Monday, July 2, 2007

Stoplight Trouble

Jeni and I were running a few minutes behind going to church on Sunday, so we were in a hurry driving there. Nothing too out of the ordinary, especially since we hadn't gotten back from Columbia until 1:30 am the night before and I'd worked another hour and 1/2 after we got home. I am the second car in line at a stoplight and there is no one behind us. It's not a busy intersection, very little traffic. So the light turns green and the big Dodge RAM truck in front of us doesn't go. I give it a few seconds, but I'm in a hurry and its a short green this direction. I'm thinking I'm about quarter way through the green by now. So I do what any red blooded American who's running late would do, I honk my horn. Only this guy was ready. He quickly got out of that truck (in fact, Jeni almost thinks it was too quick and that he was just sitting ready to pick a fight, but I think it just happened fast, like a movie) and started heading our way. He wanted to fight. He was yelling quite a few things that he was going to do to me, but I didn't want any of those things done to me, so I decided that speeding away would be the best idea. I can't put in print any of the things he said, but let's just say that my mother would have covered her ears. He was not happy with me. Now, some of you may call me a coward for glancing in my rearview, shifting into reverse and creating some space, and then driving off. But I assure you, I was late. This was a big guy, it would have taken me 10-15 minutes to take care of him and then I would have been really late to church. So, I just drove around him. Heck, the way I see it, he's just lucky I drove around him and not through him. I'm guessing car beats human in a game of chicken every time.
Surprisingly, he didn't chase after me after he got back in the truck. I thought he would. I think he was drunk and ready for a fight but not for a car chase. Jeni thinks he had a female in the passenger seat settling him down.
At any rate, that is the first time someone ever got out of their car on me. I will probably be more careful in the future as I'd have been really upset if I'd had to fight him. I was tired and irritable from a bunch of work stress.
I kept thinking two things. One, had that been a crowded intersection, I'm not sure what I would have done. The Saturn would not have been able to nudge his truck out of the way. I guess I would have written down his license plate and called the cops. But I would have felt more like a coward if he's standing there beating on the car window. Plus, he looked big enough to shatter a Saturn car window. Secondly, boy am I glad the passenger (if there was one, it happened quickly and neither of us remember) didn't have a gun. Let me tell you , I know that Jeni's Saturn is not outrunning any bullets. And I'm guessing bad guys aren't as bad of shots in real life as they are in the movies. Even if they did miss us and the car took a couple bullets, I'm not sure how'd we'd explain that to the insurance company. They already laughed at us for busting up our garage door, I'm sure they'd get a kick out of bullet holes.
On a lighter note, he was a Notre Dame fan. I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying. I think he was taking that "Fighting Irish" thing a little too seriously. Or, maybe I wasn't taking it seriously enough. He's was probably a Yankees fan too.