Twenty Minutes as a Responsible Driver

 

Hello Blog-Stalkers!  I know you are surprised to know that I had a moment of being a responsible driver.  I did not allow road rage to consume me.  I was a wise, non hand-gesturing driver for just over 20 minutes.

 

Today, driving to town on a busy FM hwy, I had the unfortunate luck to get behind a farm truck pulling a large, very old trailer.  The trailer had no tail gate type device to hold the contents of the trailer INSIDE the trailer, and nothing inside the trailer was tied down.  The trailer was holding a large variety of metal type objects, obviously headed to the junk yard.

This is a dilemma.  I can’t drive too close, or some of that junk is gonna fall out and hit my car, and I can’t pass because the road is very busy and dangerous.  So, I followed behind at a safe distance going WAY below the speed limit.  It wasn’t long before I had quite a line of vehicles behind me.  (Most of them suburbans, but I’m trying not to judge.)

At that moment in time, I had five delightful boys riding with me.  All of them better drivers than myself.  All of them eager to give their driving advice.

“Why are we going so slow?”

“What’s that in that guy’s trailer?”

“Is that a fire hydrant?  Hey!  I think he has an old fire hydrant in the back of that trailer!”  “If it falls out, can we stop and pick it up?”

“Whoa, mom, look at all the cars behind us.”

We’re going so slowly because of that full trailer ahead of us.  None of that stuff is tied down, and it’s about to fall out the back, and I don’t want it to hit my car.  Yes, I think that’s an old fire hydrant and no, we aren’t going to stop and pick it up when it falls out.  I think he’ll know when it falls out.  Yes, I see all those cars behind us.  Don’t look at them; they’re signaling my number one status.

So, onward we go, 5 more miles. 

IN MY MIND: Seriously.  Lady, can’t you see the trailer in front of me.  Being 6 inches from my back bumper isn’t going to speed me up.  I’m already late.  I don’t have anything to lose by going this slow.  In fact, I can keep it up all day. 

Brown suburban turns.

IN MY MIND: Whew!  Glad that’s over. 

Onward we go, 5 more miles.

IN MY MIND:  Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.  Red suburban, really?  Kind gestures won’t speed me up.  Can’t you see that fire hydrant is about to fall out of that guy’s trailer?  I’m already late.  I don’t have anything to lose by going even more SLOWLY.

Onward we go, 2 more miles.

Finally, I reach my turn.  I enter the turning lane, and make my safe left turn while the truck and trailer go straight ahead.  The red suburban has turned her attention to hand gesturing to the truck now, and doesn’t see the fire hydrant fall out of the back of the trailer.

No joke.

Thank you Karma!

One boy says, “OH MOM!  The fire hydrant fell out of the back of the trailer!  Can we please go back and pick it up?”

Another boy says, “HA! HA!  Did you see that suburban swerve?”

Yet another boy says, “NOW I see how pot holes are made in the new roads. Hmmm… that sorta stinks for the rest of the cars.”

Yes, we were a little late.  Sometimes, when you drive responsibly that happens.