Monday, March 3, 2008

Mind That Lane Change Buddy...

Annette: What special day is it today Jimmy?
Jimmy: Well Annette it’s express your feelings day.
Cubby: I don’t wanna do that.
Jimmy: C’mon Cubby your sure to feel real swell afterward. In fact, here’s a song to get us started…


Thankfully Uncle Walt never had “express your feelings day” but I’m not your Uncle Walt and this ain’t the Mickey Mouse Club. I do like to rant from time to time and today is one of those days. It’s not an angry rant, more like one of life’s little observations.

So this morning, I was faced with a situation far too common in recent months out here on the Tundra, Stupid drivers.

Now I know that there are those of you out there, who have or will run into what I see on I-80 every time we have icy roads. So it is to you, the intelligent drivers out there that I pose the following scenario and question.

You’re traveling on the interstate, snow is falling limiting your vision a little bit and the road conditions are mostly ice covered. You are managing to drive at a reasonable speed of 40-45 MPH. Then one of two things happen or perhaps both. You are passed by Mr. Invincible in his 4 wheel drive. He must be invincible because he just flies right past you as if you were standing still. Or you suddenly come up behind some Yahoo being overly cautious. He’s the one driving with white knuckles at an amazing 10-20 MPH maybe even less. He can be spotted in any of three lanes. Today surprisingly he is in the proper lane.

So who is more dangerous? My initial thoughts turn to the Yahoo. It seems like when I encounter this type of driver I am faced with traffic in the adjacent lane preventing me from moving over thus causing me to slow down. This of course brings on the fear of being rear ended or perhaps worse, having other drivers think that I am the Yahoo.

But while I’m pondering the Yahoo I look further down the road and I notice Mr. Invincible has introduced himself to the concrete barrier, all three traffic lanes, the right hand shoulder and finally the hill just beyond. He is standing next to his truck (which amazing did not flip) shaking his head as if to say ‘what happened.’

Thankfully no one is hurt. And thankfully this happened at 4:30am when very little traffic is out. Had this been a few hours later. Mr. Invincible certainly could have caused a far worse situation.

As I reach the lights at the end of my exit I see the Yahoo driving across the overpass. Well at least he is still moving.

So ends todays observation. This morning I was up at 4 and put the tundra calorie burner to work. Tonight I put it to use again and did the sidewalks and the driveway expansion. Following that, life has been very busy tonight. As I type it is 10:30 and if I wasn't dragging from staying up late last night I would be going downstairs and visiting TM theater. But I am going to listen to my body and give it some needed rest.

Catch y'all tomorrow...

7 comments:

DebWDW said...

I hate Mr. Invincible! And every time he passes me, I wish he would scrape a wall, but alas, he never does! You rant for all of us snow bunnies!

(Yes, I am going to do a local race, a 5K to start with. I printed some out about a month ago. It will probably be a late April or early May race. That's when our weather will be decent.)

[rich] said...

I hear you - I had to spend over 2hours on the way home because of someone who thought the could drive better than everyone else - in fact I see at least 3 accidents a day :-/

Matt said...

I hate both Mr. Invincible and Mr. Overly Cautious. Hey, look on the bright side. At least they have an excuse with the icy roads. Here in MS, you have the stupid rednecks in their GIGANTIC trucks that tailgate you at 65 mph. Then you have the little "scopa aged" lady in her GIGANTIC cadillac going 20 mph. Then, you have to (not intentionally) tailgate her until you're able to pass her (not easy with a constant influx of vehicles coming your way). About the time you decide to pass her, Bubba also decides to pass. So now your both passing her. You pull back to allow Bubba to go. By this time, the lady is freaking out (you can tell because she slows down even more and nearly swerves off the road) as he is blowing past with his "Pipes" blarring. Now, your stuck behind "Scopa" for the rest of your drive, going slower than you were before. All of this for no reason at all other than the fact that my corner of the state is full of idiot drivers!

This is what happend to me on the way to school today. What usually takes 15 minutes, took 30 minutes to drive.

I'm sorry for my first post on your blog to be a rant, but you started it LOL! Feel free to rant on my blog anytime!

Jeff W said...

Scopa Aged? Ouch man. Gotta love the Scopa. Have you been following Passamaquoddy?

Matt said...

No I haven't. I've been trying to keep up with all of the ones they mention on AATM, but I get easily side tracked.

Matt said...

Haha! I just looked at it! That picture of Capt. Scopa and First Mate Mongello is HILARIOUS!!!

Craig Wheeler said...

Sounds like Ohio drivers. And it does always seem like a disproportianate amount of the spun-out cars are 4-wheel drive. People seem to think they handle snow like it wasn't there.