Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I'm hiding under the bed the rest of the day!

Rooty the Dog and I just went to McDonald's for lunch. There is a series of S-curves on the highway into town -- a two-lane road with a double yellow strip. I was not going slow, but some guy in a pickup passed me on one of the curves and sped on. What those of us who drive the road everyday know, and the pickup guy apparently didn't, is that it make no difference what speed you go through the S-curves. There are ten, twelve, fourteen, traffic signals just ahead, depending on which turn you take. They are not synchronized. He gained nothing by passing me. By the second signal, I was right behind him. Since I made a left turn and he didn't, I actually passed him as I turned.

Then there was the SUV that was directly ahead of me after I turned. In town, the highways are either three lanes or five lanes, with the center lane being a left turn lane. The SUV drove all the way through town, including through at least six traffic lights with left-turn lanes, straddling the yellow line. Even when it crossed through an intersection, it continued to straddle the yellow line marking the left-turn lane in the opposite direction. This produced many very startled looks on the drivers sitting in those left-turn lanes, and on the oncoming drivers in general. Basically, the driver kept the yellow lane under the drivers seat the whole way. I turned so I never did see who was driving.

Then there was the driver in the dedicated right-turn only lane who went straight ahead instead of turning, in the process almost crashing into two of us who were doing the right thing.

Maybe I'll make some popcorn and watch Oprah!

2 comments:

Jay Noel said...

I'm betting those drivers were from Missouri.
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no, they were using their turn indicators :)

Anonymous said...

Watch Oprah?! I'd rather risk the highway that watch that smarmy stuff.
By local standards, you are discussing some pretty tame drivers.