not a rant, just depressing

This evening, I had to drive over to Leonardtown to deliver some stuff for a golf tournament tomorrow. Unwittingly, I left at 4:00. Of course I had to use the evil intersection of Millstone and Rte. 235. I don’t think I will ever go through there again without the thought of the remains of the car of our friend, just a mass of twisted metal.

Apparently four o’clock is high time for northbound traffic leaving the base, and all three lanes were pretty much stop and go. So, I had plenty of time to observe the behavior of the other drivers. One SUV who was initially sitting beside me almost cut me off, no turn signal, just yanked in ahead of me. Then, when a small opening in the lane he just left, he darted back. At the next light, there I was, sitting right next to him again. Or those people who feel the “right turn only” lane is their personal lane to jump four cars or so before cutting back. A little further along, up near Lenny’s one of those drivers who thought the gap in front of me was a sign of weakness, immediately occupied it (without blinker), then decided his original lane was better and cut back there. Unfortunately some other driver idea had the same idea, and my guy had to nose over toward the shoulder. And, at the light just north of Outback Steakhouse there was a multi-car accident with much nose to tail contact. I also saw one of those on the way back.

What the heck is up with these people? Is it a sport? A contest? Something to do to alleviate the boredom of the evening commute? I suspect that most of these people when not encased in steel are probably okay folk, they don’t elbow in front of you in the check-oueven t line, or step in front of you the post office, and maybe sometimes they hold a door for someone. So what are they acting out when they get behind the wheel of their doolie (or whatever the word is) or little Honda with buzz pipes? I don't know.

All I know is that due to one driver’s inattention, a friend, mother, and wife is now in a hospital fighting for her life for just making a left hand turn. Please be careful and behave civilly.

Tomorrow we can worry about

DFD