Text 420, 97 rader
Skriven 2006-11-06 09:21:09 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
    Kommentar till text 409 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
Ärende: Food & Drugs...  1B.
============================
Hi again, James!  This is a continuation of my previous message to you:

JB>  Once again, someone cut me off, without signalling,
JB>  shoulder checking, or looking at his mirror as near
JB>  as I could tell.


          Some folks really don't seem to notice what's going on around them...
pedestrians make a sudden ninety-degree turn in front of Nora's wheelchair, for
example, or make a beeline for a particular shop & walk straight into her side.
They wallop me with their shoulders, purses, and/or backpacks as well.  If they
drive the same way, I suppose it's in character!  But I wonder how much of this
is due to a sense of entitlement... i.e. it's up to us to get out of their way.
One woman who walked into Nora's wheelchair was quite indignant because she had
a minor bruise.  She didn't apologize for scratching Nora... (sigh).



JB>  The real curiosity was not my distain, but how a
JB>  lumber-truck driver reacted when the very same
JB>  driver was NOT about to let said truck merge.


          Many years ago we had a four-way stop near our place.  I grumbled one
day... in the presence of Dallas & a couple of male friends... about others who
didn't wait their turn.  The guys couldn't understand what I meant because they
had no difficulty there.  Dallas drove a car with a lot of lights & a 'roo bar,
one of our friends drove a sports car & one a big chunk of Detroit iron.  I had
a Hillman Minx (which was built like a tank, but didn't look like much).  Later
Dallas experienced the same thing when he took my car through the intersection.
We solved the problem by installing a 'roo bar on the Hillman....  ;-)



JB>  My first reaction was to compliment said truck-driver,
JB>  on my newly adopted attitude in like situations


          I note with interest, and a certain amount of cynicism, that the sort
of people who cut off a Subaru don't usually try playing chicken with a logging
truck or a concrete pumper or anything else which is much bigger & heavier than
whatever they're driving.  In view of my experience with the Hillman, I have to
conclude that they realize on some level what is going on around them but don't
feel the risk of collision matters unless they'd obviously get the worst of it.
I'm reminded of the schoolyard bully who deep down is a coward.  If he believes
might makes right... okay, the truck driver can communicate with him on his own
level!  I'd probably be inclined to cheer for the truck driver too.  It is just
possible one needs something larger than life to drive the lesson home....  :-)



JB>  plus giving my horn more air-time, instead of
JB>  shaking my head at such ignorance.


          Well... I might use my horn to let somebody else know I was there, if
I thought they didn't already know, but what if they don't *care*??  Unless you
get some satisfaction out of venting your own feelings by way of the horn maybe
it's best to be thankful you're okay & trust that the universe will reckon with
them one way or another.  I saw a beautiful example in my rear view mirror when
I was driving to work some time ago.  A car was barrelling along in a bus lane,
where it had no right to be... then another pulled out into the same lane.  The
collision was spectacular.  So the drivers felt they were too important to wait
in line like the rest of us?  I'll bet we got to our destination first....  :-)



JB>  "Aw... Mom. Why can't I go out and play?" <-|[


          Okay.  You do seem to know about the side effects of the stuff you're
taking, and you did say you'd discuss various things with your doctor....  :-))



JB>  If it's "Wearing good boots when crossing an
JB>  unknown stream...") I prefer a wetsuit.


          Makes sense to me!  You may be more inclined to accept physical risks
than I am... but you don't need to lose a few confrontations with semi-trailers
to understand that the rules of the road are there for a reason and/or that you
probably can't drink coffee, read the paper, and chat on the phone while you're
driving.  Having some SP tendencies doesn't make you an SP.  It's just that, of
the four major reasoning styles, I'm least likely to use the SP... and now that
I understand the theory I can put things in a nutshell that way.  WRT the folks
who cut you off & suchlike, I know people of various temperaments who have been
involved in accidents because their mind was somewhere else at the time.  And I
imagine the guy on BRITAIN'S WORST DRIVERS who treated us to a commentary about
what other drivers should do was probably an SJ.  I wouldn't blame the SP's who
think they're Jackie Stewart for all the foolishness I see on the road....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)