The past week has been...interesting.
I had more close calls while driving my rig this past week than I normally have in six months. Maybe it's the change in the weather now that we're going into what I call the "nice season". Maybe it's just the areas I've been traveling through. Whatever the reason stupidity has been alive and well and it's name is "driver".
In NC, when I was on my way into Charleston I was bobtailing down the on-ramp to merge onto the interstate. I glanced into my mirrors out of habit. Nothing coming on my right...good as that lane was soon to end. On my left, the shoulder of the ramp, I see this small blue junky looking POS tearing down the shoulder. I laid on the air horn knowing it was pointless. He flew past me, cut his wheel hard so that he cut directly in front of my bumper, and lost control of his POS. It fishtailed a few times and almost spun out directly in front of me. His POS maybe weighed 1600lbs tops, my bobtail weighs around 19,000lbs. Yep, it was looking like he was soon to be street pizza.
He managed to regain control at the last second and, here's the clincher, gave me the finger like it was I who had just pulled an immensely bone-headed stunt. I just sighed and went on about my business as I watched this idiot race through the holiday traffic weaving and bobbing through the lanes as vehicle's brake lights lit up in an attempt to avoid hitting this cretin. I wonder if he's still alive?
I saw a couple of crotch-rocket riders racing down the interstate at well over 100mph doing wheelies in heavy traffic. I saw a pickup truck pulling a camper at least 3 times it's length race past me going down a mountain grade and then I sat in a backup for two hours while the police and a wrecker cleaned up his mess and towed what was left of his vehicles away. I understand neither he nor his wife were seriously injured but he likely needed a change of underwear.
I sat in a two hour backup in Indiana while they cleaned up a mess from a trucker who fell asleep and rolled his truck, effectively shutting down the interstate because he wasn't smart enough to know when to stop and sleep.
I sat in a backup in North Carolina while they cleaned up the aftermath from a drunken woman who fell off the back of a motorcycle and was run over by two tractor trailers, killing her instantly. I feel sorry for those two truckers.
I had numerous idiots who don't seem to understand the simple words "merge" and yield" nearly run up under my truck, into my side, or nearly get run over by me at various on-ramps along my routes. A couple of them were my fellow truck drivers who it seems missed those lessons in whatever truck driving school they presumably slept through.
Stupidity is in the air. It's all around. It's everywhere.
You've been warned.