goldenrulechoices

I would bet the farm that each and every one reading this has encountered a frustrating moment in traffic. This morning there was a landscape vehicle pulling a trailer full of wheelbarrows, weed eaters, push mowers, etc. that stopped right in the middle of the street. The driver had his turn signal on because he wanted to move from the far right land into the middle lane. The far right lane started backing up because, of course, nobody in the middle lane is going to stop to let this vehicle move over – that would slow their commute – but this vehicle didn’t try to merge, he just stopped! Once traffic started slowing down in the middle lane because of the traffic light ahead, a good Samaritan driver allowed this vehicle to move from the right lane into the middle lane. I was appalled that this insane act of stupidity would, not only tie up traffic, but also risk a huge accident as people weaved in/out of traffic to avoid being hampered/inconvenienced by this joker. How is it possible that this driver did not realize the consequences of his actions OR did he just not care? After that fiasco was cleared and traffic started moving along, I noticed the right-turn lane that I was in had stopped when normally we move along at a steady pace. About 3 cars ahead there was another landscape vehicle pulling a trailer full of yard equipment that had traveled in the right-turn lane until he got to the front of the middle lane and then was trying to move over. Everyone in the middle lane was stopped because of the traffic light so this joker had nowhere to go, but in the meantime, he prohibited the drivers in the right-turn lane (my land) from being able to turn as we waited for the light to turn green so the lane he wanted in could move and he could be at the mercy of someone letting him in front of them.

What is the matter with these people? Is there an extra ingredient in Mac Donald’s Egg Mac Muffin that I didn’t know about or is there a side effect to the Prozac/Zoloft/Adderall fog these people live in that boosts their entitlement levels to the point where they believe it is acceptable to inconvenience ALL other people for their wants? This is a classic example of why people arrive at work wanting to tell off their boss or arrive home in the evenings wanting to yell at their children and kick the dog. That’s a huge exaggeration, but you know exactly what I mean.

AND……why do the rest of us tolerate this behavior? Is it because we think there is nothing we can do about it? I disagree. Yesterday, another person was in the right-turn lane trying to inch his way to the front of the line before moving over to the middle lane and I was stuck behind him so I laid on my horn to let him know that this action was not acceptable. The driver waived his hands in frustration because I was drawing attention to him and his selfish act, which made him uncomfortable and, in his mind that also made me the bad guy. Aw, poor thing, I made him feel uncomfortable. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being the better person and, out of habit, always treating others as you want to be treated because I’m the only one treating others nicely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it – I know they will get their “just deserves” in the end, but what about right now??? Sorry if this goes against the golden rule, but I predict that if every one of us laid on our horns when people did this, maybe fewer people would do it………… Just saying.