What's wrong with Americans
There are many things wrong with Americans, but this one just makes me shake my head. I drive Katie to school because we don't think she's really mature enough to ride the bus. That and the bus picks up at 7am, so we would have to be out of the house by 6:45 to walk her down to the bus stop, which is 30 minutes earlier than we can leave if I drive her and since she's not a morning person, it's probably best. Anyway, when I pick her up from school, I park on a neighborhood street that is up the hill from her school and have to walk down a flight of stairs to get there. I was following another parent out (this guy is probably right around 6 foot and 275lb (1.8m/125kg), very pear shaped). He lives in the apartment complex that is at the bottom of the hill from the school. We are talking a distance of roughly 4 city blocks since they seem to live on the far side of the complex. He doesn't appear to have a walking disability since he can climb the stairs, as can his son. You know what? If he'd get off his butt and actually walk to the school to get his son, I bet he could start losing a little bit of weight. Just boggles my mind that someone would drive that short distance to pick up their kid. Think of all the gas money you would save in addition to getting exercise. We live 2.5 miles from school, so walking isn't an option, but 4 blocks? Especially since the walk from the car to the school is about the same as walking halfway up the hill to the school in the first place.
This ranks up there with watching folks use mobility scooters at amusement parks because they are too obese to walk around all day. It's the catch-22, you're fat because you don't exercise and now you don't exercise because you're too fat. Now I know that some folks have age related arthritis, MS and there are other reasons why a mobility scooter would be truly warranted, but many folks have arthritis that is related to the fact they got too far overweight. And my personal favorite of folks renting one and taking turns pretending to be the handicapped person to get head of the line privileges (see a fantastic South Park episode where Cartman got one because his disability was being obese). Seriously, you go to Europe and Disneyland Paris and you do not see anywhere near the number of folks using scooters as you do in the US. Of course the scooter companies here had a racket going where they had doctors in their employ who would write a Medicare prescription for just about anyone to get a scooter. I think that got shut down, but I don't watch enough TV to know if they still go whole hog on the advertising for those things.
This ranks up there with watching folks use mobility scooters at amusement parks because they are too obese to walk around all day. It's the catch-22, you're fat because you don't exercise and now you don't exercise because you're too fat. Now I know that some folks have age related arthritis, MS and there are other reasons why a mobility scooter would be truly warranted, but many folks have arthritis that is related to the fact they got too far overweight. And my personal favorite of folks renting one and taking turns pretending to be the handicapped person to get head of the line privileges (see a fantastic South Park episode where Cartman got one because his disability was being obese). Seriously, you go to Europe and Disneyland Paris and you do not see anywhere near the number of folks using scooters as you do in the US. Of course the scooter companies here had a racket going where they had doctors in their employ who would write a Medicare prescription for just about anyone to get a scooter. I think that got shut down, but I don't watch enough TV to know if they still go whole hog on the advertising for those things.