'tis the season for highway folly

[MissMillie]

fa la la la la....


Driving into work today.

Going through the toll booth in Weston. (FTR, this is not a rant on toll booths. I actually don't mind driving this toll road. It is the best maintained road in the state.) There are 3 lanes for those of us who have a pre-pay gadget in our car (the toll is deducted as you drive through). There are 4 other lanes. Another road merges into the whole mess, and from that road there are 4 lanes of traffic, and once everyone gets through the tolls, we all have to get into 3 lanes. It's nuts. It always gets backed up.

There's always one lane that moves pretty well. It's the lane that should feed into a toll where the car has to stop and hand over cash, but what happens is people drive in that lane and then they cut off everyone who is sitting and waiting to go through the automatic debit line. I was singing along to The Boss ("Thunder Road" baby!!!) and decided not to give a hoot about it today.

One guy came around me on the left and I let him in. The lane furthest to the right clearly was marked "LANE CLOSED" but that didn't stop a seafood delivery truck from cutting around on the right and trying to cut a whole bunch of us off, including the guy right in front of me.

The guy in front of me apparently was going to have none of it. He didn't let the truck in.

But that wasn't enough for him. He pulled up into the toll area and stopped his car, got out, and started yelling at the truck driver for--get this--doing pretty much what he had just done to me.

And yes, he was holding up the entire lane of traffic just so he could give this guy a piece of his mind (which, I'm certain, he really couldn't spare).

I sat there and thought to myself "well, Merry F-N Christmas everyone!"

And I did. I laughed it off.

It got even funnier as the truck tried in vain to catch up with the car that had held up the whole show. The truck driver was weaving through lanes like a mad-man, which had the net effect of him losing ground on his target and being behind me.

(For the record, I was on my best behavior. I did absolutely nothing differently than I would have on any other day... I stayed in my lane, and left room in front of me, and made absolutely no gesture of any kind. When the iPod moved on to Crowded House, I continued to sing along.)

I'm almost disappointed that I don't have to drive in for the rest of the year. (I did say "almost," right?) I mean, NASCAR fans pay money to watch people drive to fast and bump into each other... for me, it's free entertainment on my daily commute.

Ho ho ho!!!