupied this space before me either dumped the coffee from his “Save the Environment” reusable cup, or he poured out some piping hot coffee so it wouldn’t spill in his car and on him. I had to step in his coffee to get my decaf Americano and then risk spilling it on my car and on me as I stretched my body over his puddle to get back into my car. What if it had been the middle of winter and the liquid had frozen? At that point the splash from that mug of Joe becomes more than an inconvenience – it’s a dangerous ice rink lurking in the corners of parking spaces waiting to trip some poor guy who just wants to get his coffee and get on with his day.
How hard is it to pour the coffee out at home? I mean, really, how dirty is that reusable cup? It probably hasn’t been cleaned in months – if ever. If Mr. (or Mrs., or Ms.) Coffee Dump has to empty the cup he should dump it in the planter where he probably left his shopping cart, or toss it in the trash can where he should have tossed his cigarette butt. He probably doesn’t care if he steps into someone’s coffee, soda, ice cream, or other liquid leftovers. He probably toots on the airplane and spits on the sidewalk (you really have to read my other posts).
Mr. Coffee Dump, please stop.