Ladies Chasin' My Tail

[kybearfuzz]

After going for my first run since the softball injury, which seems to be healing well, I went to Wal-Mart to get some stuff. There is a back way to get there, which involves a winding road through a pretty stretch of woods. The speed limit is 35 MPH, which I know well because it was there that I got my last speeding ticket a few years ago. It's a gradual downhill and if you coast down, you will exceed the speed limit, which is exactly what happened. The city has since put up extra speed limit signs along the way to remind folks. Since the ticket, I have made it a point to do the speed limit down that stretch.

On my way there, I had an overweight woman in a large SUV hugging my bumper pretty much the whole way down. That in itself was bad enough, but she had a small child in a car seat in the back and she constant was looking in her rear view mirror to check on him. This means that her attention was not always on me while she hovered so close to my butt. Luckily, I lost her at a red light, and I went on to get some groceries.

However, on the way home, an even more aggressive driver pushed her SUV as close to me as possible. I was dreading this one as I came up to the light to turn down that familiar stretch of back road. Her turn signal went on and I knew she was not going to enjoy being behind me. She got as close to me as she possibly could, turning every so slightly to look around me, which was pointless because there was NO ONE ahead of me.

I looked into my rearview mirror and saw her doing that rotation gesture with her hand that signifies "hurry up" or "move on." I was unfazed. At this point, the rudeness of her and the previous chaser had made me not give two $#!+$ about her gesture though I was half-tempted to give her one of my own. Being the classy hillbilly I am, I refrained.

Eventually, we ended up at the next light to turn left. I looked again at her in my rearview mirror just in time to see this old witch mouth "@$$hole" toward me.

I smiled back her, thinking "Okay, bitch, that just cost you another five miles per hour."

Turning left, I gingerly hit the accelerator and laid off as soon as my car hit 30 MPH in the 35 MPH zone. She was right behind me for just another block before she turned off to the local technical college. I inferred that she must have been late for class, either as a student or, ugh, an instructor.

It didn't really upset me very much. I'm learning to smile about these sorts of incidents, especially when driving down that stretch of road. Though there are some days I really wish there was a cop waiting around the corner to see the other drivers on my butt.

Comments

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

I gave the bird to two people who cut me off today on I-90. LOL

One gave it back to me, the other was going so fast, I was red-shifted to the infrared and he never saw it. ;-)

[texwriterbear.livejournal.com]

Good for you Mark!!!! LOL

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

My goal when driving is generally to be polite, but tailgating really ticks me off.

Especially if I'm already going plenty fast, if somebody comes roaring up behind me, sometimes I can't help but be like "gosh, my right ankle is getting tired. I'm gonna have to let up on the gas pedal a little for a moment here..."

[labeartorycub.livejournal.com]

Good going! Tailgaters and aggressive drivers really tick me off. I intentionally slow down a bit, too. I might even attempt to box them in, if they attempt to pass me on the right.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Can you blame anyone for wanting to chase your tail? :)

[designerotter.livejournal.com]

LOL ...from the title of your post I though the issue would be something entirely different.
Having been a teacher myself, I learned early on not to mouth my displeasure or especially not to flip any hand signals ...that's because I live in this town and some of those awful drivers I've encountered have, on rare occasion, turned out to be students of mine [groan].

[dendren.livejournal.com]

ahhhh... see, everyone wants to rub up against your butt!!! It's just that nice!

I definitely get frustrated behind slower drivers but thankfully never became a tailgater. I just silently curse them from a relatively safe distance behind :)

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

You did admirably as far as I can see!

Bravo!! :)

[prisonbitch.livejournal.com]

I had some crazy lady on 65 south of Louisville do that to me, while I was in the left lane. I couldn't move over and their were cars ahead of me. When she started flashing her headlights, I started slowing down. When there was a break that I could move over, I didn't. She tried to pass me on the right but I sped up to cut her off.

She was pissed for the next several miles.

haha.