a lecture

so this happened the other day, and perhaps this is the real reason i started typing here.

on my way home as usual, this time i was in a real bad mood. do we know where this is going? hadn't eaten all day, other personal issues had arisen, blah blah blah. at the start of my 26 mile, 2-lane drive home, i am greeted by a rundown mini-camper Winnebago-type thing. hooray. 35 m p h down the highway, 12 miles or so before i have to pass this guy illegally. the type who floors it when it is flat, can't keep his foot off the brake with the slightest turn. plenty of turnouts, too, he just must have been in a hurry...

this guy was just the beginning. on to hurricane point.

just before reaching the peak from the north side i encounter a family in a gigantic ford suv. plenty of time before the biggest, PAVED turnout on this stretch of the highway. no time for pulling over i guess. must not have seen me...

well we begin our decent, only to be greeted by a friendly local. who had been sitting in a turnout, presumable talking on the phone (thank you!). who happens to be carrying a refrigerator in the back of his truck. must not have seen us coming...

so here we go, down the curviest part of the highway, led by a man with a refrigerator in his truck. who knows what obscenities had been spewing from my lips at this point, or how close i had come to the white suv, or how uncomfortable we ALL felt. but i'm the kind of guy who likes to prove my point. even if the others don't get it.

so i don't let off until i can legally pass, since, for some reason, i had this feeling my friendly local friend might try to do something silly or childish, to possibly prove a point to me. hah. my passing lane arrives and the white family fades quickly, however my local friend seems to be racing me now. not down the hill, or where there might be turns, but in the flat, level ground where an f250 could easily smoke a measly 4-cyl pickup. do i let off at this point? nope. i continue, knowing full well what consiquences might come. and alas, no car was rounding the blind turn i encroached upon. lucky for sure.

now i am in front, and to my surprise no one in front of me! what a sight. and great feeling. now i can continue, comfortably, on my way without having to worry about slamming on my brakes because of some overly cautious driver. so i reach my destination. food.

i am in line placing my order, getting my change when who else but my friendly local friend arrives, scowl and all. our friendly local is an older gentlemen, whom i respect in many, many ways. and it's really too bad he had to confront me.

so here he comes, hell bent on telling me how bad of a driver i am.

"you know you were driving with your head up your ass back there."

"how's that?"

"you know that if someone where coming around that turn when you were passing me there would have clearly been a head-on?"

"i DO realize that. so why were you in such a hurry? did you not see me coming?"

"what do you mean?"

"well why do you need to floor it on the flats? you're going 60 when i can pass you, yet you go 30 on the turns when i can't." all the while trying my very best not to swear, since i love to so much.

"what are you saying? you want me to go 60 on the turns?" blinking confused, dumbfounded.

"i did!" having nothing else, my nerves had reached boiling point.

at this point we both had turned away from each other, him to the exit, possibly mumbling something. i get my food and start to leave. the man at the register oddly asks if i'm alright, i tell him i am and thank him. and as i get outside, two motorcyclists commend me for how i handled the situation. wow. and i thought i was in the wrong.

maybe i was. maybe i am. i dunno. i'm just trying to think of everyone, not just me.

i see a couple of friends outside the store, and let myself vent towards them a bit. it a lways helps when they know where you are coming from, and who the other person is as well. anyway-

drive safe.