draggonlaady: (Filtered)
I realized that I spend a lot of time bitching about bad drivers. So this morning, I'm not going to. I'm going to tell you about a very considerate driver that I encounter on a near-daily basis. This lady has never pulled out in front of me, always waiting until all traffic has gone past when she comes up to the road. She pulls off to allow cars behind her to pass, because she drives slowly and carefully. She smiles and waves when doing so.

So lets hear a hurrah for the school bus driver, shall we?

Monday

Feb. 9th, 2009 08:39 am
draggonlaady: (Default)
And a full moon.
Great combo, yes? So it's now 8:40am.

On the way in to work this morning (a grey, freezing-fog sort of day), I flashed my lights at a guy who was driving with his off. Now, to be clear here-by flash, I do not mean "dazzling brights in your face", I mean that I switched my lights off and then back on. Does bucko there accept the reminder and turn his on? nope. Does he ignore me and keep driving? nope. He rolls down his window, reaches out, and flips me off. What the bloody Hell?

Bah.

Now, just answered the phone and a woman gives me her name, and tells me that she just wants to let us know that she's taking us to small claims court. She hangs up before I can transfer her to DocBoss, who was the one working on her critter.

Great start, I tell ya.
draggonlaady: (Nice Girl)
who cannot figure out that it is unwise to drive without headlights in fog so heavy that you cannot see the end of the building you're standing near, or who are unable to figure out that the colored lines on the roadway have meaning:

I like my life. I enjoy living it. I intend to stay alive as long as I can. If one of you dumb fuck asshats that can't figure out the fucking headlight switch in your fancy-ass SUV kills me, I swear that I will whore myself out to Satan so that I can come back and haunt your stupid ass until you kill yourself so as to remove the danger you present to other people. If you want to drive 120 miles an hour while swerving wildly across the road in the sleet and fog, you go right ahead, as long as THERE ARE NO OTHER CARS ON THE ROAD. You slide off and hit a tree, so sad for you. But leave me the Hell out of your idiocy.
draggonlaady: (Default)
You know, it's February. We've had snow on the ground for months. You would THINK that people would have figured out how to drive in the stuff. Apparently, this is not so. Heading home from my folks' last night, going a comfortable 30mph (speed limit is 50 there, but it was dark, and snowing, and downhill at a pretty good angle). We come around a blind corner, and there, in my lane, was a car. It was going SO SLOW that I thought it was stopped. I brake and pull into the left lane, there being no oncoming traffic and no way I was stopping before I hit them.
And then the !(@$&)&*#$()*@#!@##%-ing #)473902-er flips on his left turn signal and turns left across the lane I've just pulled into to try to maneuver around him. Turns out I DID have enough space to stop after all, but not by a lot, and not without riding the edge of putting the car into a skid. So I reverse directions and dodge back to the right, and dumb-ass pulls off to the left, and as I go past, I see his reverse lights come on, so apparently he was only going left in a misguided attempt to get out of my way, he was NOT going so slowly because he was turning, and his reaction to someone trying to get around is apparently to cut in front of them. I did not wait around to see if he got himself backed out of the un-plowed driveway he'd just pulled into, because I'm a bitch like that.
draggonlaady: (Default)
I swear it. The other drivers are conspiring. I was driving along quite peacefully with the Bruces yesterday, in the left lane quite legally passing a pair of cars going slightly less than that speed limit. Suddenly, the marshmallow-brained moron driving the red mini-van in the right lane SWERVED INTO THE LEFT LANE EXACTLY WHERE I WAS DRIVING. I slammed on the brakes, swerved off the road onto the shoulder and laid vigorously on the horn hoping the snot-breathed fuck-head would get his fat red mini-van ass back in his own lane and let me back on the road. Instead, he blithely continues into my driving space, forcing me completely off the road, and then accelerates to pass the car that had been ahead of him in the right lane.

Thankfully, there was nobody behind me to rear-end me during this.

