- I was wondering why I am hungry because I ate breakfast. Then I remembered, oh yeah, I was up at 5:30 and that’s when I ate, so every 3-4 hours is about my eating schedule at this point.
- I am on course to have about an 8.5# baby. Egads.
- Why is it that when I am laying in bed I can’t sleep because I am thinking of the hundred and one things I want/have to do, then when I get up, I don’t want to do/don’t have the energy to do ANY of them?
- WHY DO MY CATS KEEP POOPING OUTSIDE THE BOX? GRRRRRRRRR. >:XX
- We have two people somewhat maybe sorta interested in renting our house, and maybe kinda possibly one person interested in buying. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let someone do something. We cannot afford more months of double payments.
- It’s time to start washing baby clothes to see what all we have. It feels like we have a lot, but on the same hand, it feels like we don’t have the right stuff.
- Sometimes my computer frustrates me so much I think I am ready for a Mac. But I am sure I would have issues with that, too.
- How can a photo album be lost? The entire house got packed and moved, and we have looked in every box and it’s still gone. Bah. So obviously we have some hidden boxes, LOL.
- Dogs that bark irritate me, because I am so used to our dog who rarely, if ever, barks. I know it’s not fair, but sorry, that’s what I’m used to.
- I wonder when I will fall asleep today…I’ve been up since 3am.
Category Archives: Automotive
This is when I hate having a car.
I take good care of my car—if the dealer tells me I need something, I pretty much go along with it (spacing out the $500 recommended options as much as I can). So when the check engine light comes on, off I go.
Yesterday, however, it was the check engine light PLUS the ABS and BRAKE lights. 88| The ABS and BRAKE lights did eventually go off, but I still made the appointment.
The first |-| is the $95 just to diagnose the issue. Then the >:XX came with the return call:
- THE MUST FIX: $595 to replace the ECU (electronic control unit)—oh, not life or death, but “your speedometer may not work correctly”
- RECOMMENDED: $470 to change the timing belts (due soon)
- RECOMMENDED: $598 to flush all the fluids (due soon)
- RECOMMENDED: $94 for a new battery (apparently mine is still original and they’re only supposed to last for 5-6 years—and the car is on 7)
Of course we don’t have the money to do any of this right now (otherwise we may not have rent next month)…so I am in the process of making another appointment with another place to see what they say (and what their prices are).
It just stinks because I trusted my last dealership wholeheartedly and never questioned them…but in a new city with a new dealership, I am leery. I hate to pay another diagnostic fee, but I guess the benefit is it will either tell me that the Toyota dealership is dead on (and I can continue to go there) or they are way off and I just saved myself a lot of money and found a new, trustworthy place.
Hey—I wonder if I could pay them in office supplies? 😀
Running errands here is a nightmare!
So today was my first day to run errands alone. Wow, it sucks.
First, I had to have the GPS because there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to know where I am going, let alone where anything is OR how to get home IF I happened to find anything. 🙄 And as I was ready to pull out of the driveway, I realized I didn’t have my GPS—Tom had both of them! So I had to wait for him to come home for lunch!
Second, there is construction on one of the MAJOR roads, which slows traffic down considerably. I am sure there are alternate routes (and the GPS could give me one if I told it to) but I don’t want to get too confused this early—and most of the time the GPS just tries to reroute me BACK TO the under-construction-area. 🙄
Third, the traffic—just speaking generally—is horrible. Which leads to…
Fourth, it seems like no one is paying attention at any time. Today I came THISCLOSE to getting rear-ended because some idiot two cars back wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice (I guess) that we were all AT A COMPLETE STOP. I heard screeching and braking and as I looked in my rearview mirror, heard a loud THUNK as some idiot careened off the road up onto the curb/lawn to avoid hitting the lady behind me. Then, as if nothing had happened, just waited for traffic to start again and he plunked down off the curb. (Well, I guess nothing did happen, and I guess he wasn’t supposed to just sit there looking like a moron, but still, it just seemed so nonchalant.)
Fifth, for the drivers that are paying attention, some are just plain rude. Yes, traffic sucks. But to wait in the center turn lane with your blinker on, waiting to get into traffic, and then have to cross THE OTHER THREE LANES of traffic to make your turn? >:XX Try going a different direction. Drivers are constantly wanting you to let them pull out into traffic, and then making other lanes wait as they cross multiple lanes of traffic. So you add this to the people not paying attention? Aye yay yay.
Sixth, we live right in the center of town (pretty much) so are right in the middle of all the major thoroughfares. Which mostly have no left turns. To make a left, you have to turn right, then get immediately in the special left-turn lane in order to go back the other direction. I’m getting used to it, but it’s a pain—especially when you add in the traffic and the rude and non-alert drivers. Luckily some of them have lights. But some are one lane and some are two lanes and you never know which ones have lights. Fun!
And I am sure I am forgetting some.
So today I was gone for about three hours, traveled about 15 miles total, and only made three of my six stops—the doctor, Petsmart, and Costco. I kept missing the post offices (wrong side of the road, too hard to get back over, GPS was wrong) and I gave up on the credit union (I missed my turn, which then sent me a half mile out of my way, at which point I was close to home and said screw it, I’m tired, I’m going home), and Kroger—which was actually ON the way home, but it was another screwy left turn and I was exhausted.
Are we done yet?
Insurance costs…YUCK!
Okay, we’ve changed our minds, we are not moving to Michigan. |-|
We called to alert USAA to our change of location, and the prices are INSANE. Our car insurance is TRIPLING from about $800/year to $2400/year. We are guessing it’s due to a high auto theft rate in metro areas, plus all the insurance Michigan requires (as opposed to North Carolina). Still, that’s going to hurt since we expected it to stay about the same…but TRIPLING? 88| OUCH. >:XX
And homeowners? Eeeesh. What a pain in the ass. XX(
We currently have USAA and since we have lived here, our homeowners has been around $800-$1200—which included some line item things like computer, guns, jewelry, and artwork. However, for the upcoming year, USAA just DOUBLED the cost (to $2400/year) because of all the hurricanes (they apparently want to get out of the homeowners insurance business in this area).
