!)($&*&%*(@&$(&%&!!&!!!&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I've spent a lot of time as a pedestrian over the years. More than I have in a car, that's for sure. I'm on high alert and incredibly paranoid about the difference in mass and potential energy between my fragile body and a moving CAR. Basic survival instinct is strong in my hindbrain, to put it mildly.
I am also an extremely alert and paranoid driver, and that saved a dude's life last night.
So I don't exactly live in the best area of town, but there are worse. What this neighbourhood *does* seem to be infested with is complete and utter morons with the survival instinct of a porcupine - none at all, that is. I'm driving home from the store, maybe 4 city blocks from my apartment, and I stop at the second-last light before my building. I should mention that it's twilight, even worse than full dark because the contrast from oncoming headlights makes it practically impossible to see. Light goes green, I take off. And brake VERY suddenly, because the aforementioned brain-dead doofus is walking across the road in the middle of the block, 10 metres down from the light-controlled crosswalk. Skinny middle-aged man wearing jeans and a black jacket. The only reason I saw him in time to stop is the fact that my lights glared off his half-bald head. He never even looked up, just kept walking with his gaze fixed on the pavement.
DH had to talk me down from the ceiling after I got home, I was so irritated. Granted, everything irritates me lately, but the blatant disregard for one's own skin really gets up my nose. I am not at all happy when people rely on MY brakes (I need new ones, you really shouldn't do that) and MY reflexes (unreliable, it's only my paranoid alertness that makes them work with relative consistency) to keep their sorry skin in one piece.
We are breeding basic survival instinct out of our species. I think we're doomed.
Ok, I've spent a lot of time as a pedestrian over the years. More than I have in a car, that's for sure. I'm on high alert and incredibly paranoid about the difference in mass and potential energy between my fragile body and a moving CAR. Basic survival instinct is strong in my hindbrain, to put it mildly.
I am also an extremely alert and paranoid driver, and that saved a dude's life last night.
So I don't exactly live in the best area of town, but there are worse. What this neighbourhood *does* seem to be infested with is complete and utter morons with the survival instinct of a porcupine - none at all, that is. I'm driving home from the store, maybe 4 city blocks from my apartment, and I stop at the second-last light before my building. I should mention that it's twilight, even worse than full dark because the contrast from oncoming headlights makes it practically impossible to see. Light goes green, I take off. And brake VERY suddenly, because the aforementioned brain-dead doofus is walking across the road in the middle of the block, 10 metres down from the light-controlled crosswalk. Skinny middle-aged man wearing jeans and a black jacket. The only reason I saw him in time to stop is the fact that my lights glared off his half-bald head. He never even looked up, just kept walking with his gaze fixed on the pavement.
DH had to talk me down from the ceiling after I got home, I was so irritated. Granted, everything irritates me lately, but the blatant disregard for one's own skin really gets up my nose. I am not at all happy when people rely on MY brakes (I need new ones, you really shouldn't do that) and MY reflexes (unreliable, it's only my paranoid alertness that makes them work with relative consistency) to keep their sorry skin in one piece.
We are breeding basic survival instinct out of our species. I think we're doomed.
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