So after passing the car, he switches back into the right lane, AND DROPS BACK DOWN BELOW THE SPEED LIMIT. Mother-FUCKER.

So I quickly caught up to him, handed Bruce I my cell phone, and let him play photographer. This apparently confused the hell out of bat-shit-insane-driver-man, but hey, let him worry. Also, it seems this is not the man's only random disregard for safety while driving, as the left front fender was crumpled in from some prior impact.

And if any of you see this bastard on the road, watch yourselves, and feel free to flip him right the Hell off.


My morning

Jan. 7th, 2009 09:19 am
draggonlaady: (Default)
Pictures of this later:
Coming up to the highway this morning (thinking I'll get to work about 10 minutes early), there's an SUV parked in the oncoming lane with a turn signal (NOT hazards) on, and a guy pacing back and forth on the railroad tracks. As I pull up, the train gate drops, so I stop.
And sit for about 2 minutes while the guy paces the tracks, apparently trying to clear ice from them?
And then a semi pulls in off the highway, and can't fit all the way into the space between the tracks and the highway so he angles across my lane to try and get the butt of his trailer out of the highway.
So I back off, figuring there's no way I'm getting past him, and I'd rather back up now, while there's nobody behind me.
Except then the guy who's pacing the tracks lifts the gate by hand, and waves me forward, and motions like I should go past the trailer and out onto the highway. Okay. Looks awfully narrow to me, but maybe that's the angle? He can see it straight on. Trust the man in uniform, right?
Wrong. No WAY am I fitting through that gap without either scraping the tires of the trailer, or getting wedged into a snow bank.
So I try to back back down, and the guy comes up and asks me to park at the side so the trailer can get past. Which ends up putting me straddling the tracks, in the wrong lane, unable to back up further without hitting the SUV, while the truck driver (very carefully and smoothly, thank God) slips his truck and trailer past my car with about 5 inches of space.
All in all, this took 8 minutes. So much for getting to work early.

Not that it matters, since my 8:15 didn't show up.
And neither has my 9:00 with the woman I expect to try and pawn off the non-housebroken dog onto me.
So I'm sitting here, eating a bagel, and selling My Little Ponies online, because hey, why the Hell not?

ETA: Well, the 8:15 showed up at 9:40, but neither the 9:00 or the 9:30 has shown yet (10am).

ETA: And the 10:15 also didn't show up. The 11:00 (no exam, last puppy shot) is now 10 minutes late...

ETA: The 11:30 showed up. So did the 1:00. Wish that one hadn't; just euthanized a really sweet old dog.
draggonlaady: (Default)
Okay. So in case you haven't noticed, I don't like it when people do stupid, inconsiderate, dangerous things while driving near me. Therefore, you all get to listen to me bitch about it. Aren't you lucky?

So this bloke was in front of us on a recent drive. Can't quite make out the license plate, sadly, but he's stopped completely past the stop line, and taking up both lanes.

Bad Driver
draggonlaady: (Default)
This is why, best beloved, we do not drive the wrong way on the one-way freeway ramps.

http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-121708-wrong-way-cda-fatal.6feef9f1.html

(No, I didn't know the driver of either.)
draggonlaady: (Default)
Okay. So, I remember as a kid getting light snow in early October, heavy by November. The past couple years, we've had nothing until December. And then it freezes hard as hell.

So last week, we had the fun and exciting 5-6" on top of freezing rain.

Yesterday, it was snowing sideways. Got another about 6" before I got home, hard to tell because it was drifting. Snowed all night. Still snowing today.

Some news from Spokaloo (which is 50 miles south and several thousand feet lower than my house).
http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-121508-winterwatch.66e9126f.html
http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-121708-roads.71771550.html

Police have requested that nobody drive unless they have 4-wheel drive AND snow tires/chains. And then only if you absolutely have to.
Now, this is NOT Seattle or Portland. This is a city that is used to and equipped for dealing with snow. They have had plows out and running. We do NOT shut down for an inch and a half of fluffy.

