Rising Up From The Ashes

My day did not start out all that great. I am not a morning person and firmly believe that I should never have to crawl out of bed before 9a, certainly not on the weekends. Today I was awakened at 7 by a barking dog. Mine. It is rare that he barks and even more so for him to do so when it is sleep time. Given some of the weirdness of late, I ended up checking things out rather than snuggling deeper under the covers. Of course, I didn’t find a damn thing. Do find that I am missing the snow outside though. Made it much easier to tell if anyone had been around. By this time I was wide away so I decided to run a few errands before meeting a friend for dim sum (yum!).

The errands took longer than I realized so I was running late to my appointment. Damn! I hate to keep people waiting. While stuck behind several jackasses putting along in the left lane of traffic for no apparent reason, I offered a critique of one specific driver’s skills out of my handy moon roof (I find it much more rewarding to know that these gestures of mine are no longer missed by the dumbasses who so desperately need them due to the dark tint on the windows!) He apparently had some feedback to offer me as well because he then proceeded to swerve across several lanes to get behind me, followed me several miles (should have had one of those bumper stickers that says, “If you are gonna ride my ass, at least pull my hair”), up the exit and came over to chat while I was stopped at a red light. Great. I am already keeping my friend waiting and now I have to deal with this asshat first. Fortunately, although he was getting more and more upset with his yelling and me cursing him right back (surely you didn’t think I just sat there quietly!) he did calm down rather quickly when I got out of the truck and he got a good look at me. Pretty sure I was not what he was expecting. Don’t think he thought it was going to be a fair fight. Suddenly he wasn’t that upset anymore and was much more concerned about his big truck that was blocking traffic.

Brunch was great. Food and company were both wonderful (deep fried crab claws are to die for! Shrimp and cilantro dumplings make me drool. Barbeque pork buns alone are worth getting up early for and the pineapple rolls are heavenly! Mmm…) Our service was great (it helps that all the servers thought was friend was cute – she is!) When we were done, the owner even gave us each a handful of food to feed the koi. Fun!

It was a beautiful spring day so I then took off to finish running errands. Woohoo! Next place I stopped at had the table of Girl Scout cookies that I have been hunting for over a month. Managed to score a box of my three favorites. Got the last one of Samoas. Sweet! My day is turning around.

At least for a little bit. On my way to the next stop, I was again placed in a situation where my corrective driving suggestions were required. This idiot, rather than improving his driving, rather than cussing me out and heading on his way, rather than simply ignoring me, decides to actually run me off the road (let me tell you I was damn tempted just ram his stupid little car into the ditch!!!) Now we are on the side of the highway with cars whizzing by at 65 MPH. The driver gets out of his car yelling at me and I am pretty pissed of myself now that he’s got me stopped so I am yelling right back. He is maybe 18, scrawny, jock type. When I finally climb out of the truck to get back in his face, he signals to his friend to join him. I start laughing. Really? We are going to have an actual fight over the fact that you were driving like an idiot and I flipped you off? If you win, you get to tell everyone that two guys ganged up on a 40-year-old chick (I know, I’m really 41, the detail didn’t seem that important) and beat her up because she gave you the finger. If I win, you get to tell everyone that a girl kicked you ass. Either way you lose. They were not happy but they did hurry back to their car and leave.

Oh, and I challenge anyone to drive the speed limit on a beautiful, sunny, spring day with an open road in front of them and this blaring on the stereo.

I was going 112 when I flew by the Wisconsin highway patrol. I may have received a few corrective driving signals of my own.

Can’t wait for the street sweepers to get all the sand cleared up off the roads so the sporty can come out.

Half as many wheels = twice the fun.