Crazies Be Everywhere

Took The Boy to get our Wednesday Hate Chikin'.

We did curbside and ended up leaving behind someone who'd gone through the drive through.

This person was digging around in either their bag or center console and not actually driving.

I even commented to The Boy, "If you're not ready to drive, don't put it in gear."

They meandered around in the lanes leading to the exit out to the highway and when they got to said exit, rather than looking for traffic... resumed digging around in their bag/console.

Because there was no traffic to wait for, I gave them a hoot from the horn.

The took so long to react from the horn that they just barely made it out in front of the traffic which had shown up while they were doing whatever it was they were doing.

I waited for a space and ended up back behind them at the light in the leftmost left turn lane.  I needed to make u-turn to get headed back home.

This person is yelling and screaming and flipping me off.

I'm thinking, "You had your head up your ass, but it's MY fault?"

His agitation kept increasing to the point I started to become worried he was going to come back to the car and assault me.  So I got my pistol ready.

His agitation never rose to the point where he got out of his car, but he did manage to get the person in the rightside left-turn lane to ask him "what the fuck?"

This person instantly pivoted their raised ire to the guy in the next lane, who starts screaming back.

Then they start throwing things at each other.

The people in the car next to me were both recording on their cell phones.

Wow.

I'm glad he didn't get out of his car.
I'm glad I had a gun on me.
I'm thrilled that I didn't have to use it.

I'm amazed, and saddened, that someone wound so tight lived old enough to reach the pedals.

I feel confident that if I had had to shoot this person that I'd have been fully vindicated by the recordings from the other car.  Again, I am thrilled to have avoided the need to talk to an officer about defending myself.

This also underscores that you don't get to pick when a self defense situation happens.  You can make choices that minimize the chances of it happening, but you can't eliminate all chances.