I’ve always wondered if my driving-habits would ever come back around to me.
They have.
Today, as I was driving around Hagerman (pop.630) looking for street interviewees for a video for our highschool retreat next weekend (Hyperthermia), I spot the perfect candidate. He’s your typical, southern-Idaho, small town, hick-farmer-type-of-guy. As I’m pulling over to the side of the street, he points at my car (1st cue to get out of there). I get out of my car and walk towards them with the video camera, saying, “Gentlemen, I have a question for you.” As I got closer, the guy who pointed said, “Okay, but after that, I have a question for you!” (2nd cue to get the hell out of there). I proceed to explain what I want to do, and they aren’t interested. The other guy went into the hardware store, and then it was just me and the guy who had a question for me.
I ask, “So, you had a question for me?” He said, “Oh yah. So, here’s the deal.”
“So the other night, I was driivng home from Wendell to Hagerman, going 35 mph on icy…very ice roads. And you were behind me. And you just could not handle being behind me – even though everyone else was driving 35 mph and being safe – and you just had to zoom all around me, going close to 50 mph! You are a hazard! You just zoomed right on past me, and you could have killed us! And by the time you turned right down Ritchie Rd., I was already right behind you, so you had no reason to pass me, on those dangerous conditions. I remembered your car by your bumper stickers. You are a driving hazard – you could have killed us!”
[Now, at this point, I remember the night I was so irritated by this idiot driving 30 mph (I think it was 30) on roads that were not very icy, so yes, I passed him. And I remember, as I slowed down to turn right, thinking “Oh, sorry…sorry” (because it was clear he had caught up to me and my passing him didn’t make much sense). So, in one sense he was right, but the roads were NOT that bad]
After he went off a bit more, I smiled, told him the roads weren’t that bad, thanked him for his recommendation, and left. Well, it took 1.5 yrs of my sporadically-poor-driving-habits to catch up with me: not bad. Here’s to living in small-town Idaho.