Well, we saw the notice but assumed we’d sell the house and not have to worry about it, so didn’t bother researching/changing insurance companies. However, now it’s looking like we might have to rent out our house, which means we’d have to keep homeowners on it, so we are looking at other insurance companies. Nationwide is apparently the only one we’ve found that will insure us in NC hurricane country—other companies pretty much just laughed at us and said NO WAY. >:XX
Well, since we were checking with Nationwide for homeowners coverage, we also asked for a renter’s insurance quote. Tom gave them all the same coverage info that USAA had and gave us a quote for…are you ready??? $1500!! 88| WHAT? >:XX At this time, we have not yet talked to USAA about their cost for renters insurance…but if we have to leave them for homeowners, why stay with them for renters insurance? You see the mess this is? 🙄
We obviously had to reevaluate our contents coverage, because we realized it was $160,000—which we surely don’t have that much in contents. We have no idea how USAA came up with that amount for contents coverage, but there must have been a formula and that’s what was included (i.e. I am sure we didn’t pull it out of the air). Once we re-evaluated, it was more along the lines of $80,000…but then we got an email from USAA saying our renters insurance would be about $350 for the original $160,000 in coverage (Tom hadn’t called them back yet with the revised figures). So, I have no idea why Nationwide was so high at $1500 with the same coverage, and then USAA came back with $350.
It’s all just a huge pain in the butt. Tom is NOT having fun with it—he usually never has to deal with this stuff because I am the one that always takes care of it—but I thought it would be good for him to see what is involved so he doesn’t take it for granted! :> However, this round of research is unfortunately a bit more involved and exasperating than normal, so he’s earning major brownie points.
Jumping to Conclusions
I swear to god I just thought someone stole my car at the grocery store.
I was in the checkout line and my car was there. I looked away and looked back and it was gone! 88|
Yeah, a car had pulled into the space next to me, blocking my view.
But I love how my mind jumps to conclusions. 🙄
Random Blather
I am soooooooooo tired of this heat wave. I swear this is the hottest it’s been since we moved here. Too hot to do anything except quickly rush from A/C to A/C. Tom even says it’s hot, and he was in Iraq (although he does admit Iraq was hotter).
I went to get gas yesterday morning because it was still $3.86 (it had been that for, I swear, two weeks) and I knew it was supposed to be going up this week. So I pull in and there is NO unleaded—just mid-grade and premium. Of course, after work, when they had raised the price 12c, there was unleaded. Bastards.
Why must people try to exit a gas station by making a left turn, in rush hour, at an intersection—when they could just as easily have driven through the parking lot and exited 100 yards farther down where there is much less traffic? Instead, they sit there, blocking the exit for those of us exiting and turning right into traffic (in this case, about 10 cars). So I drove the extra 100 yards and was able to turn directly into the flow of traffic and bypass the jerk who was STILL waiting to turn left.
I love my Tivo peeps. I needed help with something that I just couldn’t figure out so I posted about it—and within 10 minutes they started having answers for me.
On same said board, someone started a thread called “What do you look like today?” and I just love it! Well, everyone loves it, actually! People post pics from their cell phones or webcams or whatnot…and it’s very interesting! After posting about 10 pics myself, I noticed that I look pretty much the same in every one—I just either have curly hair or straight hair—so I said I was going to stop posting, but apparently some of the guys like the cleavage that ends up in some of the pics and have requested that I keep posting. :)) So I posted this one for them today:
Depressing thought of the day: I just happened to login to take a look at our mortgage stuff, and after paying every month for coming-up-on three years, we are just SLIGHTLY under the official selling price. GAH!
I can’t wait for our tomatoes to be ready to harvest! We do have a few jalapeño that are ready to pick, and of course I have been harvesting basil all along, but the tomatoes are what I’m jonesing for. Someday, somewhere, I hope to have a REAL garden!
On another gas note, the Prius has been wonderful! We used to use my car for everything—every run to town, every errand, every road trip—and I had to fill up about once a week. Now that we take the Prius everywhere (and I only drive to/from work), I am only filling up about every 2-3 weeks! 😀 So, we traded paying for gas for paying for a new car. I’d say that was a good trade!
Some people!
You will never believe what we saw today on the way home from farmers marketing.
When we first saw it, at about a distance of 100 yards, it looked like a big white square something that was completely vertical. We both looked at each other like WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?
As we got a little closer (I told Tom to step on it, I wanted to see what it was!) I said “That looks like box springs!” and Tom said “Noooooooooo, it can’t be! They’re going about 60 and they’re in the passing lane!”
As we crept closer, we tried to think what else it could be, but it really looked like box springs! And as we got closer, by gosh and golly, it was box springs…and a mattress!
By the time we got up next to it (and I finally got my camera working), it wasn’t quite vertical anymore, but the old woman was flying down the road at about 60-65mph, surely completely oblivious that she could lose the box springs at any moment. If you look closely, you can see two TINY ropes holding it on.
Some people!
How hard is it to buy a keychain?
Apparently, MUCH harder than I originally anticipated.
Ready for a long story? 🙄
I have wanted a new keychain for just about forever now. I am still using a dorky Marine Federal Credit Union lanyard I think I found while working at Staples—which means I’ve had it for about six years.
I was sick and tired of being boring and utilitarian—that just doesn’t scream JEN, right? 😉 So I had taken to looking at keychains whenever we went somewhere, but nothing ever hit the spot. So, I decided to start a thread on my frequented-forums, asking for other people to show me their keychains so I could get some ideas. And one did actually hit the spot—I just thought it was cute and neat—and the owner gave it a glowing recommendation:
Troika Jumper
Hers was blue, but with some research, I found it was available in green! YAY! Of course, I also discovered they had cats and dogs which were totally adorable, but since I couldn’t decide between the cat or the dog, or which color, I went back to the green jumper. And then I thought about it. And thought about it some more. Because $16 + S/H is a lot of money for a silly keychain. But then I decided that I had been using a “freebie” for six years, so I could justify spending the money on a new one that I loved!
Well, the only place the green jumper was available was on the actual Troika website, so I created an account and ordered it. I thought it was a tad strange that the only way to pay was via PayPal (and not straight via credit card), but I have no problems with PayPal, and lots of businesses use PayPal, so it didn’t raise any flags. This was on April 15.
