Good morning, everyone!
My ride home from work the other morning was interesting.
For those of you who don’t live in the Maryland area, we got dumped on last week. About a half a foot of wet, sticky snow dropped on us, and by the time I got out of work at 6, it covered everything. Streetlights were out (though Merrick Towle still had power).
I heaved the snow off the car, and sloshed through the streets. It was dark out, but thick flakes still smashed themselves against the windshield. Everyone moved at a snails pace.
Once I got on 95, the speed picked up a bit… I was cruising along happily when all of a sudden the wipers stopped mid-stroke. Trucks whizzed by me, spraying slush all over the car. I hit my flashers and coasted to a stop on the side of the road.
Checking one’s wipers, on a 4-lane highway, in the middle of a storm during a traffic jam isn’t fun.
I cleared the chunks of snow that had slid down from my roof, and moved the wipers. They swung freely. As much as I had hoped that this was simply a blow fuse, I had a sneaking suspicion that the belt (hopefully the belt, and not a gear or something) had snapped.
I slid the chunks of snow that had cascaded off the roof off the windshield and got back in.
It was like driving with a frosted bathroom window as a windshield. I turned on the heat full blast in hopes of melting the snow. Rivulets of water poured down the window, occasionally providing momentary clarity. I bobbed my head around, trying to see as well as I could, and settled down into the slow lane. I must have looked like a nut, bobbing my head to Marketplace on NPR!
All of a sudden, some obnoxious individual in a truly massive GMC cuts off the person who was riding at a safe distance behind me. Within minutes, said individual decides that I am driving too slow (even though I both had someone in front of me AND we were keeping pace with traffic). In order to encourage me to drive faster, the fool decides it’s necessary to flash their hi-beams at me, momentarily blinding me.
I ignored them, and continued driving with a safe space in between me and the car in front of me.
The GMC’s engine roared, they turned on their hi-beams permanently, blew their horn, and crouched so close to my back bumper that I could no longer see their grill.
At this point, I had had quite enough. We were only going 20 miles an hour. There was no reason for this person to do this, and frankly, if they did something additionally stupid, they would hit me.
I quietly let my foot off he gas, pushed in the clutch, and slid the car into neutral.
I coasted. Slower, slower, slower… all the way to a complete stop, in the middle of the snow strewn 4-lane highway.
The GMC held down their horn in frustration, having no other choice but to stop with me.
Cars (including the poor bloke that the GMC had cut off) quickly passed us both, grinning and laughing at us.
After about 3 or 4 minutes of torturing the bully, I put myself back into gear and slowly started up again. They roared past the first chance they got, but I noticed they kept their distance from tailgating the other cars. 🙂