Road Rage. I Learned My Lesson Last Year.

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day to everyone who is one. I've learned over the years that I grew up in a time when there have been no wars we should have fought. But you don't ever want to see the Vet's treated like they were when they came home from, Viet Nam.

Last year on the Pacific Coast Highway, I stopped to let a jerk who was tailgating and honking at me, go around. He wouldn't. So I got out of the car to tell him to go around, and he tried to take the door off my car and run me over. Major damage to the Audi, Deb was still IN the car when he hit it on purpose, but wasn't hurt. We finished our trip, but it was noisy in the car.

I gave the CHP the guys license plate from Washington, but they didn't do shit.

Now, a year later, I'm heading west on 5900 South and stop at the light at State Street and I'm behind some guy with a pickup truck full of what looks to be office furniture, all held down by one strap across the top of the pile. And BOY is this guy moving slow! He barely gets across State Street before the light goes red again, and he's hitting his breaks every 20 yards or so. The pair of railroad tracks there at 300 West? Forgetaboutit! Two miles an hour, tops.

I don't judge this guy because I've moved before, and I know he's just being careful, but if he'd done a better job of securing his load, he wouldn't have kept me and the line of cars behind me, moving ten miles an hour under the speed limit. I don't think he was purposefully being rude, but he was keeping other people from where they needed to go, and my son had a soccer practice he was already going to be late for because of a doctor's appointment.

I just let it go, because I learned about road rager's last year. I wait until I'm in the passing zone, just west of I15 on 5900 S. and I pass him. He's only doing 20 miles an hour in a 30 zone. In the Audi, I'm around him in a second.

Can this, in any world, be construed as an, "Act Of War"? Was I out of line somehow? Did I do something wrong? It was, after all, a PASSING ZONE.

This guy went nuts! He starts honking his horn, and I didn't notice this until I moved back into the right lane, he had stepped on the gas! He was trying to keep me from coming back into the right lane, after CRAWLING over the railroad tracks to protect his furniture, he was now going as fast as the Audi! What happened to worrying about you crappy press wood furniture you red neck, asshole!

By the time I noticed he'd, "Stepped on it" when I came back over into my lane, I must have missed the front of his truck by less than a foot! WTF!

Who made this Jerk, "The Speed Limit Sheriff"? I'm not allowed to pass this guy in a passing zone? What the hell was this guy thinking?

So at 7th West, at the light, this guy pulls into the left turn lane, and I choose not to look at him. Don't give a damn who he is or what he looks like. Honestly, not ever sure it's a male, but his behavior was very, "Macho" and aggressive to I assume it was.

Why do people think this way? Why is everything a personal affront? Why do people get in the fast lane, the left lane, on any road, and drive at whatever speed they think EVERYONE should? How do you get that so self important?

From 7th West down Greenoaks all the way to my house the speed limit is 25, and I drive that or less, because I don't want people to speed through my neighborhood, and I'm sure those folks feel the same way. But passing you in a passing zone when you're driving ten miles an hour under the posted speed limit is an act of war? I don't get it.

I guess it's a good thing neither one of us was liquored up and carrying a gun. Or, maybe we were? I wasn't, can't speak for him.