On one of those days when it's hard to find time to sit down and write.
It was another 99 degree day, and people seem more irritable than usual. I saw that today while driving. I'm not sure if it's just that people are learning how to share the world again after so much time at home with the Covid restrictions, the heat, or both. But things feel wiggy out there.
I was driving in the city to pick up my son for a lunch date and had a run in with an 18-wheeler on a narrow side street with cars parked on both sides of the street. The truck did not need to be there, and probably should not have been. It's destination was an avenue that it could have reached by bigger roads. The truck turned in front of me from Front street, and I could not believe the driver was going to try to navigate the narrow streets ahead, one of which was unexpectedly closed because of construction on a new building. The GPS rerouted down the only street available, which required the truck to make an impossible, sharp right turn onto another narrow street with cars parked on both sides.
The truck missed its mark and began to back up. I was right behind it with another car behind mine, riding my bumper. There was another car and a small FedEx truck behind that one. None of the vehicles behind mine seemed to want to back up, and I felt like a slab of liverwurst between two slices of rye. There really wasn't anywhere to go, and the truck in front of me continued to back up.
I'm not one to use my horn much, but I ended up laying on the horn until the truck in front of me stopped. The car behind mine, nearly as stuck as I was with two vehicles behind it not backing up, pulled to the side so I could continue to back up. The truck finally righted itself and somehow made it down the narrow street. The car in front of the FedEx truck cut off the car that pulled to the side, to make a left hand turn the wrong way down a one-way street. The FedEx truck pulled in front of the car who pulled to the side and also cut that driver off.
I took a deep breath. Sometimes it's hard to believe what people do, the unthinking discourtesy that creates difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. I'm thinking about this again as I reflect on the day and put to bed the things I want to leave here and not carry into tomorrow.
A Hundred Days of Happiness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.
Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment