It's not worth the risk enraging them. And it makes my drive less stressful to just pull to the side with 4 ways on and let them pass and continue driving without worrying about a rear end collision.

I should qualify - I always do this now. Some of my actions in the past were foolhardy.

I can get a full sized bus almost all the way off the road on the shoulder. It amazes me that slow traffic, just driving a little car, won't do the same. A lot of other truckers will routinely do that as well. On a windey two lane highway, you only make people in a hurry try dangerous passes needlessly. I know some people, cruising along at the speed limit, are happy to be holding people up. Like it's their mission to slow them down a little. I say, get the hell out of the way and let them go. For a commercial driver or anyone really, it gives you a blocker for awhile anyway. You can speed up a little knowing they will attract the attention of any "smokey" up ahead.

My reward...a few hold up one finger...and I quietly thank them to myself for noticing I am the #1 safe driver.

...in order to let a tailgater go by. I do not sppeed up. I do not slow down. I do not make any gestures. I simply move over to the next lane, or onto the shoulder if need be, and let them go by.

There is a life lesson in that. When I try to assure my serenity by controlling the behavior of others I am doomed to a life of anger and frustration. When I manage my serenity by doing what I can do and letting other people be who they are my life is simple and serene. It's amazing how much that principle smoothes my marriage.

Happy Holidays, you mensch!

Ask this question as obnoxsciously as possible around people that would clearly be offended by a racist joke. Like, HEY (insert buddies name) and ask that. Of course your buddy will say, "uhh I dunno." Then you say, "A Pilot! What else would you call him? Jesus! You aren't like some kind of a racist or something are you?"

That one kills! I got it from the series "True Detective". Woody Harrleson tells that one in an episode. That is a great series too BTW.

Witnessed road rage incident in front of me between two hot heads earlier today. Please be careful.

. . had been following me for about 10 minutes while going down 3 residential streets. He stopped at each stop sign just long enough to quickly glance both ways for traffic down both parts of the street that intersected with the one he was currently on, but he never really came to a full stop at any of the stop signs. After he got past the stop sign at each intersection, he would speed up to catch back up to me, and then he could ride my ass to the next stop sign.

The fact that he followed me down all 3 residential streets is not that odd, as it is a popular route for many people that live in that subdivision to take. It keeps them from having to go through a busy intersection that is located about another mile and a half down the main street that requires everyone to have to wait at a light for almost a whole 3 minutes because it is a very long traffic light.

So, not much of his behavior had bothered me much until after we had passed through that subdivision.
And we were about to re-enter the major 4 lane street that leads to the airport, which is a very busy street.

However, when I left that intersection and entered that busy main thoroughfare to head South, he was obviously out of patience.
Evidently we were both involved in a car race that I hadn't been informed of.
Because, as I left that last stop sign to make a right hand turn, he gunned his car and whipped around me AT the intersection at the same time that I was turning on to that 4 lane street.
He sped up, as he tried to pass me on the driver's side in order to get into the inside traffic lane, which just happened to be the same lane that I was turning into.

I really don't know why he thought he could speed up to go around me like that in order to get in to that lane that way.
But, I immediately thought of Mario Andretti, and how many times he had spun out while going around corners on the race track.
This young numbskull almost succeeded in crossing into oncoming traffic as he realized I was going to be in the inside lane, the one he was trying to get into, so he decided to go wide around me.
Not a good idea.

Yet, seeing 2 oncoming semi-trucks in a row, both headed North travelling in the inside Northbound lane, he must have decided that dying that night in a head-on collision was not his best course of action.
Instead, he braked hard, and then swerved behind me, turned hard in order to get to the outside lane (the one near the sidewalk) so he could then speed up to go around me.
However, when he did this, he almost sideswiped me in the process, just nicking the passenger side of the rear bumper of my car.

As he sped down the road, pulling away from me, I thought he must be drunk or high or maybe just late for a flight.
But, then I thought well, he did look young, so it could just be pure outright stupidity on his part.
Nevertheless, when he turned off that street in order to enter an apartment complex that was located just 2000 feet from the intersection where he had clipped my bumper, I thought my first instinct about him was probably more accurate.

If he had gotten around me, and had crossed over in to oncoming traffic on that street, he would not have survived the ensuing accident.
Those semi-trucks were both doing 35 to 40 miles an hour, it was already dark, and both of those semis were less than 30 seconds from that intersection.
He would not have had the room, nor the time, to avoid them by passing me and getting back across the centerline on to the side of the road that he was supposed to have been in . . if he had continued to go wide when he tried to go around me.

He must have saved all of 10 seconds by pulling that stunt.
And by riding my ass through that entire subdivision on all 3 of those residential streets, he may have saved himself another 10 seconds or so.
So, all told, he cut 20 seconds off of his trip.
30 seconds, tops.
And that's being generous.

For what?
To get to his girlfriend's apartment?
To get to the bathroom in his apartment so he wouldn't piss in his pants?
To make it to an appointment with a drug dealer?
Who knows.

But, it sure as hell wasn't worth it.
When I told my brother about that incident later on that night, he said . . well, you're lucky that he didn't have a gun (a handgun), he might have taken a shot at you for cutting him off . . which was probably his perspective.

I thought, yeah, probably.
Ain't life grand?

only difference was it was not trucks bearing down, but people in ordinary cars. But would have been a head-on. Did not touch my car but came so close I flinched and slowed, expecting it.

Reckless driving. You see it more and more. