Trucks
Thursday July 17, 2008 | 1 comment
We went to our 14-week appointment today. The appointment itself went very well, but our drive to and from the hospital did not. Well, the drive there was fine, for Dallas rush hour. On the way back I decided we better stop for lunch, even though it was only 11 am.
I started feeling hungry and I knew we better stop because these days hunger comes on quickly and turns me into someone even I don’t recognize. A green monster with two heads. Once I feel hungry, I have to eat RIGHT NOW! GIVE ME FOOD! I cannot concentrate and I am certainly not very pleasant. All I can think about is food, in my belly, RIGHT THIS MINUTE!
My husband is all too familiar with my sudden mood swings brought on by hunger (as he is with my sudden mood swings brought on by random commercials, dirty dishes, broken sprinklers, gas prices, piles of laundry, you get the picture). He was kind enough to make a quick lunch stop and this is where things turned ugly.
As we were making a left turn, a big truck beside us was also turning. The driver decided to change lanes while she was at it (major pet peeve of mine, have you ever heard of committing to your lane while making a turn?). She ended up almost running us off the road and even though she was at fault, she took it very personally and decided to blame us for failing out of driver’s ed.
Why? Because she drives a truck. A big, huge, gas-guzzling, unnecessary-unless-you-own-cattle, ridiculous-for-city-driving, obnoxiously wide truck. I hoped she would turn out to be reasonable and take this incident like a champ, you know, learn to commit to her lane while making a turn.
However, by now you probably have a hunch that she didn’t turn out to be a reasonable adult, otherwise why would I be writing about it, right? She followed us through five lanes of traffic and a light, got right beside us as we were turning and wedged her truck right in front of our car.
We were going straight at this point, mind you. We were done making our turn. We weren’t doing anything we weren’t supposed to and we certainly weren’t in her way. But she decided it was a good idea to almost cause an accident, where she would have been at fault, to let us know she was a bad and psychotic driver. How nice of her.
Now, I ask you, what reasonable adult, in their right mind, would want to cause an accident where she is clearly at fault? To what end? Does paying your $500-$1500 deductible to fix our car make you feel better? I am really puzzled, please, someone, help me wrap my mind around this.
I am also sick of Dallas traffic and all the psychotic, vengeful drivers. We have only been here for a year-and-a-half, but have been victims of ridiculous road rage more that in all our combined years on this planet. Most of the incidents involve huge trucks. I guess once you buy a truck, you feel like a god. No need to obey or even familiarize yourself with traffic laws. Just lay on that gas pedal.
Being surrounded by these trucks feels like you are running with the bulls—never know what is going to set them off. You can obey traffic rules ‘til you are blue in the face, it doesn’t matter. The unwritten rule here is if you drive a truck, you are always right.
This is sad to me in many ways and on many levels. I was beginning to feel somewhat at home here and feeling more like I belonged. I no longer feel this way. I am not proud of living in this state and I no longer wonder why it gets such an awful wrap elsewhere in the country.
{ Speak Your Mind }
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I am not proud of living here either, it is one of my greatest failings/regrets/discouragements that I have lived here all my life. Even more fun in traffice is driving a scooter, when you can only go 30 mph max. People totally hate that! :)