Thursday, March 6, 2008

Things that suck

"Watch your speed coming home," my Sweetie warned me today. "They're cracking down on speeding on I-95."

They're always cracking down on speeding on I-95, those blue-siren vampires. Always zinging someone who is keeping to himself, no danger to anyone, while the jackrabbits and lane-weavers keep right on their joyful journey of jerk-fullness.

Where were these fine officers this morning when a big truck loaded with scrap crap was hogging the left lane {ILLEGAL!!!), firing debris like bullets across all three lanes of traffic? (UNSECURED LOAD -- ILLEGAL!!!)

Sure enough, even though I stayed as far behind the scofflaw trucker as possible, a good-sized chunk bounced off the roof of my car and scratched right through the paint. I'm just lucky it didn't traject lower and shatter my windshield.

I was so sorely tempted to do what my little brother does when truckers -- and it's just a certain small number of them, I know -- piss him off. He swings in front of them at the first available opportunity and slows waaayy down for a minute or two, which really annoys them.

I really, really considered it. But it wouldn't have done any good. And I would probably have gotten a ticket for obstructing the moron's passage.

6 comments:

Janice Thomson said...

Gosh you are very lucky but how annoying and maddening when others don't obey the law. Hopefully no one else got that debris in their windshield.

Seema B Menon said...

How mean of them! Hmm! I liked the part where you have mentioned the way your little brother annoys them :)

Rebecca said...

That does suck, ECD, but road rage with a big truck is fraught with more danger than a mere ticket. I am really glad you resisted that urge. And glad that your windshield is in tact!

With my little brother, I tell him, yes, it sucks, he was wrong, you were right, ok...breathe, just breathe...

Chase March said...

I did that once. I won’t do it again. The truck passed me and I thought good riddance. But then he got in front of me and slammed on his breaks. I pulled over to the side and he did the same. No one else was on the road behind us for a while. He almost ran me right off the road because I had nowhere to go and he kept pulling off to the side. I was forced onto the soft shoulder and almost ended up in the ditch.

Now I just ignore the trucks. I know that they have a tough job. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a truck driver. I let them pass me. I figure it is just easier.
That was a close call that I don’t want to be repeated.

Eastcoastdweller said...

Janice: I'm sure plenty of folks got whacked by that debris, since it spewed steadily the whole time I was trapped behind the jerk.

Seemu: I worry about my little brother. As Chase noted below, some truckers don't take kindly to such treatment.

Rebecca: I need to remember that myself: breathe, just breathe.

Chase: That's quite scary. Somebody made a horror movie a few years ago about two young guys who ticked off a trucker as they were traveling -- and he followed them, bent on bodily harm, forever thereafter.

Eastcoastdweller said...

To clarify: I know that most truckers are hard-working, good folks -- the best you will ever meet. I know that some people in little cars give them crap and fully deserve to be run over.

But it's the minority like the one I met who give them a bad name.