A Season Of Good Cheer - Or At Least An Attempt

Yesterday morning I was headed to an appointment when it happened. I had noticed an aggressive driver pull up on my six and he was clearly impatient with the pace at which I was traveling. It was raining so traffic was backed up with people being cautious, as they should be. However Mr. Big Truck was having none of it.

He rode my butt for a little while and when the lane next to us opened up he saw his opportunity to advance himself at least as equal to where I was. I simply laughed at his purely unproductive forward progress. As he got along the side of me I saw his face. The guy was cussing, complaining and making all sorts of wild gestures towards the car in front of him and I suddenly felt sorry for him.

As luck would have it my lane sped up and I was now equal with the car he was trailing, something that I am sure just incensed the little fella. The woman in that car probably left her house in a good mood looking forward to a peaceful drive to work and now this turd wrangler was messing with her. Her face told the entire story. She had no where to go. She was in a lane that had dozens of cars moving at a moderate but not fast space. She was stuck so what did captain hot foot expect her to do about it. She was stressed and to be honest it made me a little mad that this guy had created such a negative Ripple for what seemed like such a nice woman.

As we meandered down the road she looked over at me and gave me those "what should I do looks" and I just smiled back at her. The instant connection we had with our eyes clearly indicated to her that I understood her predicament and I sort of threw my hands up in a gesture of what are you going to do? I then mouthed happy holidays and gave her a thumbs up. She seemed to understand and I am pretty sure she returned the favor.

A few minutes later her lane advanced just enough to bring the impatient idiot equal with me. Boy the guy was really steaming and now had decided to show his advanced level of IQ by flipping off the woman in front of him. As he ranted, raved and beat on his steering wheel he glanced over at me as I had decided to stare at him (while maintaining a cautious eye on my driving mind you) until he realized someone was watching his borish behavior. He looked at me and for a moment I thought he may have been related to The Grinch That Stole Christmas but clearly I can't be sure without DNA. I smiled and cheerfully mouthed happy holidays to him. He clearly thought I was trying to say something to him so so he rolled down his window. I repeated what I had mouthed teethy smile and all!

His response. He smiled. His face got a little less tense. He seemed to calm down. I started thinking alright Steve you made a connection with this dude. See he's not a bad guy.

Just then....he yelled at me, "Hey Buddy Merry F'ning Christmas yourself" and flipped me off. At first I thought maybe he's not from here and that's how they extend their heartfelt greetings in whatever backwoods banjo playing pig chasing mountain community the dude comes from then I realized no, the guy's probably just a regular kind of jerk. I rolled my window back up and laughed to myself. Glad that my life isn't nearly as stressed or rushed as bubba's apparently is.

Hey I tried. But hey Santa if you happen to read this please put the guy down for a double on that load of coal okay?

Ripple On!!!