04/06/2026
Sorry, 2 rants in one day??? 🤦♂️🤷♂️
So this is the type of crap I have to deal with way too often.
A few hours ago, around 4pm today (currently around 7pm) In the street outside of the Op Shop West Footscray there was plenty of parking available. Instead of finding a spot to park in the street where there was parking, someone decided to park in the charity driveway despite the clearly visible NO PARKING IN LANEWAY sign. In doing so they blocked the charity driveway and the footpath.
I had appointments and visits to get to that afternoon as part of my volunteer work. But instead of being able to leave and do my job I was stuck trying to find the owner of the vehicle selfishly blocking the only exit.
To make matters worse it was raining. While I was standing out in the cold and rain trying to work out who owned the car so I could get them to move it, they were nowhere to be found. Eventually they wandered back completely unconcerned about the inconvenience they had caused.
Apparently it wasn’t a problem?????
In fact I was told by the driver something along the lines of “Look it’s not a problem brother just get in your car and leave.”
I would have loved to leave, that was the whole point. The problem was that I couldn’t with their self entitled parking job blocking me in.
They didn’t care, they didn’t want to care. It was more of a how dare you tell us to move our car type of self entitled attitude. When I explained that if they were going to behave like that they were no longer welcome back at the Op Shop.
The response was immediate.
“Bro, don’t tell us what to do.”
Then they asked which shop was mine.
Considering this was a regular who had been to the shop many times before, it certainly didn’t feel like a genuine question.
I pointed to the driveway I was standing in with the car blocking it. I pointed to the shop attached to the driveway they were blocking puzzled?
“That shop right there who’s driveway your blocking!”
Instead of simply moving the car the response escalated into threats and intimidation.
I was then met with comments along the lines of “thats your shop hey? You want to tell us what to do brother? I’ll deal with you.” Thinking back now it seemed like an odd question but then later on thinking back it i think it was was kind of more of a statement? Dunno 🤷♂️
One thing that genuinely upset me was that this wasn’t some random stranger. This was a regular family to the op shop west footscray.
Someone who has been coming to the Op Shop for a while now. Someone we’ve always treated with kindness and respect, someone that’s actually asked for our help on occasions and even asked if we could help their son pad out his CV with some volunteer experience and references. In fact we had already discussed him coming in to meet us about volunteering, although he never ended up turning up to the initial meeting.
That’s probably the part that hurt the most.
Not the driveway.
Not the rain.
Not even the personal insults.
The part that sticks with me is seeing someone we’ve treated well for so long stand by while a member of their family responds with threats and intimidation towards a volunteer who was simply trying to drive to his next task of the day so he could hopefully get home earlier rather than later.
After the threats came and they were getting in their car, the personal attacks started, mocking my car.
“Look at that crap you drive bro, that’s not even a real car bro.”
Honestly, what does the car I drive have to do with anything? I don’t have the luxury he has to be unemployed yet still able to drive a fancy car? not that I know much about cars. All I know is his car was silver. I couldn’t tell the difference between that and my car except mine is blue.
(I’m a nerd, not a clue about cars.)
The reality is I chose this life.
I choose to volunteer 7 days a week because I want to leave the world a little better than I found it. Most mornings I’m up around 4am or 4:30am. Not because I have to but because I choose to. Even when the shop is closed I’m still working on charity projects, helping people, organising things, calling people to ask how they’re going, fixing problems or trying to keep everything running.
What they didn’t understand, or more likely didn’t care about, was that I’d been up since around 4am today. Just like most days. By the time this happened I’d already been going for hours and still had appointments, visits and a long list of jobs ahead of me before I could even think about going home.
The helping part I absolutely love. Even before the charity and I’m assuming well after the charity is long gone for me, I’ll still be doing something along these lines. It’s better than staring at the wall and I’m sure many out there with similar mental health issues will understand that sometimes it feels like the wall is staring back, so we keep busy.
As I write this, well technically voice to text while I work, I’m putting together care packages with what little resources I have to help a few people who are doing it tough. I don’t do this because I’m rich. The truth is I’m broke most of the time. Some weeks I’m wondering how far the fuel in the car is going to get me or days like today where I’m praying the next location I get to has a heater because my car doesn’t have a working heater and being drenched doesn’t help much either. Some weeks I’m spending money I probably shouldn’t be spending because someone else needs help.
But the reason I keep doing it is simple. The people who need help aren’t bad people. Most of them are just people who have had life go wrong. And the truth is that could be any of us.
Sometimes we work hard and things fall into place.
Sometimes we work just as hard and everything seems to go wrong anyway.
Health problems.
Family problems.
Financial problems.
Or just plain and simple bad luck.
Life doesn’t always play fair.
The person needing help today could be any one of us tomorrow.
That’s why I keep turning up. Not because it’s easy. Not because I have money to spare. Because I genuinely believe people deserve help when life knocks them down. No matter how bad my life seems I can always see that there are people in more need than me.
What gets me is not the people who need help. Helping people is worth it. What gets me is how quickly some people jump straight to aggression, intimidation and threats over something as simple as being asked not to block a charity driveway.
Lately I’ve found myself pondering a question more and more seriously than I ever thought I would. Even on the good days I find myself wondering why I’m bothering to keep the doors open when so often those open doors seem to invite nothing but abuse, intimidation and aggression.
I don’t mind hard work. I don’t mind getting up at 4am. I don’t mind spending 7 days a week trying to help people. I chose this life of long hours and hard work because I don’t want others to live the crap life I live.
What I struggle with is watching volunteers, charities and the people trying to do the right thing become targets over and over again, not just at the Op Shop West Footscray but in many volunteer run charities.
Because some days it feels like the people trying to help are the ones getting crapped on the most.
I know this rant seems like a crazy rant but it’s more of a rant trying to convince myself why the hell am I still bothering to do this?
End of rant. 🤦♂️
