Mrs. HM Goes To Country Mart, And Almost Gets A T-Bone

I did, in fact, go to Country Mart on Tuesday, and bought hamburgers that were on sale, for Farmer H to grill. The thought of a T-Bone never entered my mind. Not buying a steak, nor being involved in that type of car crash. You might be catching on to what happened...

 

As I started home, I was stopped at the 4-way intersection. There are stoplights. Working stoplights. The roadway was recently re-paved, and for about a week, the new lines have been painted back like before. Gone are the little tape thingies sticking up out of the blacktop. The lanes are again marked correctly, with bright yellow and white paint.

This is a wide intersection. It takes a while to get through, but the lights are timed right, and with the lines once again in the correct places, the sensors under the road control the lights, giving time for all lanes to have their proper turns.

On my left was Dairy Queen. On my right, the Liquor Store. Catty-corner from DQ was the Gas Station Chicken Store. And the fourth corner is an embankment leading up to a car dealer.

I sat first in line, waiting for my LEFT arrow, to head out the lettered county highway back towards the Mansion. The intersection is so wide that I could see the other lights, for the cross traffic. I saw them turn yellow, and then red. A few seconds later, my left turn arrow went green. I pulled T-Hoe into the intersection, making my left turn, as the line of traffic across from me also started making THEIR left turn.

I'm always wary here. Sometimes people try to squeeze through the yellow light. But the yellow light was long gone, replaced by red. I had my green arrow. Still, I sensed something amiss. I slowed T-Hoe as a gray SUV came barrelling from my left, through the red light, just missing T-Hoe's front bumper by about 5 feet.

Of course I laid on the horn to show my displeasure as a warning! That gray SUV could also have plowed into the cars across from me who were pulling into the intersection to go to THEIR left.

Do you know what that ignorant wench driving the gray SUV did? She WAVED AT ME! Seriously. With her left hand on the steering wheel, she flapped her right hand at me. Which was holding a cell phone. So I guess she was a distracted driver, showing me that she'd been talking on her phone. Surely she wasn't taking MY picture for honking, the way that phone was flapping.

Sweet Gummi Mary! She had to have driven 100 feet since her light changed to red. No excuse for not stopping. It's not like she could have made the light and squeezed by.

When I told Farmer H, he said, "At least she wasn't flipping you the bird!" Which is a whole other story that The Pony likes to bring up, about another ne'er-do-well woman who took my turn when my light was green and hers was red. Ironically in front of a hospital...

Anyhoo... I'm glad that I'm an attentive driver (ouch, almost hurt my arm patting myself on the back), and did not have to sit in the middle of the intersection in 95-degree heat, waiting for the Jaws Of Life to peel open T-Hoe like a tin can to get me out.