Right away I got a confirmation of my account creation, as well as the “initial notification” email from Troika, saying I had to finish via PayPal (which I actually already had by that point). Then I got the PayPal confirmation…which was a little strange: The order description was Troika USA and the Invoice ID was troika-usa_xx, but the Business Information contact was Suntime3, LLC. Again, a tad strange, since I thought Troika would have been the contact, but I figured maybe an outside company did the actual order processing…so honestly, nothing to really cause me any real misgivings.
Eight days later on April 24 I emailed Suntime3, LLC (via the email from the PayPal contact confirmation) asking for the status because 1) I hadn’t received any shipment confirmation and 2) I hadn’t received the item. They wrote back that:
That [contact information] should have been changed. The company handling that site now is called Pevazi and you can reach them at…
Nothing about refunding my money (which was obviously paid to them) or “Sorry there has been a mistake”—just simply “Here’s their number.” Now I started to worry. At that same time, I tried to login to my Troika account, and it didn’t recognize me OR my email. Uh oh.
So now it was about April 27, and I contacted Pevazi, and after a quick explanation, the girl took my order info and said she would call me back the next day. Nothing. I called about two days later, it was the same girl and she remembered me, and this time asked for me to email her ALL the information and emails I had received so she could look into it, as my name and/or order number matched NOTHING in their system. I compiled a huge email and sent it off. She replied she would “get to the bottom of this, ASAP” and that it might be the next day.
This morning, May 14, I got an email from her, asking if Suntime3 (the original company that apparently got my payment) had contacted me to resolve the issue. I told her that I hadn’t heard anything from anyone since I received her last email saying she would be working on this. Within 10 minutes, I received this response:
Ok, I don’t know what happened with this. The monies got paid to a different company and that company said they didn’t know anything about it and they would contact you. In the meantime, what product did you order? I am going to send you the product you purchased and will settle the rest with Suntime.
Now THAT is customer service. ❗
So I emailed her what I wanted and they are shipping it out ASAP. And they get to try to figure out how to get their money. So sometime in the near future, I will FINALLY get my keychain!
I certainly hope it’s worth all this trouble. |-|
Prius Update
We decided to go to Wilmington today to run a few errands and have lunch with our friends.
However, our first stop was the local Toyota place to pick up our real license plate. The guy who changed the plate out for us remembered us (not our actual sales guy) and made the comment that we should be glad we bought when we did—the cars are SO scarce now that they have a 4-week waiting list and NO ONE is making deals on them and people are paying full MSRP! Score one for us! On the way to the highway, we were behind a Prius at the light.
Our second stop was Harris Teeter (in Wilmington) to pick up some minor things, and when we left the store, we were parked next to another Prius.
Then it was downtown to a tattoo place we had heard about—yes, we are still both contemplating getting tattoos—and as luck would have it, there was a parking space directly in front of the shop! YAY! When we came out, there was a Prius parked two cars ahead of us.
Then we went to Costo and parked kitty corner to a Prius.
So, apparently these things are unavailable for purchase but are multiplying like rabbits. 🙂
But the real update? Tom absolutely LOVES the car. LOVES IT! LOVES IT! LOVES IT! I get a picture every time he fills up the tank showing me the current average MPG—his last fillup?
He ends up getting about 500 miles or so between fillups. The other bonus is that since we take his car everywhere? My tank of gas now lasts about three weeks!
We are now officially a Toyota family!
We went tonight to get the paperwork out of the way, planning on going back tomorrow to just pick up the keys and go…but the salesman called to say the car would be ready tonight! So we did the paperwork, went out for a burger, then came back in an hour to get the car!
Here’s the proud new driver getting in his car for the first time:
We came home, then it was my turn to drive the car as we needed to return our loaner car to our friends (again). And let me tell you, it is VERY strange to drive the car.
- For one, you don’t need a key. Yes, you need the fob, but it can be in your pocket or in the front seat—just in very close proximity.
- Second, you press a button to start the car.
- Third, you have to look at the dash to see if the car is “ready” because you can’t hear it start (damn that electric motor is quiet).
- Fourth, the shifter is VERY strange—just a tiny little knob on the dash.
- Fifth, it BEEPS the entire time you’re in reverse, even if you aren’t moving.
- Sixth, it’s somewhat disconcerting to use a video backup monitor if you’re not used to it.
- Seventh (wow, I didn’t think I’d have this many things to say!), it’s amazing to see CURRENT MPG 99.9!
- Eighth, you have to press a button to put the car in park, too!
- Ninth, you have to press the Power button to turn the car off. Yes, it sounds logical (and it is, I guess), except when you’re doing it for the first time. :))
But it’s fun. And gets great gas mileage. So YAY!
New car update!
11:23am
YAY!!!
Tom just called to say he talked to our LOCAL Toyota place and they will beat the deal that we got in Raleigh. This is interesting, since when he talked to them before, they didn’t even really want to talk to us and gave us the runaround. So, if they give us the same amount for a trade in, we are set! And we can get the car locally! And they have an additional warranty that they give you for free!
I am keeping my fingers crossed!
1:55pm
ARGH!!!
Good news? Tom just called and the local dealer gave us a better price.
Bad news? The one we can get tomorrow is silver. To get red, we have to wait until May. (I could wait until May, but we are worried about his car and that damn starter issue.)
Silver would be just okay—I just don’t like boring colors. I really really want red. And if we are spending all this money, I would really like the color I want. But is it worth chancing his car conking out before we trade it in?
2:05pm
Tom just called again and our choices are:
- Silver with gray interior in 3 days.
- Red with bisque interior by end of April.
- Red with gray interior by end of May
I don’t want Silver and hubby doesn’t want bisque, and neither of us wants to wait until the end of May. I told him to decide since it’s his car. 🙂
2:35pm
We are going with the Silver. Tom decided he didn’t want to wait (or chance anything with his car) so he started the paperwork and we should have the car on Wednesday!
3:07pm
Tom called me from the parking lot of the dealership to tell me he was sitting in his car…in front of five salesman…and the car wouldn’t start. 88| I told him he should get out, tell the sales guy he had decided to just trade it in now, and then call me to come get him! :)) As luck would have it, however, the car started on his third or fourth try, so he just went home. But it reinforced our decision to trade the car in sooner rather than later!
