Saturday, December 13, 2008

Road Rage


Me: Ohmigod I should know not to EVER take someone with road rage out Christmas shopping!

Steve: What? Me? I don't have road rage!

Me: [silent stare]

Steve: I don't! People with road rage yell, and they flip people off, they roll down the windows and scream curse words!

Me: [silent stare]

Steve: I don't roll down the windows!!!!!

7 comments:

Pat Austin Becker said...

Oh damn that's right.

We'll ... did I mention that Steve and I have a lot in common? :)

Sarah said...

LOL I always say "I bet you were an Obama vote." But come on, people who drive hybrids and have anti-war/Bush stickers are usually the worst drivers.

Pat Austin Becker said...

Actually, HER car was held together with duct tape and she had seventeen kids in the back seat.

Anonymous said...

Thanks NeNe for coming to my defense.

Besides, what I do is to coach the other drivers who are having problems with their driving skills.

For instance, when they are sitting a light that just turned green and they can't find the accelerator pedal (they are sometimes hard to find) and I will coach them by saying, "It's the long-narrow thing by the right foot."

Or when we are in that beautiful state to our north, and get behind one of locals driving 35 m.p.h. on a hilly, winding, two-lane highway in the Ozarks, with a line of cars behind them close to a 1/2 mile long, I show them understanding.

Anonymous said...

emory did a complete turnaround w/ his road rage. (or coaching because he didn't put the window down either.) one of his things was to very calmly hold the steering wheel at the top while extending his middle finger. or sometimes he'd get really upset and yell and flap his hands.

after being w/ me and seeing that i am not a city driver, he is now completely understanding of all bad drivers on the road. i have told him he doesn't know their situation. maybe they are like grandma and papa, have to go into the city for an appointment, have no one to take them and their driving skills aren't what they use to be. or maybe they are afraid of the road conditions that are deteriorating when someone like emory or steve are more confident. he stopped his yelling and flipping completely after breaking his arms.

when emory broke both of his arms, he had surgery on one arm the next day and had a cast put on the other arm. he spent one night in the hospital and refused to spend another. he broke his arm on friday and had surgery on saturday. sunday morning, his hands and fingers on the casted arm were swollen and he was in a lot of pain. he convinced me, who never drove in a town bigger than creston, to take him to mercy hospital in downtown des moines. we made the trip on a sunday morning w/ no problem. then a week later, he had an appointment. he convinced me to take him to the appointment and said i'd do fine. i was a wreck! i was in rush hour traffic and terrified. we made the appointment, left the hospital, i got cut off on some bridge while a car whizzed past w/ the driver yelling flapping and flipping. i pulled over just before hitting the bridge and had a mini breakdown. we switched places and emory drove home w/ one arm in a cast and the other wrapped w/ an external fixture drilled into his bones. he drove to the rest of his appointments.

i have never heard or saw him get angry w/ another driver after that. as a matter of fact, once we were driving home on the interstate in a rainstorm w/ pounding rain and strong winds. we were passing someone driving slowly and we could tell they were scared. he was the first to comment on how sorry he felt they were caught in an uncomfortable driving situation.

so steve, remember the idiot driver might be someone like me or grandma so be patient and understanding.

another story kinda along the same subject. a year or so ago, i read a long article w/ lots of family pictures in the dm sunday register. this family lost a small boy when the father ran over him w/ a tractor. the article was heartbreaking. the mother said they had either an iowa state or iowa bumper sticker on their car. it was the weekend of a big isu/iowa game but instead of going to the game, they were going to the funeral home w/ clothes for the boy. a car w/ the opposite bumper sticker passed and was laughing, yelling and holding up their teams shirts or whatever. of course these people had no way of knowing the family was going to the funeral home to make arrangement to bury their son but this goes along w/ what we are talking about. you never know what might be going on in other people's lives.

sermon done. amen!

Josh said...

I was about to throw my 2 cents in before I read Aunt Sheryl's comment lol

Mary Frances Archer said...

mom waves and goes "Jesus loves you!! (true story - of course she also goes MOOOOOO like a cow in crowds when she can't handle it anymore)

:)