The Handicapped Handicapping The Barely Ambulatory

Sweet Gummi Mary! It's getting so that nobody (meaning ME, MYSELF, and I) is safe anymore, whether encased in T-Hoe, or walking in a handicap zone! Today's drivers are ridiculous! 

On the way home Thursday, I was starting down the straightaway after passing the prison. A garbage truck was stopped by a driveway, taking up most of the oncoming lane. That happens with rural garbage trucks. If you're behind them, you have to wait until they turn off, or until you have a clear space to pass.

There were four cars behind that garbage truck. I could see them stopped, waiting. Then the first one pulled out into my lane to go around. No problem. I was far enough away. He had time. As did the second car. That's when the problem(s) arose. The other two cars decided THEY were entitled to go around. Au contraire. The speed limit is 55 mph. I was going 50, out of respect for that garbage truck. There was NOT enough time or space for the second two cars to pull into my lane and pass. I had to hit the brakes, or hit head-on those two idiots. Well. The first one. Which would then have been hit from behind by the second one.

A person with less-steely nerves than Mrs. HM would have probably taken T-Hoe into the ditch. I was down to about 10 mph when those two cars cut back over in front of the garbage truck, vacating my rightful lane. You can bet that I laid heavy on the horn. Just to shame them. They are lucky I was in control, since T-Hoe was bigger than their sedans, and would have come out on the best end of a collision.

My town time was not much safer! Over in Sis-Town, I walked out of the Casey's to go pump my gas. As usual, I had taken Pump 4 (which thankfully had all its hoses and nozzles this day) so that I could walk directly across the handicap walkway and make use of the sidewalk ramp.

A white SUV came around the corner, and stopped. I thought it was waiting on me to go on across. I did not, because I'm so slow. I could not see inside to discern whether they were waving me across. So I just stayed put in the handicap walkway until it passed. But it DIDN'T pass! 

That white SUV turned right at me! I had to scurry sideways out of the walkway to avoid being run over at the speed of 0.5 mph! The three parking spaces on my left were empty. And the two on my right were also empty. Yet this driver had to have THAT particular parking space, which is not even the designated handicap space, and swing wide before trying to semi-straighten his vehicle into it.

You'd think a handicapped parker would have more respect for a gimp... He tried to HANDICAP ME! And I will just say, seeing him walk out and get back in his car, he did not LOOK handicapped to me. Perhaps he was driving someone else's car. But more likely his handicap is mental!