5:20pm
As soon as I got home, Tom told me that he had called the guy we were dealing with in Raleigh, to tell him we had decided to get the car locally because they were able to beat his best deal…and the Raleigh guy says—are you ready?—give him another chance, he can do better, he is sure he can get the trade-in up another $500.
So…he obviously didn’t give us his best deal then, did he? 🙄 I know, the joy of car dealers. |-|
Tom had to tell him that we would have LOVED to have done business with him (he really was a great guy and treated us very well), but unfortunately we had already started the paperwork with the local dealership, since we thought we had already gotten his best offer.
This is entirely scary…yet also exciting!
Loaner Vehicle, Take 2
So, interesting sidenote.
Tonight, we returned our loaner vehicle back to Roger and Ursula and as we were going to leave, Tom’s car wouldn’t start. 88| >:XX
We thought it was a drained battery, so we tried jumping it, but that wasn’t it (the clock didn’t reset). So, between the two guys, they decided it was a starter issue (something like a bad part in the starter? so it’s not always bad?).
So they tried to start it about 20 times and it finally caught. And we drove the loaner vehicle home again, just in case. Once we were home, Tom was able to turn it off and on a few times with no problem.
So, I think it’s really time to get rid of this car. (See, I just KNEW we were supposed to trade it in YESTERDAY!)
Car shopping in Raleigh
Phew, what a day.
Long story short, hubby’s car wasn’t worth NEARLY what we’d hoped it would be, either from Carmax OR Toyota… although we haggled a bit with Toyota to up it $500 to get us closer to our bottom line for a new car.
/House Hunters mode on
So, did they stay under their budget and go for the sight-unseen used 2005 black Prius with tan interior from an Orlando Carmax with 49k miles? Or did they go for the brand spanking new “really red” 2008 Prius with the grey interior that isn’t even on the lot yet that they have to wait two weeks for but is slightly over their budget?
/House Hunters mode off
We should have a new car—with the exact specs we wanted—in about two weeks! 88|
The Title Saga
So after MUCH research, including reading pages upon pages at Consumer Reports online, pages upon pages of used car forums, and finally test-driving our neighbor’s new Toyota Prius Hybrid (which we REALLY liked)…Tom emailed a bunch of local Toyota dealers to see what deals they could cut us…and we decided to head to Raleigh.
Of course, we would be trading in Tom’s car, so we needed the title.
Well, docs like that are kept in the safe, except it wasn’t in there. And since it’s not where it SHOULD be, it could be anywhere! >:XX
I mean, the last place I actually remember seeing it was on the chair downstairs, like six or eight months ago (when we paid it off and the credit union sent us the docs)!! 88| I swear I remember putting it in the safe, but since I didn’t, it means it got put with a stack of papers “to go upstairs” and then got lost in the shuffle.
We have torn the office apart. I have emptied and sorted our “to be filed” bins (that had two years of stuff in them). I have torn apart two closets. I have looked behind things. I have looked under things. I have looked in things.
It was just nowhere.
So I went online and filled out all the paperwork to get a new title. Of course it has to be mailed to Michigan and should take like two weeks round trip (and cost $15)… so you know we will find the damn title within that two weeks.
FAST FORWARD TWO HOURS
YAY!
We found the title! I just kept thinking I KNOW I put it somewhere… Well, turns out, I did. 😳
It was in a manila envelope of “things to remember to show Tom when he comes home”—which ended up sandwiched between the wall and his nightstand. I know I told him about it and handed it to him when he came home, but he just thought “I will deal with it later.”
And the title was in there, right on top.
So now maybe it’s fate we find/buy a car tomorrow? If nothing else, we will have a great lunch!
The Impala Saga To Date
Transmission.
Out of nowhere.
Original estimate of $3500 from the dealer.
Second opinion was $2500.
Third and final opinion was $1800-$2000 so we took it there.
We would love to just trade it for something else and not worry about getting it fixed, but there’s no way we can sell it with a worthless transmission.
Although unexpected major expenses suck, the good news (if you can call it that) is that we do have the money in savings, so this won’t kill us.
But now we have to decide what we’re going to do…because apparently, this car is KNOWN for transmission issues. And even if we get it fixed, there is no guarantee of it lasting any great length of time.
And we just don’t want to drive this car…we just don’t trust it like we used to. Tom has also been burned before with vehicles developing issues which turn into other issues and finally ends up a full-fledged money pit resulting in a car with little/no trade in value.
So, stay tuned…
Oh, the other good news? Our friends, Roger and Ursula, have an extra car that we can use while Tom’s car is being fixed!! YAY!
I hate 65,000 mile check-ups.
So I took my car in for its 65,000 mile check-up, knowing I’d probably have to get something done to the brakes (considering my two recent trips to Sam’s Club for a balance)… but of course, I was due for a litany of other things (to the tune of $822.79). 88| I am sure it wasn’t 100% necessary to get them all done today, but I figured why not, better safe than sorry, at least we have the extra money in the bank now, and most of all I won’t have to do anything major for another 30,000 miles.
I HATE STUPID DRIVERS!
I really hate it when I get pissed off on the way in to work—it’s just not the best way to start the day.
This morning, some idiot pulled out (basically) in front of me. Since I was on a 55mph road, he really should have waited, but god forbid someone wait for a proper break in traffic. So, I pretty much had to slow from 55 to 25 in three seconds. Then, about 1/4 mile up the road, he slams on his brakes—which means I have to slam on my brakes, engaging the ABS and sending all the stuff in my car flying to the floor. Asshat wasn’t paying attention and missed some activity on the side of the road that he had to avoid at the last second.
Oh, and did I mention this idiot was on the phone? GRRRRRRR. >:XX I don’t mind people talking and driving if they can handle it, but some people obviously can’t.
Stupid drivers make me want to SCREAM!
I know there are always stupid drivers around doing insanely stupid or irritating thigns, but tonight, there just seemed to be an overabundance during our short trip to town. Here are the offenders, in order.
- We were on our way to town when we hit a traffic backup. On this road, pretty much the only thing it can be is an accident. Well, it was an accident, but boy was it AN ACCIDENT. Before we even got to scene, we could see the telephone pole at about a 45 degree angle! We knew then it was pretty serious. Still, imagine the surprise at seeing a car FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN in front of the pole. We cannot even begin to fathom how that happened. This road is 45mph, with most people doing 55mph or so. But to flip a car? And we only saw one car, so it wasn’t a two-car accident (which would seem the more likely action to cause a full flip). So, stupid driver #1.
