Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Road Rage…

Honestly…I’ve been known to push the posted speed limits…at times…okay…most of the time…but…it’s not my fault…I have a condition known as…congenital lead foot…it runs in my family…and is very resistant to treatment…I have had temporary luck with…trooper therapy…which works great for a short time…but…seems to wear off the longer it has been since the treatment…
While exceeding the speed limit may work okay on a four-lane…or interstate…it doesn’t work so well on a hilly, winding, two-lane country road…that’s heavily traveled by log trucks…and has frequent school bus stops…AKA…my route to school…
So…I’m careful…I try to stay near the limit…as close as that foot allows…I allow plenty of time to get to school…and I’m always on the watch for buses…
Not so everyone…it seems there are a few large pick-up truck drivers…who are bound and determined to pass me by…yesterday morning…there was one…in the dark…in the fog…in the mist…with a double yellow line…only to get behind the 18-wheeler…that was preventing me from going any faster in the first place…
I watched as he attempted several times to pass it…again…with all of those conditions…and finally made it…whipping in behind a school bus…just as it was stopping for a child…
Then he…passed the school bus…again with a double yellow line…as it was approaching another stop…and a railroad crossing…
Now…I try not to be critical…but…this is what I’m thinking…Sir…really…what could be so important…that you risk your own life…not to mention the lives of other drivers…and all those children on the school bus...so what if you were up late watching the National Championship the night before…be a man…get up early enough to be on time for work…or be late…just don’t drive like an idiot…
Bertha has let me rant and rave…I think she actually enjoyed the show…at one time…she held up a ‘10’ card…so I guess she thought I was doing well…
Then…she reminded me…I don’t have a clue how the man was driving…not really…I could see things from my perspective…not his…what appeared to be whipping to me…could have been plenty of room…there were no wrecks…maybe I exaggerated the wildness of his driving…maybe I viewed him through the lens of my own frustration of the morning…
And…she’s right…I don’t have a clue…not really…I was frustrated yesterday…I got up late…I didn’t feel good…hmmm…I feel that balloon full of righteous indignation deflating…and whizzing across the room…
Jane

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