Like a scene from a movie...
Yesterday I was witness to something I'd only ever heard about, or seen in movies. I was on my way to work, driving a huge orange truck borrowed from my ol' man's construction company (which my girlfriend describes accurately as "the type of truck you see people throwing dead bodies into in movies,") till I buy a new car. We're on a major road in Salem (Kuebler Blvd for those of you who know it), and there is a 300 yard stretch where the eastbound road becomes two lanes, so that the big rock trucks that frequently use the road can be passed. This short passing lane is split in the middle by a light at a major intersection, Commercial St, another main road in South Salem. I'm sitting at the light in the left lane, with cars ahead of and behind me, and there are a handful of less patient drivers in the right hand lane who want to pass us. I don't mind, since I'm in the big, slowish truck, and many are the times I've been the lead car in the right hand lane, racing off the line to pass those slow left lane drivers. Anyway, the light changes and we all go forward. Since I'm not too good in this old truck, I sort of ponderously move along, and leave plenty of stopping room in front of me (the truck has notoriously bad brakes). This jeep in the left lane next to me cuts in front of me, fine, then tries to gun it past the people in the right hand lane, who were ahead of him just seconds before. He gets a few inches from the car in front of him, and won't give any space to a guy in the right lane who needs to get over as the lane ends and we merge. I'm thinking "shit, there's gonna be an accident," I mean, the lane is wide, but there isn't room for two people to drive side by side, and this jeep is not letting the car in. Finally he backs off, and gives the guy room, so he won't be driving on the shoulder and ditch. Then, he gets right on their ass, like RIGHT on their ass. Next thing I know he is passing them, on a road with a speed limit of 45, where people normally drive 55, in an area that is, without ANY doubt, a no-passing zone (there is in fact, not a single passing zone besides that short passing lane on the entirety of Kuebler Blvd). He gets back over right in front of the car he had just let in, "good work, guy, you got ahead one car in a group of 40 vehicles, you must be proud." We all stop at the next light. He gets out of his jeep walks back to the car, which had done absolutely nothing wrong, and starts yelling at them and shaking his fist at them in their open window. The light changes and he's still yelling at them. The cars ahead of him go and he starts to walk back to his jeep. I was so furious at such an aggressive, assholic driver, that I honk my horn at him, to tell him to get going, and to piss him off. Two lights later the car he was yelling at, and the one right in front of me both turn off to get onto I-5. Now the jeep is right in front of me. You gotta understand, I was furious at this point. What a rude fucker. Seriously. I've got a pretty good jag of epinephrine running through my system, I'm sitting in a 15 year old truck, worth maybe $1000 and here's this little shit jeep with some prick in it. I got right on his ass, I mean right on his ass, didn't back off at all, just so that he could maybe see what it was like. I cannot explain how much I wanted to hit him. This truck is a beast, I was sitting at about the level of the top of his jeep, and the truck would have ridden over him like a dumptruck over a cow. I coulda crushed his jeep and had less than $100 of damage on the truck. I didn't, but when I pulled into work 5 minutes later I was still furious to the point of shaking. I may drive like a bat out of hell, but I'm a very good driver, defensive and always courteous. Its people like that guy that make me, on occasion, not enjoy the time I spend in my car. I can't stand disrespectful drivers.