- So a little farther up the road, a car screams out and cuts across two lanes, fully cutting two cars off and causing them to slam on their brakes. Then said car speeds way up (maybe 65mph) and then slows way down. I don’t get people.
- Now we’re waiting at a stoplight and we’re the first in line. We’re just watching the traffic pass in front of us when this idiot—coming towards us in the right turn lane—speeds up to swerve around a car (who was in the correct lane) to cut back into traffic. Had our nose been out any farther, we probably would have gotten clipped by this idiot.
- Then we end up behind an S-10 [small truck] with five—count ’em, FIVE!—small children in it (two in the front seat and three on the back seat)—all of whom should have been in car seats! We also thought we saw the driver on the phone, but we can’t be 100% sure about that.
- Later, heading home, and it’s now dark. We’re in the right-turn-only lane and this guy exiting the gas station has his nose poked WAY out into traffic (onbviously blocking traffic) so someone stops to let him out, assuming he would be turning into the flow of traffic. But no, instead of turning right and going with traffic, he guns it (tires squealing), into the oncoming traffic lane (yes, going against traffic the wrong way in the wrong lane), and proceeds to cut across two more lanes to go the opposite direction. He cut it SO close and came SO close to us that I think Tom could have reached out and touched his car. (Now, this is someone who deserves to be in a serious accident.)
- So we just barely recover from that asshat and are talking about how much we hate hate HATE stupid drivers when some asshole in front of us decides to turn left—across two lanes—at the last minute and cuts us off. Thank goodness for antilock brakes or we would have rear-ended him (without a doubt). He got a good solid minute of horn blasting at him. Do people not ever look at the traffic surrounding them?
- About 1/4 mile down the road, still fuming at the asshole who almost caused us an accident…someone behind us realizes—again, at the last minute—that the lane he’s in is an exit, so he swerves back over into our lane and almost rear-ends us (god forbid he step on his brakes).
- Taking the highway home, we ran across not one but two trailers on the highway that had NO lights on them and were so big you could not even see the truck pulling them. It’s never safe to pull a trailer without lights, but even more so when it’s dark. I swear, where are the cops when you need them?
It’s the principle.
So gas here has been $2.75 for quite some time. Yesterday I finally decide to fill up, since 1) my light came on and 2) I assumed gas would go up for the holiday weekend. And of course today it’s $2.72.
I know it’s only a matter of 45¢ for my fill-up, but it’s the principle.
Damn Orange Barrels
This morning I decided to go to work a half hour early, so imagine my irritation when traffic was backed up quite badly. I thought maybe that’s just what the traffic was like at that time (since I usually go through there 20 minutes later) but no, there was supposedly construction going on. I say supposedly because there were tons of orange barrels (orange barrels, orange barrels, everywhere I see, orange barrels, orange barrels, looking back at me) and no workers! Not one truck! Not one person! They just had two left-turn lanes moved down to one—and at this intersection, that’s a BAAAAAAAAAD thing. If there had been actual construction going on I would have no problem—but not having any actual construction gets me steamed.
Ghost Driver?
So I get up this morning and am getting ready and I thought I heard machinery of some sort running outside. I just assumed it was workers at the new houses in the area or something similar. I went downstairs and ate breakfast and made my lunch and I could still hear the sound—but I still didn’t think much of it because it seems there are always work trucks in the area. Then, for whatever reason, I thought “You know, it sounds really close” and then, for whatever reason, I went to the garage and opened the door and—a blast of heat rushed past me—my car was running! WHAT THE HELL?!?! Of course I instantly freaked out, because, I mean, how often do you find your car in the garage just running when YOU didn’t start it and you’re the only one home? (It hit me at that moment, as well, as to why I hadn’t been able to find my keys!) I could think of absolutely NO reason why Tom would have left my car running, but you can bet your sweet bippy that I called him mere seconds after I turned the car off and opened the garage door. You will never believe it… his car battery was dead this morning so he had to jump it—and forgot to turn my car off! FORGOT! So my car had been running for probably close to two hours. Hoo boy.
What if Microsoft Built Cars?
Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you’d have to buy a new car.
Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you’d have to restart it. For some strange reason, you’d just accept this, restart and drive on.
Occasionally, executing a manouvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you’d have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you’d just accept this, too.
You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a “Car 95” or a “Car NT”; But then you’d have to buy more seats.
Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive—but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single “General Car Fault” warning light.
People would get excited about the “new” features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
We’d all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
They wouldn’t build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
There would be an “Engium Pro” with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don’t own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
If you still ran old versions of Car (i.e. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
If you couldn’t afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friend’s, and then copy it.
Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganize the ignition for a few days before it worked.
You would need to by an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
Many gas stations closed
On my way to work this morning, my regular gas station was closed. Word on the street (i.e. floating around the office, from people who have been out in traffic) is that there are quite a few gas stations that are closed, and the ones that are open have lines OUT INTO THE STREET.
This is just insane. I can’t wait to see what the prices are on my way home.
Extended Warranty Comes Through
Thank heavens, we found out our extended warranty for my car will cover the $350 part. This means we only have to pay the $500 for a full-system flush. I think we’ll be doling that out over the next few months!
Procrastination is expensive!
Owning a car sucks—at least today, LOL. Our check engine light came on a few days ago so it went in for service today. We were expecting it to be the oxygen sensor (what it was the last time the light came on—a mere $35 issue). Well, it was that, BUT there was another issue which they needed to do an in-depth diagnosis to determine…at a charge of $70. Well, you can’t NOT do it… So the next call was to tell me they found what it was—the air flow ratio sensor, which can be replaced at a cost of…$380!! If we don’t get it fixed…it will eventually kill the catalytic converter. Lovely. Then, I had also had them do an oil change…so they noticed that ALL our fluids (and especially the transmission fluid) need flushing. Add $460 to the bill. Egads. I wasn’t prepared to deal with all this today, so we’re not having it done today…but we need to do it soon. Of course, had we kept up with out 30,000 or 35,000 mile scheduled maintenance plan, we probably would have already had some of this stuff done. So, our procrastination is now going to take a big-assed bite out of our savings… He said the air flow ratio sensor might be covered under an extended warranty—which I thought we bought, but they couldn’t find any record of it…so I put in a call to Spartan Toyota in Lansing and they looked it up and said we bought the 6-year 100,000 mile warranty (phew!)…so now I just hope the air sensor is covered by it!!! Hoo boy.
