My son was emphatic, his patience growing thin at the slowpoke ahead of us. Traffic was thick and blowing a horn would do little good but that cuts no ice with the young. I think he may have wanted to just hear the horn. This trait repeatedly surfaced over the years. When I first started using a cane he got a big squeeze horn and attached it. I couldn’t really use it since I only had one useful hand. Later when I was confined to a wheelchair he complained about the wimpy horn on the chair. If I listened to my son he would have installed a big aah-ooga horn.

I was reminded of this the other day while grandma Oddball was taking me to the hospital for some more procedures. Don’t they teach people how to drive anymore??? Take merging onto the freeway for example. Instead of matching speed and sliding into an opening we seem to always find ourselves behind someone who comes to a complete stop while trying to merge or else guns their vehicle and dares other drivers to get in their way. I’m surprised there are not more accidents especially since drivers don’t seem to know how to signal anymore.

Unfortunately we also seem to encounter every nut on the road. While traveling to the hospital we almost had a number of accidents. Typical was the idiot who gunned his engine as he got on the freeway, cut across three lanes of traffic causing a field of brake lights to shine, passed ONE car and then cut back then back to the exit lane and got off the freeway. He gain a whole car length by that atrocious maneuver! As bad as that was it pales with regard to those nuts who refuse look for traffic and fail to signal when they change lanes. There are times when a loud horn would be useful to avoid accidents.

When our children were learning to drive we tried to teach them good driving habits. Habits are funny things. Bad habits are hard to break while good habits save you energy and time. I remember the time when my daughter complained that there was no traffic on the road so why did she have to look for traffic or signal. It was a good habit I answered. When an emergency occurs she didn’t have to think of what to do. Good habits took over so she did all the correct necessary things automatically allowing her to concentrate on the emergency.

I don’t think good driving habits are taught anymore but that isn’t the only problem we encountered. People don’t pay attention either. Wandering across lane markers usually while talking on the phone or even reading causing near accidents. People often seem oblivious to the traffic around them. They seem to feel they are the most important people on the road and arrogantly expect everyone else to get out of their way. When they cause an accident they blame everyone but themselves.

Oh well, what can you do when the roadway is littered with weavers, wanderers, nuts, and idiots but then I guess I’m getting a bit crotchety lately. They didn’t use any joy juice during my hospital procedure so these little annoyances bugged me more than usual I suppose. Usually I’m made so mellow I don’t care.

But I do wish people would learn to drive properly. When making a left turn pull out into the intersection so that when the light changes you can turn instead of waiting n the turn lane while the light continually cycles for traffic to abate. Remember that a red light means stop not speed up so you can get through the intersection before the cross traffic. The left lane does not mean “go slow” and please stop tailgating when we are doing the speed limit.

And please stay in your own lane! When I was young (and more foolish than I am now) it was a point of honor never to cross a lane marker or center line no matter how fast you went (and in those days we went plenty fast). Failure to adhere to these unwritten rules brought immediate peer censure and ridicule. How I miss those days.

Now days the rule of the road seems to be selfishness not courtesy. I see this most frequently with some truckers. “In the old days” truckers were not just courteous but helpful. I can remember crossing snoqualmie pass during a winter snow storm with about six inches of snow on the highway. We got behind a truck doing about 45MPH in the left lane and sped along quite nicely in the trucks snow tracks. The truck was like our own private snow plow as the wheels of our car fit nicely into the groves the truck made in the snow. This worked quite well until the truck changed lanes and we plowed into a mini-drift of soft, wet snow.

A sheet of snow and ice rose in front of us and cascaded over the car as we hit the snow where the groves disappeared. We couldn’t see anything but that white wall in front of the windshield. I could see the other lane out the side window and steered for it. The car responded sluggishly but we made it and fortunately found ourselves back in the trucks tracks once again. Resuming speed we once again got safely tucked in behind the truck.

Again and again the truck would swing out to pass and we would follow. This trucker was a splendid fellow. He noticed us following and would extend his passing until we were safely beyond the traffic he was passing then he would gradually change lanes so that we could safely follow. A far cry from the trucks that I now see dangerously tailgating cars (I have more helpful truck stories but I’ll save them for another time).

Sigh, I’m getting older but sometimes I feel as my young son expressed,

Tags: family, ODD thoughts

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