But when I left for work this morning, the road I live on had not been plowed yet (not terribly surprising, the county has a lot of roads, and lesser-used/dirt roads get short shrift on plowing when they can't even keep up on the highways). And it was deep enough that I was plowing snow out with the front of my car, and flinging it up over the windshield. Makes for some fun driving that; trying to keep a straight line when you can't see well through the snow on your window, and there's no distinct edge to the road anyway--the snow just covers right over from the road across the ditch. Happily, there is only a short run on that road, and the rest of the way to town was plowed out.

We had 4 appointments total booked for today. For 2 doctors. And we've already had one cancellation. I suspect that I will be going home early, as will at least half the staff.

ETA: There's another cancellation. 8:28am and half of our appointments have canceled.
draggonlaady: (Grinding Bones)
So you all recall the story about the wreck I saw, yes?

The father of the girl (husband of my assistant) was just in a wreck today. He's okay, but the other driver is dead. By rumor mill (small town, you know) we've been told who the driver was, and he's someone that's not only been a long time client here, but has been a friend of my assistant's and her husband's families since she and her husband were kids.

http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=9437970

http://www.krem.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=13323&nextimage=3

Update:
http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-120108-hwy395-crash.1eebb494.html
Guess there was a third car involved, driver of that one should be okay. And they've released the names. Rumor mill was correct.

http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=9437970
draggonlaady: (Grinding Bones)
So I'm stopped at the gas station to feed the work truck on my way to work. The gas station provides great visibility of the intersection up the road, where the espresso stand is. Sitting in the truck, idly watching traffic...

Pink car is north-bound, stopped and signaling left to turn into the espresso stand. Truck is south-bound. Black car is north-bound behind the pink car. Black car is NOT stopping. Truck passes intersection, black car pulls into south-bound lane, apparently attempting to PASS the pink car which is now turning left to cross the south-bound lane. Anybody else seeing where this is going? That's right, they fail their dodge rolls. It's a sick damn feeling in your stomach when you KNOW what's coming and can't do a damn thing about it. Black car plows right into the driver's side of the pink car. I'm still attached to the gas pump, but have the cell phone out and got 911 dispatching at about the same time as the "thud" reaches me.
Pull in to see if I can help, and to wait for the police to give a statement if they need one, and discover that the pink car is driven by the teen-age daughter of a co-worker. So several stressed co-workers are hugging and mother-henning.
A gent driving into town promptly pulls off and starts directing traffic like it's what he does for a living. I suspect he's a volunteer or off-duty firefighter, because he's soon got a radio out of his car that looks (to my un-trained eye) just like my da's, and is talking to the emergency folk that are on their way. (He declined my offer to spot him a coffee or tea for standing in the cold and rain.)
Good news, appears that nobody was seriously injured. Co-worker's daughter had to climb out through the passenger door because the driver's door is trashed. And her dad's taking her to hospital to be checked out despite her protestations of being fine. Other driver was also apparently okay; with luck the worst injury will be the bloody nose the passenger got.
Made a mess of the intersection and everybody late to work though; maybe now the city will finally cough up for a light for that intersection? Doubt it though, not like this is the first time there's been a similar wreck there.
draggonlaady: (Default)
For those who don't know, I went over the hills and through the woods to my grandmother's house for the weekend. Sorry all, I didn't see anybody that wasn't immediate family--short trip, pushed for time, all that. Made it home safely, roads were just fine, but I'd like to send a very long thank-you note to the drug-addled, slug-brained beaurocrat of dumbassville that thought it was a good idea to have a manditory stop and check for traction tires on all cars heading east when there was NO FUCKING SNOW ON THE ROAD. added about 3 hours to the normally 6 hour drive as we had to go up about 15 miles of the mountain in first gear.
draggonlaady: (Teddy)
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved
From WESH.com

POSTED: 10:55 am EST December 24, 2004
UPDATED: 11:00 am EST December 24, 2004

LAKE STATION, Ind. -- As an Indiana robbery suspect locked his keys in his getaway car, police say dispatchers watched the scene unfold from the police station across the street.

