Man some crazy drivers out there. "OH HEY GET OUT OF MY WAY. I REALLY WANT TO GET TO WORK FASTER THAN YOU." Do these people really want to get to work faster? Is there some time-trials competition I'm not aware of?
So I was turning onto the frontage road of mopac, and I'm making a right turn at a yield sign close to an intersection that has a light. The frontage road actually has the green light, so they are zooming on by, which is fine. The speed limit is I think 45-50mph. Anyways, I look to the left to see if there any cars in the right lane (the one I'm merging onto) and there aren't any cars, so I take off. A good 4-5 seconds later, I'm still picking up speed and going maybe 35-40 mph (I don't feel the need to really blast the accelerator in these conditions) some douche-koo is right on my ass honking at me. I'm pretty confident that this guy got over to the right lane to pass people in the middle and left lanes. First off, fuck you dude. Passing on the right is very douchey. Second, I was in the lane for 4-5 seconds already, you can't honk because I -cut you off- because I was already clearly in that lane. Seriously, do you want to get to work that badly?
Later on, I was trying to change lanes and there was a nice gap between a toyota prius (in front) and a ford explorer (behind). So I turn on my turn signal (blinker/directionals) to show my intentions of changing lanes, and the ford explorer starts speeding up to close off the gap. Woah buddy. What did I do to you? I'm still driving as calmly and as politely as I can; does having one more car in front of you really bother you? Apparently YES it did bother them. I still squeezed my nice short car in the gap before it was too dangerous to do so, but this then caused them to put on their blinker and wait for a gap in the lane to the left to go ahead and pass me. How much did they end up passing by? They just went in front of the prius and then exited the freeway. How much time did this save them? Lets find out...
Length of my car: 180.7 inches, or 15.05 ft
Length of prius: 175.6 inches, or 14.633 ft
Length of explorer: 189.5 inches, or 15.792 ft
Now let's assume that there are plenty of gaps (even though the guy was tailgating me)
[Explorer] [gap] [My Car] [gap] [Prius] [gap]
Let's also assume that the gaps are two car-lengths, or ~30 ft.
The total amount of distance the Explorer has to overcome is roughly (15 x 2) + (30 x 3) + 16, or a total of 136 ft.
Let's also assume that we were going only 60 mph instead of the speed limit of 65, justifying the desire to pass the two vehicles. 60 mph is equivalent to88 ft/sec.
(136 ft) / (88 ft/sec) = 1.55 sec
Can you believe that crap? Was that really worth the extra gas consumed to bullet around two cars, and then proceed to exit? I'm starting to get really tired of crazy drivers making the roads more dangerous than they should be.
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Work was pretty interesting. My carpool was more like a carshower; flying solo. I ended up being super productive, and also stayed late, so I felt pretty good about myself.
And then disaster struck. I guess I must have jinxed myself or something. On my way home from work, I'm driving down 183 cruising along like I normally do. Since I left work so late, and people on Friday tend to leave early, the roads were rather clear. Cruising along near 183 and 290, then POW... some loud noise out of nowhere. Was that a rock? Did I hit something? Is somebody shooting at me? Well there isn't really any cars around me, and nothing in my read view. What the heck was it? Well I got a hunch, and opened up the door to the sunroof (or moonroof, or whatever you want to call a motorized window on the roof) and the entire thing was shattered. What...the...f.... I really have no idea how to react to this. If I pull over, it's not like I can fix anything. Guess I'll keep cruising along (at much less than the speed limit now). I could hear pieces flying off the top of my car, and cracks still forming. Holy crap.
Once I got home, I took some pictures of the damage. The glass appears to be being compressed, and bowing upwards. NOT COOL. By the time I called the repair center, I was 5 minutes too late. Crap.
The adrenaline from the whole experience lasted for an hour or so. I was ready to take a nap, but other people wanted me to go out. I kinda did both.
We went to Luster Pearl, which seemed like a frat house bar, then to Clive bar down the road. Both pretty cool places. About halfway through the night, I started getting really exhausted. I mean, look how long this blog post is.
Zzzz.
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