Watch Out! It's the Ancient Ones! They're Killing Us !
That's who's REALLY dangerous on the road, and I just had
an incident with a man that was about 80+ that was driving next to me.
He was going the speed limit, I'll give him that. He was the rare ancient person
that wasn't driving 15 mph in a 55 zone. But he literally almost killed me. He forced me into merging freeway traffic, by
butting me over into it. I guess he didn't see me, and was getting over. Since he was
right next to me when he decided to do it, it forced me to swerve away from him, where the cars were coming off the freeway. He turned his wheel without even looking to see if anyone was next to him. That was crazy.
I actually was shaking when I got to my destination, my hands were shaking. I was freaked. Cars were behind me, all sides of me, and someone does that? Just turns their car into my lane while I'm in it? He wasn't trying to cut me off,
he just didn't see me one single bit.
I guess I'm still rattled by it. At least the people behind me all saw it. If he'd killed me (and others, this would have been bad), it wouldn't have been my fault in the slightest.
I was going to use the term "old" but I'm specifically talking about the ancient ones.
After the incident today I got to thinking about how teenagers DO cause accidents, etc,
but if one considers how much time ancient people vs young ones are driving,
the ancient ones are causing faaaar more accidents per time on the road. You figure
the Ancient Ones might go out for, say, some metamucil and cat food. But they aren't
out driving to and from school everyday, picking up little sister from soccer, etc., the way
that a teenager probably is. Teenagers might have as many accidents but spend more time driving than the A.O.s.
And let's consider that the young one's skills are sharpening, their ability is escalating. Whereas the A.O's driving skills are seriously on the decline.
Actually, when I got about 3 blocks from here coming home after this insanity, an older lady of about 60was driving in front of me, and I noticed something odd:
She was smiling, I'd seen her face when she turned in front of me at the stop sign.
This is important because later when we were stopped at the light, I noticed a
huge profusion of black smoke coming from her muffler. Tailpipe. Whatever that thing is.
But here's the thing. Not only did the smoke smell and look bad, serious car problem bad,
there was some sort of liquid dripping steadily from it. At first I thought I was imagining it,
then I thought it might be water, maybe she'd washed her car. Nope. Her car was dry-looking, and it was some sort of dark liquid, I watched it drip , drip, drip, and make a little pool on the road.
I don't know much about cars, but even I know, something was wrong there.
The burning smell, and so much black smoke!
I wanted to try to wave her down, but I couldn't! If I'd honked, she wouldn't understand,
and it would possibly look road-ragish.
I couldn't drive up alongside her, to pantomime anything. I felt a little worried for the woman.
But I turned onto my street instead of following her further.
Wonder what was up with that?
And was she knowingly driving like that?
I swear, I think that was oil coming out of that pipe-thing.Maybe it's impossible,
but it sure looked like it.
Another time when I saw a guy driving oncoming, he had billowing white smoke coming
out of the radiator area of his car( I thought).
I could see his face, and he had the same tense, serious
face I get when I have car problems. This woman looked carefree, happy.
She didn't have that watchful, listening expression that people get when they
are driving and their car acts up.
Anyway. I'm glad the ancient man didn't kill me today.
an incident with a man that was about 80+ that was driving next to me.
He was going the speed limit, I'll give him that. He was the rare ancient person
that wasn't driving 15 mph in a 55 zone. But he literally almost killed me. He forced me into merging freeway traffic, by
butting me over into it. I guess he didn't see me, and was getting over. Since he was
right next to me when he decided to do it, it forced me to swerve away from him, where the cars were coming off the freeway. He turned his wheel without even looking to see if anyone was next to him. That was crazy.
I actually was shaking when I got to my destination, my hands were shaking. I was freaked. Cars were behind me, all sides of me, and someone does that? Just turns their car into my lane while I'm in it? He wasn't trying to cut me off,
he just didn't see me one single bit.
I guess I'm still rattled by it. At least the people behind me all saw it. If he'd killed me (and others, this would have been bad), it wouldn't have been my fault in the slightest.
I was going to use the term "old" but I'm specifically talking about the ancient ones.
After the incident today I got to thinking about how teenagers DO cause accidents, etc,
but if one considers how much time ancient people vs young ones are driving,
the ancient ones are causing faaaar more accidents per time on the road. You figure
the Ancient Ones might go out for, say, some metamucil and cat food. But they aren't
out driving to and from school everyday, picking up little sister from soccer, etc., the way
that a teenager probably is. Teenagers might have as many accidents but spend more time driving than the A.O.s.
And let's consider that the young one's skills are sharpening, their ability is escalating. Whereas the A.O's driving skills are seriously on the decline.
Actually, when I got about 3 blocks from here coming home after this insanity, an older lady of about 60was driving in front of me, and I noticed something odd:
She was smiling, I'd seen her face when she turned in front of me at the stop sign.
This is important because later when we were stopped at the light, I noticed a
huge profusion of black smoke coming from her muffler. Tailpipe. Whatever that thing is.
But here's the thing. Not only did the smoke smell and look bad, serious car problem bad,
there was some sort of liquid dripping steadily from it. At first I thought I was imagining it,
then I thought it might be water, maybe she'd washed her car. Nope. Her car was dry-looking, and it was some sort of dark liquid, I watched it drip , drip, drip, and make a little pool on the road.
I don't know much about cars, but even I know, something was wrong there.
The burning smell, and so much black smoke!
I wanted to try to wave her down, but I couldn't! If I'd honked, she wouldn't understand,
and it would possibly look road-ragish.
I couldn't drive up alongside her, to pantomime anything. I felt a little worried for the woman.
But I turned onto my street instead of following her further.
Wonder what was up with that?
And was she knowingly driving like that?
I swear, I think that was oil coming out of that pipe-thing.Maybe it's impossible,
but it sure looked like it.
Another time when I saw a guy driving oncoming, he had billowing white smoke coming
out of the radiator area of his car( I thought).
I could see his face, and he had the same tense, serious
face I get when I have car problems. This woman looked carefree, happy.
She didn't have that watchful, listening expression that people get when they
are driving and their car acts up.
Anyway. I'm glad the ancient man didn't kill me today.
posted by Nabonidus at 2:31 PM
2 Comments:
Wow, that was a close one.
So you get the same problems in the states with Old Farts driving!
We have them too. In fact, my mum's turning into one. Very dodgy.
As you say, the younger ones get bad press when they drive but the oldies are f...g frightening. Over here if an old bloke is driving slowly, you can be absolutely sure that he is wearing a hat! No kidding. And that hat will be what we call a flat cap. Not sure if you have those in the sates. (maybe a few golfers wear them)
Yeah, Tommy is cute and i think you are right about the skin thing. He does gnarl on his leg now and again; he has a bit of a bald patch there. Perhaps i should make him wear socks.
That's funny that you mention the caps, the A.O really ARE always wearing them! This one wore some sort of brown tweed thing with a jaunty feather.
The thing that bothered me the most was the person on the other side of me, I hoped that they knew why I was
swerving towards them,
Don't know if they knew it wasn't my fault.
Post a Comment
<< Home