Monday, June 13, 2011

Peeves...

Peeves....we all have em. Those little things that particularly annoy us more than others and get easily under our skin.
So it would be of no surprise to those who know me personally that a few of my peeves would involve driving, since driving is one of the few things that have ever come naturally to me.

I have been driving since I was about 13 years old. My parents would occasionally head off to the city by subway to take in a show and could easily be gone for about 5 hours. I knew where the car keys were kept and one day decided it would be good fun to take the old 1969 Dodge Coronet out for a spin. I'd take note of how it was parked in the back yard and make sure to keep it the same. I went and picked up a few of my friends and we would have a blast, and a few close calls where the police passed us and did a double take because I certainly looked my age then.

Since then I have driven most everything from motorcycles to 60ft long articulated buses. I was a bit of a speed demon when I was younger but like most of us we wise up and mellow out a bit with age and experience.
So, some of the things that really get under my skin are not the usual culprits that seem to piss most everyone else off such as riding up on the shoulder to cut in front of a line of traffic, getting cut off, driving slow in the left lane of a highway (that gets close though), wreckless speeding, etc.

The things that seem to bother me most are the actions of drivers that don't seem to have a clue that there are others on the road. While driving along on a city street, the car in front begins to slow for no apparent reason. Ok, so I can assume the driver is going to double park or something and so I lay back and wait for his move. He then proceeds a bit further and pulls nose first into a spot, then stops mid way with rear of car blocking the lane. Arrrg! Alright, I don't get bent outta shape like I might have when I was younger but it still has me cursing under my breath and rolling my eyes in disbelief.

Another situation I have seen too often is when a driver begins making a turn, then decides midway that they want to turn in the other direction. Then there is the driver that almost comes to a complete stop on the right lane of the highway to double check if the exit coming up is the one they need...

Its important that when you begin an action that you follow through to completion. If you decide the parking spot was not the one you wanted or you needed to turn left instead of right you really must follow through with what you started and then regain your bearings and make the neccessary corrections later. Much of driving involves anticipation for both getting around traffic and for defensive purposes, so when you as a driver do things that are unpredictable it causes a dangerous situation for you and others around you, no matter how slow or careful you may think you are. Its also not really a matter of a driver being stupid, as I have seen these things done many times over by Doctors (MD plates). It's either sheer arrogance , and/or just a lack of common road sense.

Ok, so just had to get that out there! Also haven't blogged in a while and wanted to keep things alive here :)

I do have some ambitious shoots and projects coming up in the near future and also want to get back to some of the barns and abandoned structures that I love venturing into.

Oh, driving at night with your bright lights on...arrrggg! :P

5 comments:

kyungmee said...

haha...looking forward to them Gary!

Catherine said...

Hmmm..... sounds like you were an adventurous, if not mischievous, child Gary! Haha!

When we first moved to Swift Current, Saskatchewan the first thing I noticed was that nobody used their signal lights. I thought 'what's up with that?" it drove me nuts then and it still does. We've lived here for over 20 years now. Every once in awhile I catch hubby not using his signal light and I get mad at him. Honestly...

And parking my car in the farthest spot in the parking lot away from everyone else and then someone with a beat up old clunker parking 1 inch away from from my car and swinging their car door open and hitting mine. What? Are you kidding me??? GAAAAK!!

Hmmm.... I feel much better getting that off my chest. ;)

Hope you are having a wonderful June Gary!
xo Catherine

Angelshair said...

Don't tell me :))) I spend my time driving and swearing...What upsets me most here in brooklyn is double parking in one way streets.... sometimes I just refuse to pass and stop the traffic to show how upset I am :)

gh said...

Catherine, lol. Glad you got that out! I totally agree that turn signals are a good thing and it goes along with the "driving is about anticipating" concept. When we know what the other guy is doing, it makes it beter for all on the road.
Ohh yeah...the parking thing :( say no more....

Angelshair, yes! Especially when the double parker doesn't pull over very much... haha, you are the passive agressive one, eh?
Thanks for sharing.

gh said...

Thanks Kyungmee :)