This is a rehash of something from a long time ago.  I don’t know that I have a long winding list of pet peeves, but two quickly come to mind when someone says the words like word association.  I hear the words pet peeve and think wet socks.  I hate wet socks, they can ruin a day.  Slogging around in the grueling cold dampness is a cruel fate.  I feel like days in general can’t get worse unless my socks get wet.

But that’s not really the main point of what I’m about to complain about.  No, a far more life threatening pet peeve of mine is when people drive in the left lane and decide to slow down in it, then get into the turn lane.  It occurs every day I drive.  You’d think I’d learn maybe to just stay in the middle lane if possible or come to terms with people that just love to do it.  Most of the time I can pass on the right quickly and am alright with it.  Today was the worst I’d ever seen though.  Not because they came to a near complete stop in the left lane or anything, but because when they finally decided to get over, they didn’t change lanes completely.  No, this person decided that the best course of action was to slow down rapidly in the left lane, which I like to think is for the fastest traffic, however this might now be a forgone conclusion, then stop halfway between both lanes.

My first reaction was that hey, this person is doing that thing I hate.  No problem, I’ll slow down and they’ll finally get over and I can go by.  My plan reached a meltdown when I’m still going 25-ish and now slamming on my brakes because the distance is now simply too small between us to safely stop.  At this point, I had to pull a completely reckless move and just swerve to the center lane, reckless because I never bothered to look if that lane was clear.  This is certainly a weakness of mine but is probably how many accidents happen, when contingency plans go bad.  Today, I lucked out and it was clear.  But as I pass the person it became clear how insane they were as they had decided staying between the two lanes truly was the ideal choice for their navigation plans.

Why do people continue to do this???  Where has common courtesy gone!?!?!?  It’s possible perhaps, that people get into their cars and don’t realize that the world around them has to co-exist with them.  Self contained in their bubble, everything they see is more like something on TV or something and doing whatever you want is alright because everything just moves right past you anyway.  It’s possible the moral of this story is this echoing lately that I feel like everything in life I take for granted and it’s not until something is taken away that I feel its importance.  I’d be in deep poop had I wrecked the car, so will I learn my lesson and be more defensive when I drive home today or will I be in another situation that makes me reflect on the idiocy of everyone else on the road?