Am I the jerk: your townhouse complex has roads like the Death Road in Bolivia when garbage bins go out. You’re stuck between speed bump installers and a massive diesel truck blocking your path home. The truck idles, spewing exhaust, while a woman digs through every recycling bin collecting cans. You can’t get to your garage two doors down. You yell at the caretaker. The woman in the truck rolls down her window and unleashes a barrage of F-bombs at you in your own compound where you’ve lived 13 years.

Bob Addison brings this confrontation to the “am I the bleephole” test. His wife’s response cuts deep: “Why do you have to be like that?” Addison’s never been ornery, he’s been polite all his life, but this one got to him. Here’s the context: provinces like BC have deposit returns on cans and bottles, Ontario doesn’t, so people legally collect them for money. The scavenger isn’t breaking rules. The diesel truck is just big and in the way. Then the recycling truck rounds the corner and forces everyone to back up halfway down the street anyway.

The real answer: narrow roads cause the problem, not the people using them. Speed bumps won’t help when there’s barely room for one vehicle on garbage day.

Topics: am I the jerk, neighborly disputes, townhouse conflicts, blocking the road, recycling collection

GUEST: Bob Addison | @‌riobobbo | Uncle Bob’s Bits

Originally aired on2026-01-27