Bunyips are mythological creatures from Aboriginal legend. They seem to vary a lot, but one thing I've definitely heard about them is that they spring up out of nowhere and take a big bite out of you or rip out your throat or some similar horribleness. Today I encountered one.

Miranda's school has an absolutely horrific parking situation. Basically, there isn't any. I leave the house anywhere from half and hour to three quarters of an hour before school lets out, so that I can find a place to park (I bring a book along). I'm extremely conscientious about where I park. I take care not to block the bus stops, not to block people's drives, not to park too far into the street, etc. This is always my habit.

Today, however, I was late. I often take a nap in the afternoon, and I set the alarm on my mobile phone to wake me. I did so, today. However, this weekend was the Daylight Savings Time adjustment. I thought my phone would automatically adjust, and it should, but I found out much later that the DST setting was off. So the alarm didn't go off and I was late.

When I got to where I normally park, it was full of cars. I pulled up behind one and checked to see that I wasn't blocking the drive behind me. I was close, certainly, but I wasn't blocking it, and I thought, "Well, I think that should be okay if they need to get in or out." That momentary lapse in judgment led to a rather vicious verbal attack.

When I got back to the car, the woman whose house was there told me to please not block her driveway. I apologised. It was sincere. She then went on some more. I apologised again, I told her it would never happen again (certainly, this was a one-off incident, given my usual habits of transportation and parking and so on). The more I apologised, the angrier she got. She accused me of all manner of evil, including having blocked her driveway previously. As I am absolutely and in all ways certain that has NEVER happened, I said, "I've never blocked your driveway before." She called me a liar. She said that if I did it today, I must have done it before. She told me she had my license plate number, and she threatened to call the police. She went on at some length, talking about how "all you people" constantly block her driveway and how selfish I am and a few other rather nasty accusations. I finally said, "Look, I've apologised, and it was sincere. I have told you it won't happen again. What more do you want?" Well, the answer was she wanted to abuse me some more.

Eventually, I just gave up and I got in the car and said, "God bless you. I hope you wake up."

I was telling the truth to her, I was sincerely sorry she had been inconvienienced, I told her I'd be sure it wouldn't happen again, and I was owning up to it. Seriously, what more COULD I do in that situation? Shoot myself in the head? Fall on the ground sobbing with shame, begging for her to please kick me to make sure I got her terribly important message? What did she want? Simple answer, she wanted to abuse me.

Normal people would have said, "Please don't block my drive any more," and the other person would have said, "I'm sorry, it won't happen again," and the first person would have said something like, "See that it doesn't. I've got your license plate number!" and then huffed off into the house or something. It was a minor, MINOR thing. I wasn't even all that close to her driveway (honestly, I sincerely believed that anyone who wanted to pull in would have been able to do easily, but she informed me that she had "a very difficult time", for which I am sorry).

How do you reason with somebody like that? Simple answer is, you don't.

You know, she's lucky I'm not a vengeful person. She's fortunate that I don't make plans to do something like, say, visit her house some night with a carton of rotten eggs. Or put dog poo in her mailbox. She's fortunate that I don't have any friends who are criminally inclined, who I might be able to persuade to come around her place and rough it up a bit. She's lucky that I don't have friends who are into graffiti tagging. Honestly, you can't just accost a perfect stranger on the street, and in front of their child, no less! She's a fortunate woman, because I don't have criminal friends, I won't egg her house or muck her postbox, and while her nasty little attack did trigger a Post Traumatic Stress flashback (haven't had one in ages), I don't wish her any particular ill.

I do, however, sincerely hope that she wakes up to herself, and gets over herself, as well. Life is way too short to be verbally ripping the guts out of a complete stranger who just happened - on a one-time event - to park a little too close to your driveway.