Road Rage Almost Strikes Again (But Not Quite)

A few years ago, I posted a piece called My War on Road Ragers. (Please refer to this blog post before reading the following story, not that it will make much of a difference. It will just increase the number of hits on my site.) I am proud to say that with a little deep breathing, intense clutching of my steering wheel, and loud venting to my husband later that evening, I was able to prevent a road rage incident similar to the one described in my 2006 post.

As I was serenely (it was Friday, after all) driving home from work, I came upon a stalled car in my lane. My lane had a green light, and everyone in front of and behind me was passing the immobile car on the right. Fortunately, although a high-traffic time of the day, the stalled car was not causing many delays.

All of a sudden, a silver pickup truck (Always the pickup trucks! Again, please refer to My War on Road Ragers.) tried to enter my lane from his left-turn lane which had a red light.

I didn’t see him. He almost hit me. My lane's green light was turning yellow. I was able to speed up enough to pull in front of him as the light turned red. I was almost through the intersection. He didn't seem to mind the red light. He drove right through it and tailed me down the road, past two more traffic lights.

I was so mad. I clenched my teeth and the steering wheel. I wanted to follow him to his destination, but I was in front of him on a one-lane street. I glared at him through my mirror, hoping that, if he couldn't see my scary countenance, at least he could sense it. He was sitting in the driver’s seat with a woman perched next to him, and I could swear they were mocking me.

"You can’t tell from your rear view mirror," Dan said, as I bellowed the story to him that evening. "They probably weren’t mocking you."

“But he can’t do that! He can’t just almost hit me like that!” I continued to yell at Dan, "I wanted to chase him down, get him out of his car, and punch him in the face!"

I softened my tone of voice and said, "Then I thought, 'Whoa! This is not how I should be reacting as a pacifist.'"

“You really are schizophrenic, you know,” Dan said.

"Scenario" started to play on the radio. Dan turned up the volume.

“This will calm you down.”

And he joined in with A Tribe Called Quest.

In case you were wondering, it did calm me down.

"Aiyyo, Bo knows this (what?) and Bo knows that (what?)
But Bo don't know jack, 'cause Bo can't rap . . ."

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