Forgotten Wallets and Locked Cars
So it’s 8:09am and I’m waiting for Tom to come home…to unlock my car. Hoo boy. He finally got the garage cleaned out yesterday so I can park in it again—-so as I’ve been doing since I’ve started parking in the garage, I left my keys in it. So I just went out to leave for work and—-surprise!—-the car is locked. What? Huh? Why on earth is it locked? It had to be Tom… The funny thing is that I already talked to him once this morning, about 20 minutes ago, when he called to tell me he forgot his wallet and would I bring it in with me! Ironically, this same thing happened about a month ago—-and before that, we’d never locked our keys in the car (at least since we’ve been in NC). Tom swore up and down that he didn’t do it—-that he even UNlocked it this morning. Unfortunately, it’s locked, so he did it! Oh well. So he’s on his way home now and I’ll be a little late for work. And to top it off, I feel like crap. I started feeling icky yesterday, slept nicely last night courtesy of Nyquil, and feel like I could still be in bed sleeping nicely. Sore throat, stuffy/runny nose, clogged head. Fun, fun, fun!
Our $1800 weekend!
We were tired of seeing all the pallets and crap gathering in our backyard, so we decided to have a bonfire, come hell or high winds (the past week had been totally calm, except—of course—for the night we wanted to have the fire). We had the hose at the ready and only had to use it once when a small bit of ash started a little piece of our lawn on fire (and by little, I mean about a foot section). Oh, and Tom had to chase down some escaping ash as it floated serenely away towards our neighbor’s house…but overall, it was fairly uneventful (thankfully). We visited, had a few drinks, and enjoyed s’mores. It was also the first time the guys all had their new shirts at the same time (Tom and Tom bought themselves one, plus one for Roger, when we were in Myrtle Beach):
We also found out that our old neighbors were having a garage sale at their new house. What a perfect time to put Tom’s car down there, I said! (We had planned on taking it down there to sit, since it’s on the main road, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.) So we printed the Kelly Blue Book info and went to drive it over (after the bonfire) and…the car was dead. Crap. I had started it a few times while Tom was gone, but it must have sat too long. Tom’s theory was that somehow the “alarm” button had been hit and the alarm went off (silently, since the horn doesn’t actually work) for who knows how long. Since we couldn’t do anything about it right then, we continued on to our neighbors for a dip in the hot tub (the first time, since they’ve moved). Tom assured me that sometime in our life, we would own a hot tub. YIPPEE!
In the morning, Tom jumped the car (and amazingly, the horn started working again!), drove it over, stuck a price on the windshield, and waited. We sat over there visiting for about an hour, and while we were there, there were a few people VERY interested in it. But, as luck would have it, the battery was really dead. The jump didn’t hold so we knew we’d have to buy a battery. We left to run some errands (get a battery!), go grocery shopping for our visitors this week, and do some house things. When we got home, we got a call from our neighbor with the phone number of a guy who was EXTREMELY interested in it. So Tom went back to put the battery in and meet with the guy. Excellent news—after only about one minute into the test drive, he said he absolutely wanted it and would give us the money Monday! WOO HOO!! That night, it was back to Roger and Ursula’s for dinner and games…which was fun, as usual! I had a little too much to drink (damn Tom for surprising me with tequila and margarita mix!) and I was home and in bed by 11:30.
Today was our monthly Walmart run. We’d heard (from online sources) that they’re slowly phasing out a lot of the low-carb products, so we wanted to stock up on some soup that we really like. They already don’t have the Russell Stover (?) Low-Carb Chocolate Fudge Sauce that we love…and they stopped carrying the low-carb Doritos last year. We also wanted to hit the mall (I had to return something) and we were surprised to see that the mall didn’t open until…are you ready?? 1PM! Are you kidding me? We knew it probably opened late, but we figured it was noon, so we weren’t too concerned when we got there at 11:50. We wandered through Sears then at 12:10 asked what the deal was… 1pm. What a crock. Needless to say we didn’t wait. That’s just asinine. Why bother even opening? Ugh. The rest of the day was spent napping and cleaning the house. And Tom just walked in to tell me we were invited over to use the hot tub tonight since we didn’t make it in last night… Cool.
Tom’s Ride
Stupid Driver Gripes
Give me a license to pull people over and write tickets and you don’t even have to pay me.
I SWEAR THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED: In the left lane, a slow-moving garbage truck. In the right lane, a slower-moving semi. I was in the left lane, behind the truck and another car. As us two left-lane travellers are approaching the point where we can merge in front of the semi, the car in front of me moves into the left turn lane. Cool, I think, he is getting out of my way and I will be able to pass the truck and semi sooner. So, as I merge into the right lane (in front of the semi) and then go to move back into the left lane (in front of the truck), GUESS WHO IS ALSO MOVING BACK INTO THE LEFT LANE IN FRONT OF THE GARBAGE TRUCK?? The guy who had gone into the left turn lane!! YES, FOLKS, THE @*$!% USED THE LEFT TURN LANE TO PASS!! Had I been paying less attention, or had I moved just a hair quicker, he would have smacked right into me. WHERE ARE THE COPS WHEN YOU NEED THEM?? Needless to say I flipped the guy off.
I SWEAR THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED: I’m in the left lane behind a slow-moving car. There’s no one in the right lane, but there’s not really enough distance for me to worry about passing because I NEED to be in the left lane to make a left turn two lights up (a short distance). So we come to a stop at a red light, and there’s STILL no one in the right lane. The light turns and off we go, still moving slow. Well, about 2 car lengths before the light (which is two lane/left and right turn only), the car decided to get in the right lane, which is now, of course, packed with cars turning right. So the car stops, with his blinker on, waiting for someone to let him in, which isn’t going to happen because there’s about 10 cars in line waiting to turn right, so he will never get over—let alone through the light—before it turns red. HELLO? Can we say planning ahead? In the meantime, about 8 cars—including me—are backed up behind this idiot in the left turn lane. So I broke the law, crossed the double yellow center line, and passed the fool. Everyone after me followed suit, and I didn’t bother to look behind me to see what happened to the idiot in the car.
