9.11.2009

060 - Birds of a feather

Looked out my window this afternoon at work and saw feathers floating down from the sky. Hope that wasn't a bad omen.

My cat may have asthma. She was hacking like she was trying to cough up a fur ball, but nothing came up, and it continued on for a few days, so I took her to the vet. He gave me some pills... steroids... to give her. Ever tried to give a cat a pill? HA! I called to see if there was a liquid version I could just shoot into her mouth, but they said it would be expensive and recommended a syringe-like gadget that I can use to put the pill down her throat. Go figure, there's a gadget for everything. I haven't tried it out yet, but it looks promising.

As I was pulling out of the vet's office I waited for traffic to pass by so I could pull out (going right), resigned to the fact that I'd be waiting until the light changed... whenever that might be. Then a car turned and there was a pretty large opening in traffic, so I pulled out. I had plenty of time to get up to speed before the van got there... it wasn't the lane I wanted, but I could work my way over once I got going. As soon as I got into the street I heard a honk. At first I thought I had accidentally put a tire into the next lane as I was turning or something, then I look into my rearview to see a blue sedan on my ass, and a woman flipping me off.

I had no idea how she got there.

I felt really, really bad, because (for some reason) my first assumption is always that I'm at fault... I mouthed 'I'm sorry' as she whipped into the next lane, screaming and flipping me off again. And then... the initial adrenaline rush passed and I replayed the scenario in my head, trying to figure out how I didn't see her... I looked before I pulled out... I looked hard, because I love my car and don't want impressions of other people's bumpers in the door... the next vehicle coming was a van... she wasn't in that lane when I pulled out. That leaves two options, neither of which make me feel repentent, in fact, she can rot in hell and I take back my apology because she almost got us killed:

Either she was in the other lane and decided to pull over without her blinker on - because I do watch for blinkers - or she came out of the driveway next door. As far as I know there was no one in the driveway next to me when I pulled out, but if she was approaching the road and saw the gap in traffic she probably pulled straight out, which means she was trying to cut me off, and she has no right to be pissed off at me in the first place. At least in the blinker scenario I can kinda see how she might have a right to be pissed... although if she didn't have her blinker on, it's a failure to signal, and our accident would have been her fault.

I actually think the second scenario is more likely, because I didn't hear any tires squealing and when I looked back she wasn't positioned like she'd been thrown forward. Her honk actually slowed me down, because I first assumed I was encroaching on the next lane. And no one else shot me dirty looks or acted like I was a crazy driver (you know how people start to shy away from cars that appear to have unstable drivers? that didn't happen).

I hate the drivers around here... absolutely loathe them. I drove on the busiest freeways in California and never encountered assholes like the ones in my moderately-sized suburban town. They're on your ass, they cut you off, they barely pass you before they whip in front of you, if you have your blinker on they won't let you over, they squeeze by you with very little leeway so they can get to a turn lane, they go through lights when traffic is backed up and block the road when the light changes, they block driveways when they see you sitting there trying to get out, they turn from the wrong lane, they pass you in medians, they don't give a crap about schoolzones, they don't slow down when you're turning into a driveway, they get in the inside lane of two lanes that turn and try to come over on you, if they were going slow and you look like you're going around them they speed up, they zip up to the front of a long line of cars who have been waiting and try to cut in, they race to get in front of you and then slow down, they pull out in front of you when there's not enough time for them to get up to speed - which is especially irritating when the lane next to you is empty or there's no one behind you, they cut across four lanes of traffic so they won't miss a fucking exit instead of taking the next one and making a U-turn... I could go on but I'm going to stop bitching and finish watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because I'm getting all worked up again...

Hope everyone has a great weekend, it looks like it might rain tonight - YEA!!! I've got all my windows open and it feels great... I think fall is coming!

Oh - and a great article from The Simple Dollar.

Update: I just used the 'pet piller' that my vet recommended... oh my goodness... I LOVE it. I'm not even sure Gracie noticed that I shoved a pill down her throat. She didn't run away from me afterward, she even let me pet her. AWESOME!

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