Rules

No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.
Theodore Roosevelt

I like rules.  I always have liked rules.  I like that they bring order to things.  I like that they’re a clear example of what is expected of me.  I’ve always enjoyed knowing that others around me will follow the rules.  Until they don’t.

Rules of the road are rather clear.  Everyone in the country must pass a state test over these rules before they are given a drivers license.  A few examples of such rules are drive on the road, stop at a red light, and don’t drink while driving.  Unfortunately, not every person believes that these rules apply to them.  Hence, until they don’t.

Driving to work tonight, the same car almost made me wreck three separate times.  For this, I am baffled.  I am stopped at a red light, and a car drives around me, off the road, to pull ahead of me.  The driver motions to the left with his thumb out the window, pointing either at me, or at the direction he (and I) plan to turn.  To which he is indicating, I’m not completely sure.  I am pulled to the left side of the lane to give a car room to turn right at the intersection, as it is allowed for a car to turn right on a red light.  This is where I first thought the truck was going.

While he pulled back onto the road, I had to reverse my car in order to keep him from hitting my front right side.

When the light turned green, he pulled ahead and I pulled around him because he was going below the speed limit and I wanted to go faster.  He didn’t appreciate this.

While driving on the road, he swerved around me and cut back to pass me; I had to slam on the breaks in order to keep him from hitting my front left side.

He apparently really didn’t appreciate that I passed him.

After he pulled in front of me, he proceeded to slam on breaks and come to an almost complete stop in front of me.  I slammed on the breaks and veered into a right turn lane to avoid rear-ending the truck, to take a different route to work, and to avoid further conflict with this truck.

As I pulled past him in the turning lane, I glanced out my window to get a look at this driver.  In one hand he held a cigarette and a beer bottle, opened.  In the other, he held a cell phone to his ear.  I do not know which hand was holding the wheel, only that he also had two passengers, one in the front passenger seat and one unbuckled in the back seat.

I like rules.  I like it when I follow rules.  I like it when others around me follow the rules.  Until they don’t.  I do not appreciate it when I am forced, three times, to avoid a wreck in my car by the same person’s stupidity and irresponsibility.  I would have loved to call local law enforcement to have these rules enforced, however by the time local law enforcement would have arrived, the truck would have been long gone.