I HATE PEOPLE WHO:
Leave their blinker on FOREVER when they’re obviously not changing lanes. It’s even MORE annoying when you hang back to let them in and they don’t merge.
Slow down before getting into the left or right turn lane (when there’s obviously NOTHING in their way TO slow them down), thereby causing you to slow down as well.
Slow down on the expressway BEFORE getting into the exit lane (duh, that’s what the lane is there for—so you don’t interrupt normal traffic flow).
Think they’re SOOOOO cool and sit leaning WAAAAY back in their seat (so you can barely see their eyes over the door frame) and drive with one arm; this is generally a young man in a muscle car. (See next item.)
Can barely see over the steering wheel, for whatever reason. THIS JUST CAN’T BE SAFE! Get over your insecurities and sit on a book or something—no one else other than your occupants will know, and the rest of us will feel a lot safer knowing you can see your surroundings!!
Aren’t paying attention (or don’t know the rules of the road) and don’t turn right on a red light.
Keep inching forward at a red light and then don’t go when it turns green.
Pull out RIGHT in front of you when there’s NO ONE behind you…and then don’t speed up.
Dart in and out of heavy [generally rush-hour] traffic to get ahead—when it’s obviously pointless since you end up stopped at the light together. (See next item.)
Cut in front of you (with barely a foot to spare) just because you’re not tailgating like everyone else.
Fly by you going at least 75mph in a 55mph zone, and then slow down to 70mph on the expressway, so you pass them doing 75.
Refuse to approach actual highway speed while on the expressway on-ramp, interfering with your own merge onto the highway.
Live in Michigan (or northern states in general) and don’t know how to drive in inclement weather or on snowy/icy roads. They either drive way slower or faster than conditions warrant, or think that they can blast through anything just because they are driving a 4×4 (FYI: 4x4s really have no effect on ice—they slip just like the rest of us).
Wait for you to pull out of a “good” parking spot instead of parking 5 spaces farther away.
Don’t go the speed limit. This is especially annoying on a rural highway (55mph) when it’s impossible to pass and you’re stuck doing 45-50mph because they’re out joyriding.
Drive in the left lane at the EXACT pace as the right lane—instead of using it for passing, which, of course, is what YOU want to do. This can happen either on the highway or a 4-lane thoroughfare.
Are driving slow for miles and miles…until you get to a passing lane (or a passing area) and suddenly they’re moving at the speed of light—so you can’t pass—and then after the passing area is over, they slow back down to their previous speed.
Don’t use cruise control…they pass you and then you pass them and then they pass you and then you pass them—all the while not changing YOUR speed at all.
Force you to pass them on the right. They stay in the passing lane regardless of their (your) speed, and then look at you like they’re pissed that you passed them on the right…and then they STILL don’t get over in the right lane.
Stay (or get) right on your ass, so, thinking they really want to pass, you move over to let them, and then they drop in right behind you.
Are going a bit slower than you, so you pass them, then they get on your ass, so you move over to let them pass, and they stay in the left lane going your same speed…which causes you to nudge your speed up a bit (because, of course, you’re quickly approaching another slow-moving car), and you cut in front of them to pass [the second car] bceause they didn’t keep up their passing speed. (I just did this recently and I LOVE it. Serves them right for not having the balls to pass.) BUT THEN, they have to get right on your ass again, and then fly by you doing 90, only to slow down again 2 miles later. Whatever.
Have waited too long to pass and then DART in front of you, causing you to hit the brakes. (See next item.)
Cut in front of you to pass and then don’t get out of your way when they see you quickly coming up behind them.
Turn their blinker on RIGHT AS they’re making the turn.
Don’t use their blinker when cutting directly in front of you.
Dart in front of semis as they’re coming to a stop—as if semis can stop on a dime.
Come to a complete stop before merging onto the highway. TWH
Have been waiting in the “left-turn-only” lane and THEN decide to go straight—pulling right out in front of you and cutting you off (since you were in the correct lane). This actually happened to my boyfriend, and he almost got into an accident because of the asshole. TWH
Wait and wait and wait to pull out into traffic and then pull out RIGHT in front of you—when if they would have gone right away, there wouldn’t have been any problem.
Don’t know when to honk the horn.
- This actually happened…A mini-van almost causes an accident with an Explorer, the Explorer screeches to a (sliding) halt to avoid the collision, and then comes to a stop behind the mini-van, which is now stopped at a red light. The Explorer then sits behind the mini-van at the light for at least a minute, and then, as traffic starts moving again, decides to start honking the horn. So, may I ask, what is the point of honking so long after the fact?? That’s just it—THERE IS NO POINT—it’s a stupid driver. Honk at the time or don’t honk at all.
AND JUST WHEN I START TO THINK I CAN’T COME UP WITH ANY MORE GRIPES, WE TAKE A WEEKEND TRIP…
Can’t maintain a constant speed (in a no-passing zone, of course) and consequently travel at 65mph, then 50…55…60…55…50…65, etc. I’d much rather follow someone going a constant 60mph than some idiot going all speeds.
Don’t give it extra gas to maintain speed going up a hill, so they slow down to 45 or 50mph, and then reach 70-75mph going down the hill.
When I’m the third car in line and the idiot in front of me refuses to pass the slowpoke in front of him—even when there’s PLENTY of time, which means I never (okay, rarely) have enough room to pass both cars at once.(See next item.)
When someone then comes up behind me and, since they’re obviously so much more studly than anyone else in line, they attempt to pass all three of us, and then have to cut in the middle somewhere because they ran out of time. I’d like to NOT let those people back in and force them to run off the road—it’s the price they would pay for their stupidity.
Don’t turn their brights off after you pass them.
Get on your tail like they want to pass at a faster rate than you’re currently going, so you speed up to finish passing, and then they drop way behind you and never pass.
Have to fly by you to pass, and then pull RIGHT IN FRONT of you. (OR…see next item.)
Have to fly by you to pass, and then pull RIGHT IN FRONT of you…ONLY to slow down so you have to pass them 10 seconds later.
