By the way, make sure to click on my renter's thumbnail. Meltwater's owner is a good guy who has purchased one of my prints, so he definitely deserves a lot of visits this week. Check it out, especially if you're interested in rafting.
When I was coming in to school today, on one of the U's roads there were two minivans stopped next to each other, hogging up 2/3 of the road. They forced someone around them, who almost ran into me. I was just about to flip off the driver of one of the minivans when I saw that it was Somebody Important from the law school. I think this is a lesson well-learned in restraint. Have you ever flipped someone off on the road and regretted it?
Well, Kelly, now that you mention it, no. Never regretted it a bit ;)
ReplyDeleteI've had the same experience, of nearly flipping someone off that I wouldn't normally want to have see me exhibiting my tame version of road rage. (I'm a schizodriver, btw, with a completely different personality emerging behind the wheel. Or maybe it's the real me?!)
ReplyDeleteThe only times I've regretted actually doing it were when the jerk then tried to run me off the road. This has happened both in the US & Japan. Stupidity truly is cross-cultural.
This "Somebody Important" isn't setting a very good example, eh? Did you honk your horn at least? (Over here, people rarely use their horns. I say, if God didn't mean us to honk, He wouldn't have put horns on cars. Right? : )
I'll share a story on the subject related to me by one of my friends:
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends (hereafter referred to as "Friend Guy" or FG) was driving along I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha on an icy day.
He was driving below the speed limit slightly, since it was snowing and the roads were extremely icy.
Some idiot (hereafter refered to as The Idiot, or TI) decided to tailgate him, since my friend aparently wasn't going fast enough for The Idiot. So FG slowed down and matched speed with a truck or something, which meant that The Idiot couldn't even pass him.
My friend had his fun for a minute or so and then allowed TI to pass him. The Idiot was angry and decided to do the classic "angrily swerve in front, as if to cut the other driver off on purpose" thing.
Well, while performing this maneuver, The Idiot lost traction and started sliding on the ice, straight into the median.
Had he calmly driven away without swerving or getting angry, he'd never have wrecked his SUV. Or, had he simply flipped FG off and drove away, The Idiot wouldn't have crashed. But TI just had to show FG who was boss, and he paid for it.
This is karma at its finest.
I didn't even honk. I rarely do.
ReplyDeleteCool story Khorbin.
Another thing I often do is that when someone is tailgating me, I will slam my brakes--you know, just enough to wake them up--and then go on as if nothing happened. I did that on I-80 once and afterwards the guy started literally shaking his fist at me. I thought that was something people only did in really old cartoons.