Lake Station police say Dan Griggs broke into a lottery machine and stole $50 before walking out of a convenience store with three cartons of cigarettes he didn't pay for.

They say when he found that he was locked out of his car, he went back and grabbed a broom to smash a car window.

He then allegedly led police on a brief chase over snowy streets and hit a police car head-on, getting stuck in a ditch. Officers say he was arrested after trying to run away.

He's now being held without bond on a charge of robbery.
draggonlaady: (Default)
From The Olympia Olympian

Just 45 minutes after Theresa M. Wilson, 43, of Curtis, Wash., found her boyfriend with another woman, she says, she saw him driving on the road. She rammed his car three times and forced it off the road, state troopers say. "Oh my God, oh my God, that's not my boyfriend," she allegedly said after the crash -- she had mistaken a stranger's car for her boyfriend's. Wilson was arrested and charged with assault. "We've got an anger management issue," the arresting trooper said.

An anger management issue? I hereby declare that comment the understatement of the weekend.
draggonlaady: (Default)
From The Daily Evergreen

Car hits two near Valhalla

Two Alpha Phi sorority members were hit Tuesday night on their way to class crossing Colorado Street near Valhalla.
Freshman Sara Thompson and sophomore Katie Traff, both athletic training majors, were being treated at Pullman Memorial Hospital at press time.
Pullman police Officer Mike Austin said the driver side of the windshield was obstructed with snow, most likely contributing to the collision.
A female driver of a 1995 Geo Prism struck the women around 5:49 p.m. as the car headed east.
Austin said the driver said she only skidded two feet. He said the collision was at a very low speed.
Thompson and Traff were crossing from the southeast corner of Colorado and Thatuna Streets to the northeast corner of C and Colorado streets through the middle of the intersection and not through the crosswalk.
Pullman police and an ambulance were dispatched to the incident, but the women chose to go to the hospital in a friend's car.
Another Pullman police officer at the scene said this intersection is the most dangerous one in Pullman.
Thompson called Alpha Phi sorority just after the collision and some of the sorority members came to the scene and then went to the hospital.
"They should have big red flashing lights in that intersection," said Julie Jensen, a freshman pharmacy student. "They are both embarrassed right now because there were so many people around."
Mellissa Brantley, an elementary education major, received Thompson's call and drove the two to the emergency room.
"It's just hard to drive through that intersection - either the sun hits or it's hard to see at night," Brantley said. "I don't know what you could do in that intersection."
Pullman police urge drivers to clear their car windows of snow and ice.
The collision is still under investigation, and no charges have been filed.


So my thoughts are this:
Did these two girls miss all the lectures I got as a child about staying in the crosswalks and looking before you cross the street? Why were they crossing diagonally in the intersection of 2 busy streets? Especially on a foggy night, after dark, in the snow?
And why the HELL was that woman driving without brushing the snow off her car first?!
About the suggestion to add flashing lights to the intersection; that won't help if people insist on being stupid. The driver couldn't see the pedestrians. Think she would have noticed them better if there was a flashing red light? I don't.
Charges filed? Yeah...should file charges against all three people. The pedestrians were jay-walking and obstructing traffic, resulting in an accident; the driver was being negligent in not clearing the windshield. Think they'll actually do that? I don't...if they were going to hold the pedestrians responsible for their own actions, they wouldn't have put their names in the article.
draggonlaady: (Default)
So I'm sure everybody out there has asked this of themselves, but is there something in the air in Seattle that makes people forget how to drive? Is it really that difficult to travel a steady speed? Figure out that if you've been passed by several people on the right, maybe the fast lane isn't where you belong? That you've got to be going the same speed as the traffic you're trying to merge with, and it's helpful to aim for a spot between cars, not try to merge into one? Having just driven 405 twice on holiday, I'm reminded yet again of some of the reasons I dislike Seattle...

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