July 15, 2005
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Wednesday I was driving on a narrow through street with cars parked on both sides and lots of oncoming traffic. There was a cyclist in front of me, pedaling uphill, and going rather slowly in spite of his spiffy outfit. I couldn't pass him safely.
Then someone, in an SUV, of course, blasted their horn at me. Refined, older gentleperson that I am, I flipped the bird over my shoulder. When I turned onto the side street, the SUV turned behind me and she -- it was a she-- pulled up next to me and opened her window. I opened mine.
"You got somethin' to say to me?" a platinum blonde punk rocker inquired.
"No" I said.
"You flipped me a bird, do you do that to everyone?" she said in her most menacing voice.
"You honked your horn, do you do that to everyone?" I asked productively.
"Only when they're going zero miles an hour in front of me" she countered
"Did you expect me to run down the cyclist who was in front of me? " I said.
Almost bested, she bared her unattractive teeth and hissed across her front seat directly into my open car window "You are a f---ing c---, and an UGLY one at that." and peeled off.
(Pardon the dashes, but I don't want to increase my readership with those googling for f---ing c---.)
I am sorry to say that, rather than having pity for a person with an anger management problem, I felt slimed. I decorated the inside of my mind with the unpleasant encounter for awhile. I spent some of my precious spare time, imagining caustic, condescending retorts like "That's projection. Go look it up in the dictionary."
I even repeated the story several times, shame on me.
Next morning I found a feather on the floor of my car, as pictured. Took me awhile to realize that it was a ruffled feather. Isn't the universe amusing?
