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| A pristine silver-blue 1992 or '93 Buick Park Avenue - matched her hair. |
| 05.16.08 (10:02 am) [edit] |
Good morning Boys and Girls.So. Life has twists and turns. Life has blips and bumps. Life is... Life. I'm trying to roll with the punches, bop and weave with the events of the days; trying to figure out why my whiskers grow faster one day than the next. Why, in Iowa, mid-grade gasoline at the Phillips Stations is always a full dime cheaper than regular. Why, at one of my accounts, they stay busy all the time even when their neighbors and competitors who seem to do things exactly the same way, continuously cry the blues about how bad business is. Why the old woman who zapped all those traffic cones in front of me yesterday still has a drivers license. This last one is worth expanding on as it was a funny thing to witness. Yesterday, about eleven a.m. I exited 131 South at Leonard Street in Grand Rapids. The ramp dumps onto a four lane one way street that runs along the highway for a little while before it crosses the main street, Leonard, where three of the four lanes end. Two are specifically for left turns, one is for right turns only and the second lane from the right is reserved for folks continuing south along this service drive. I'd guess that from the bottom of the exit ramp to Leonard is maybe a quarter mile. During the morning at some point, they'd redone the lane markers with bright white, and placed traffic cones at each end of freshly painted lines, in hopes, I assume, that we drivers might make our lane changes between the lines - something easily doable, so much room was there - until the paint dried sometime later when - and once again, I'll admit I'm making an assumption - they'd remove the cones. When I exited the freeway, there was only one car ahead of me, maybe five or six car lengths, and no cars were on the street at all. When the driver of the car ahead finished a tortured merge onto the empty street, all of a sudden the car started jerking to the left and right, looking like one of those commercials they end with a warning about the thing having been filmed on a closed course and with a professional driver, and that we - mere mortals - should never try such a thing on our own. The difference was that instead of expertly driving around the cones, this driver seems to be taking out every single one. I could tell it was someone panicking, trying to figure out what to do to get in the lane of her choice, and what were they thinking putting these awful obstacles in her way? At the stop light, she ended up in the second lane from the left, with me to her right. She had to be eighty-five or ninety, complete with oxygen tubes hanging from her nose. The look on her face told me she'd just been through a harrowing experience. I could see her shaking from my vantage point, twelve feet away. I found myself feeling sorry for her, being angry with her for driving at all, and feeling like I'd witnessed one of the funniest things I'd seen in months, and all at the same time. I suppose she's just trying to roll with the punches. Bobbing. Weaving. Banging into her obstacles. Hey, what do I know. Maybe she did it on purpose, Maybe the shaking was the adrenaline coursing through her body at having just symbolically killed everyone who'd slighted her during her many decades. Maybe each cone was an old lover, an ex-husband, a bad boss, or an ungrateful child. Maybe I read too much into things. Be good to everyone. |
posted by: ruined (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (7:15 am)
That's the last time her friend should say, "Punch it, Margaret!"
posted by: squirrelzone (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (8:01 am)
I say if we have no application process for people having kids then let our senior citizens drive their car as if they stole it. When I get old I won't give up my freedom of driving without a fight. Many seniors are alone and are forced to take care of themselves and I say more power to them.
Beep beep, outa my way you summa ma gun.
posted by: OldSchool (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (8:02 am)
Perspective is a great thing. It is amazing how the same situation changes as you look at it from different angles or perspectives.
On the other point, I do agree that at some point a driver's license may need to be taken away. As I always say, I am not worried about my own driving while I am on the road, it is always about someone else who loses control and/or is not qualified to drive.
Have a great weekend, Surr!
posted by: PirateGirl (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (8:18 am)
I agree with OS - driving would be great if it weren't for everyone ELSE on the road!
*Dang-gum-it!
posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (9:31 am)
Oh my ~ what a horrible sight!
Glad one of the cones didn't fly and hit your 'vehickle' ~
do you have a 'vehickle' from Rose City Motors? *grin
*have you seen those commercials ~ I chuckle each time I see it.
Anyway, glad you are okay ~ enjoy your weekend ~ as for me I am in Deetroit City for a week or so.
"I want to go home, I want to go home,
Oh Lord, I want to go home,
Last night I went to sleep in Detroit city..."
(anybody old enough to remember that song by Bobby Bare?
oh never mind...)
posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 05.16.08 (12:45 pm)
Let's just hope it's not pedestrians instead of cones next time. People over 70 should require yearly renewals of licenses.
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:02 am)
Reply to: bawdy
I'm with you... for now. When ( read: If) I turn seventy, I'll probably feel differently
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:03 am)
Reply to: auntconi
They'll bring it to me!
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:05 am)
Reply to: squirrelzone
I'm waiting for the M.A.D.D. style bumper stickers. "A dottery old lady killed my ______________(choose relation.)
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:06 am)
Reply to: PirateGirl
Damn-blast it.
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:08 am)
Reply to: OldSchool
Thanks O.S.. So far, so good. Hope yours is good as well.
posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 05.17.08 (11:12 am)
"They'll bring it to me!"
Hey, I forgot about that part ... they'll bring the ve.hick.le to you!
((hugs)) to you and sweet lady!
posted by: PirateGirl (reply)
post date: 05.18.08 (7:06 am)
Reply to: surrogate
LOL! ;D - That's right ya lil' whiper-snapper!
* Instead of M.A.D.D. - shouldn't that be M.A.D.O.L.D.? ( Mother's Against Dottery Old Lady Drivers ~ or MAD-OLD for short ~ ) ;)
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