Mostly Plants

This is my channeling a bit of my dad’s perpetual anger at people who yield the right of way that is rightfully theirs.  I don’t think it’s nearly as big a deal as he does.  For instance, when you’re pulling out of your driveway on an empty residential street and a driver coming by stops and waves you out, that’s a little silly but in a nice way.

Here’s what happened tonight:

I’m coming home from an aborted bike ride, my rear dérailleur having failed about a mile out of town.  The bike is still rideable, but not terribly shiftable.  At the top of a hill, I have a left turn back onto my street, and a stop sign.  Oncoming traffic also has a stop, cross-traffic has right of way.  I am slowly creeping towards the intersection, backpedaling and trying to keep balance without putting a food down and losing momentum.  I don’t particularly want to put a foot down because my feet are clipped into my pedals, and it’s a pain to unclip and recliip when you don’t have to.  Also, I would lose some of that precious momentum if I came to a full and complete stop.  There’s only one car coming from the right, and at the rate he’s going, I can crawl up to the intersection and then sneak in behind him without having to make a full stop.

As the car approaches the intersection, the driver slows down, to a creep, much like what I am doing.  Almost as if waiting to make a left turn, except that 1) he doesn’t have his blinker on, and 2) if he wants to turn left, he  can do it–hee’s got no oncoming traffic.  As he comes to a slow rolling stop in the MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION, he makes eye contact with me, as if to say “why aren’t you going anywhere, moron?”  Maybe because I have a stop sign and you don’t?  Had he waved me across as he approached the intersection, I could have gotten in in front of him.  Had he proceeded at a normal rate, I could have gotten in behind him.  What actually happened due to his utter failure to either follow the rules or communicate an acceptable deviation, was that I nearly fell over sideways, and did perform an utterly graceless dismount and walk my bike the remaining block home.

This just baffles me. Yielding when you don’t have to I understand, IF YOU SOMEHOW COMMUNICATE.  It can be nice.  Stopping in the middle of the intersection, expecting everybody to know what you’re thinking, and making me look like a moron who doesn’t know how to ride his bike is ärgerlich.