Pull out directly in front of you when you’re doing 70—causing you to practically slam on the brakes—only to turn off a half mile down the road. Generally these are old people.
Make like they’re going to turn into a drive, so you go to drive around them, and then they suddenly pull back into the stream of traffic and you have to slam your brakes to avoid hitting them.
People who cut in front of you to make it onto the exit at the last minute because they either weren’t paying attention or they have no idea where they’re going (on ramp or off ramp, it’s the same story).
Brake at every intersection (major or minor) because they apparently have no idea where they need/want to turn.
Drive down the middle of the highway for more than 50-75 yards or so. Are they drunk? Do they realize what they’re doing? Don’t they care? Do they think they own the road?
Are driving in the left lane (of a city thoroughfare) and are partially hanging over into the left turn lane—forever.
VISITOR SUBMISSIONS
Courtesy of Chuck Johnson, who had this to say:
“I just read your driver thing, and I done woke up my roommate laughing my bollocks off…I think I have experienced every one of those on my journey to California.”
- How about the motorhome towing a Geo Tracker in the slow lane and then pulls in front of me when I’m doing Mach 5 to get around a semi who is going 3 miles an hour slower then he [the motorhome] is … So [the motorhome] goes back to [the slow lane in front of
the semi] … and now that they are going the same speed, they both approach the small incline and the motorhome is now going slower and the semi is going a constant speed [so the semi passes] and now the motorhome is behind the semi again. The motorhome driver is
usually this little Mr. Magoo type of person who is white-knuckled and confused. - Or the old Honda Civic Hitler Mobile that you get stuck behind at a stop light, just so it can just totally smoke you out during the whole process.
- Or the people who are too scared to pass the cop car that is from a whole different county.
- Commuting to college is one thing when you’re doing it during rush hour, but when you add stupid drivers you are essentially adding another half hour to the commute. I approached Hwy 18 off of I-5 which has a steep hill with a passing lane. I decided to just punch it in the “Hammer” lane and get ahead of the Semi. Well half way up was the guy who was at the end of a pack of cars and is now in the lead and doesn’t want to committ to the 15MPH+ over the speed limit rule and realizes that he doesn’t want any of that and tries to get over……when there’s a semi right next to him. So he just coasts with his signal now in the off position. Now I am getting passed by everyone changing lanes and the exit is coming up. So now I am signaling, trying to get over, and all I get is the finger. I just laugh and realize this is just another moment of a “Stupid Drivers” episode.
Courtesy of Jim, who had this to say:
“Great list! Had road rage till I started commuting 120 miles daily – now just watch and wonder.”
- The person who pulls out of a side road onto a busy 2-lane in front of of a long string of traffic traveling at 50mph.. which is alright..(esp in Boston, where everyone expects it) EXCEPT, unlike in Boston, the idiot takes 1/2 mile to accelerate to speed “because it saves gas”!!! Never mind that everyone else had to slow down behind the moron and used up more gas total than if he’d floored it. AND (!!!) if he has a late model car with port EFI, he aint saving any gas anyway.. Saab proved it. (slow vs accelerating Briskly, not flooring it)
- You leave your house and as you pull onto a street a block down from the stop sign at the intersection, you see someone facing you, waiting to turn left .. you stop at the sign – the traffic clears and HE NOW WAITS ON YOU TO CROSS!!!! Of course you hesitate to pull in front of him, because he MIGHT be dozing and realize he has the right-of-way and smack you on principle… and the BEST variant.. You wait for 2 minutes at a sign for the traffic to clear so you can turn left onto a thru street; Just as a small gap in the traffic appears—some yo-yo comes screaming up to the sign opposite yours and flips on his right turn signal.. Now do you go or not??? I GO and see the guy mouthing Expletives at me.. You know, you cant even get a cop to define the right-of-way in these situations!!! I think they really dont know… Keep it up but keep smiling—life’s too short.
PEEVES I SNAGGED
Todd is bellyaching about…WHAT is the deal with jackasses who INSIST on BACKING into parking spaces?!? There is NO reason for this AT ALL!!! I’m driving through a parking lot. There’s someone in front of me. I see them pass an empty spot. “Oh, boy,” I cheerfully think. “I’ll get to park there my very own self!” But, before I can even begin to turn my wheels in the direction of the spot, that car’s back-up lights spring to life, and the chowderhead is now BACKING INTO THE SPOT!!! And he can’t do it quickly, either. Or correctly. He’s got to shift into D again, so he can straighten out, then back into R so he can get in the space. HELLO?!? Does the entire world have to stop and wait for your precious vehicle to get itself situated? Why the he** can’t you just pull into the spot facing FRONT?!? Do you honestly think that you’re impressing anyone? Has it not occurred to you in that peabrain of yours that any time you think you’re saving by being able to pull out of the spot going forwards is taken away by your inablility to back into the space in the first place? You people make me SICK!!!
And Misty says…It’s not really a peeve just a comment on the guys with low rider cars. It’s funny how they will buy a $4,000 – $5,000 car and spend $2,000 having it lowered so it’s about one inch off the ground, another $1,500 on reverse wheels, and at least $1,000 on the stereo, and of course, the big tailpipe extension that looks like a chrome funnel. I know they must think they have the hottest babe magnet vehicles around, but what they really have is a funny looking car, that can’t go over a speed bump at more than 0.25 MPH, a stereo that does nothing but blare out “THUMPA THUMPA THUMPA” to be heard for miles around, forget trying to have a conversation while the stereo is playing, and a tailpipe that makes their car sound like its blowing farts as they drive. Get a clue guys, the ladies aren’t impressed.
And an AOLer says…We have a lot of construction on our highways and especially the Interstate. My peeve is when one of the lanes is closed ahead, people have plenty of time to merge but they continue to fly around me and then want to merge into traffic right when the closed lane ends. Someone will always let them in line but you can bet it won’t be me.
And Grandnet says…One of my peeves is parents who carelessly drive around with small children not in car seats. I’m always seeing people with their little ones standing on the seat next to them. Why do these people think that there is a law concerning small children and car seats? So the kid fusses, give him a sucker, but don’t put his life in danger. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye and the kid can be airborne and through the windshield before you know what’s happened. Maybe these parents just don’t care.