Monday, November 17, 2008

Thank You for Being an Ass

The task of taking mother's car in for routine servicing was placed upon my head today. My brother had called in and made the appointment for 5pm (not the usual time one would take or give for such an affair). So I was supposed to take the car and all, but at 4 I was asked to make something to go with lunch. Pasta. I got done by 4:30 and was starved so I took the liberty of a few extra minutes and ate. I think I must have been in the car by 4:45 at least. Anyways, I get on the highway and just a few kilometers down I hit some really bad traffic. That highway never EVER has traffic in the evening unless there is an accident. 'Dammit' was the first thought that came to mind. I was going to be late getting to the toyota shop. Called my bro who was supposed to meet me there. Turned out he hadnt left his office yet. Preparing to sit in traffic for a while the thought "this better be worth the traffic" briefly passed though my mind. It took a while to actually get to the accident scene, but man, it was wicked. Quite a while before I could even see the actual car I saw a mangled tire and various other bits and pieces of the car scattered all over. A few fire trucks were there. There was lots of water all over the highway. On the side I was driving on to my right there were huge skid marks in the grass. It looked as if the car was trying to enter the highway from a ramp, lost control skidding across the grass while flipping and finally landing on the other side of the highway into the on coming traffic. There was very little left of the smashed in charcoaled remains. I mean I am usually pretty good at telling what a mangled wreck had once been, but that thing was totally unrecognizable. There was an ambulance there as well, but I highly doubt there was much left to take back to the hospital. It was pretty sad that the cars on my side of the highway had slowed to a crawl just to get a peak at what was going on and no sooner were they a couple of feet away they'd return to speeding like there was no tomorrow.
On my way back I took the same highway, now on the side where the car had landed. There was a bit of traffic. I couldnt imagine that they were still out there. When I got up to the spot where the car had landed there was still a police car there with its emergency lights flashing. There was also two, looked like fire fighters but could have just been clean up crew, out there. They were shovelling and scraping vigorously at the charcoaled remains burnt into the pavement. Metal bits and car remains.. possibly even human remains. "Oh God." I really should learn to control my thoughts and imagination, it went pretty far tonight. It wasnt long before I started thinking of the person's family. For everyone out there tonight it was just something to see, a temporary traffic jam, but for the people related to that person time must have stopped for them. I was just imagining how tragic it must be for the family to know that someone that was around at morning time, or even afternoon time and had just gone out for whatever would never be coming back. My mind was really out there, so out there that I was actually doing less than 100km on a 100km highway. I didnt even realize that till the guy behind me started flashing. I was in the middle lane. My first reaction was to check my speed. It was above 80 but not 100. I sped up a bit but couldnt really go more than 100, my mood just wasnt with it. The guy was still behind me, and then flashed again. I was getting agitated, I mean who the flip flashes someone in the middle lane and then no sooner had he flashed then he flashed again, and his headlights were no joke. I cursed at him (done under my breath not actually at him with him hearing or anything) and wished I had an LCD screen in the rear window so I could call him an ass and him actually see it. The left lane and extreme right lanes were both totally clear so I could not understand what this dude's beef was. I was tempted to get in the right lane, let him pass and then get behind him with my high beams on just to let him see how truly annoying it was. Again I so wasnt feeling the mood and he finally passed on the left. He wasnt even going that fast. Even after he passed he was just like a car ahead of me or so. He switched back to the middle lane but by that time I was already in the right lane. I was so tempted to get back in the middle behind him and flash a couple of times. Somewhere between dropping the idea and just going ahead with it I look down on the dashboard and realize my headlights werent even on. It was already way dark and all the other cars had theirs on, and the highway lights were all on. If an officer had seen me I would have gotten a ticket and probably a few black points. The guy I had thought was just being an annoying ass was actually being a considerate guy and trying to spare me the trouble, or an accident. I was pretty damn glad I hadnt went with road rage instincts and 'retaliated'. It made me think though, just how many incidents do we misinterpret as the other person being a total ass when they are actually just trying to do us a favor?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh wow...

when we are on a tight road (like somewhere around masafi and stuff) and people flash behind us... my bro speeds up so they wouldnt be able to pass... but he is kinda mean in that way...

careful, girl! dont let accidents upset you while driving... tho im not one to talk. last time i saw an accident i burst into tears all the way home... /sweatdrop

El Hazard said...

I sympathize with ur bro ;) sometimes it is just bloody annoying when ppl flash from behind and depending on one's mood they may sometimes feel the urge to annoy the flasher back.

I dont usually get upset by accidents unless I see something traumatizing and it's perfectly normal/nothing to be ashamed of to shed tears. Heck, a couple of times I was moved to tears after just reading about accidents in the paper..

Bookworm said...

ok, lets start again, since my comment was just gobbled up. Blogger must be hungry, poor ol soul.

I was saying, this brings to mind a certain story about a pack of M&Ms or some candy, 2 ladies and an airport. You might have read the story in a fwd. It also reminds me of 'dont judge a book by its cover' Cus things arent always wat they seem to be.

My brother is exactly like my cousin up there. I always give him lectures, but, I guess boys will just be boys.

You take care tho, like my friend says, pretend you're the only sane person in a road full of ragin maniacs.

I once saw the aftermath of an accident on my way to uni. It was quite traumatic, couldn't focus on anything at all for more than a week.

TC