Mountain Clams

So broke I can't even pay attention

People don't pay attention while driving. This is something that you already knew, but I thought I would share with you the couple things that happened between yesterday and today to reaffirm this fact for me.

Yesterday, my wife and I were took the truck to the Bass Pro store to look around, and maybe get a couple cots for camping next year. On the way there, we were stopped at a red light behind some random car. The light turns green and ... nothing. I give a polite little "beep" to wake them up and they start moving... slowly. On the other side of the intersection, they turned their left turn signal on and began slowing down from their already slow speed. They got to the street where it was obvious they intended to turn left and... nothing. No traffic coming in the opposite direction, no pedestrians in the intersection to worry about, no glass in the street to navigate around and most importantly, no movement from the car in front of us. Okay, so polite little "beep" wasn't enough. This time I laid on the horn.

Today, I was taking my daughter to her doctor appointment. The place where I usually park was blocked off thanks to construction that was going on across the street, so I pulled around to the parking garage. On the way in, I noticed they advertised low clearance ceilings, but the truck fit fine under the huge metal pipe they use to gauge it. There were no spaces on the first level so I headed towards the ramp. As I approached, I was a bit nervous since there really wasn't much space there. I pulled onto the ramp far enough to see the gigantic concrete support in the sunroof. It was far too close for my comfort (knowing that the front of the truck was going to do nothing but rise and the beam was in the middle of the roof), so I backed up and parked on the street a block away. See? Paying attention sometimes does pay off!

On the way home from the appointment, I was making my way on some side streets to one of the bigger streets. I was at a stop sign behind another car and watched a lady with a stroller and a little girl walking with her cross the big street. The street itself is a one-way and is about 4 lanes wide. The car in front of me turned and I moved up. The lady was wanting to cross the street in front of me so I waved at her to let her know I would wait. Across the street, a van was trying to come straight across. They were apparently intently focused on the oncoming traffic and guessed they had enough time to cross if they hit the gas. You already see where this is heading. The lady with the stroller takes a step into the street and sees the van coming, so stops. Her daughter, following her mother's lead to start walking, doesn't see the van and, of course, doesn't stop. The van came screaming across the road full throttle trying to make it between the gap in traffic right as the little girl was in front of me, which is perfect timing for her to get squished. I laid on the horn again and as I did, the van hit the brakes, letting the lucky little girl reach the other side and live to see another day. (Whew!)

Labels: stupidity

posted by Brett @ 7:59 PM