When I say that I was minding my own business, really that is what I was doing, MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS. I didn't wake up that Friday morning and say, "Man, who should I 'tick' off today?" It simply happened.
It was about 12:30 in the afternoon and I was headed to South Hutch. I had gone up Avenue A from my home on 14th Street and had almost made it to Main Street when I met "Mr. Not Such a Nice Guy". We were at the stop light there, him in front in his SUV and me behind in my little blue Chevy Colorado. And THEN it happened.
Another truck, pulling a long trailer behind it, had made a turn into the eastbound lane that we were in. The only problem was that he pulled out too wide and would have never made the complete turn without running into Mr. Not Such a Nice Guy.
It was obvious that the other driver needed room, lots of it and rather quickly. So the driver in front of me, totally oblivious to the fact that I was right behind him, decided to give the other driver some room. May I add here, he was oblivious to the fact that I was behind him because he was yapping nonstop on his cellphone. (sorry, just had to add that) He put his SUV in reverse and gunned it to move back and give him enough space to complete his turn.
Well guys, here I am sitting in my little blue truck. All I see is the rear end of his SUV barreling back towards me at about 100 mph. The only thing I can think of to do is lay on the horn, loud and long in hopes that he will not hit me. Turns out THAT was the wrong thing to do.
As soon as he heard that horn, he put his car back into drive and immediately stuck his finger up in what Jethro Bodine of the Beverly Hillbillies would refer to as the "California Hello".
Now you know, it's interesting when you look up the definition of the "California Hello" in the urban dictionary. There it is referred to as putting your "peace sign" up and your index down. Well, Mr. Not Such a Nice Guy was actually pretty good at it. In fact, he was SO good that he decided to do it over and over while waiting for the light to change to green.
45 minutes later, the light turned green and he finally was able to turn south onto Main. Friends, I am not idiot-even though I needed to go south as well, I took the long way around to avoid running into him on Main Street. My heart was pounding, legs shaking and all the while, I am wondering what the heck that guy was thinking of?
I don't how many of you are familiar with the acronym "HALT". A good friend, many years ago, taught me what those very familiar letters stand for..... Never let yourself get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. If I try to make sense of that other driver's poor behavior and judgement, I have to wonder if perhaps he might have not heard of that advice. I can only suppose so.
Have any of you ever been the victim of road rage? The experience makes you pause and think about those that you pass each day on the road as they travel to and from one place to another. Luckily for me, the experience was short lived, although those 45 seconds at the red light seemed like every bit of 45 minutes. No one was physically hurt, no property damage done....although I did have visions of his putting the SUV into park and coming back to break the windshield out of the Colorado. Thankfully, that never had to happen.
I suppose the lesson I learned THAT day was that you can never predict what someone else is going to do. And the truth is, I don't think I could have done anything any different. If he was that "ticked off" by my honking at him, just imagine what he would have been like had he backed right into me. Someone would not have had a very nice day!
The Clampett's-Jed, Jethro Bodine, Elly May, and Grannie with Duke "the wonder dog".
Peggy's "alter ego"-Rex the dinosaur from Toy Story. We both HATE confrontations! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment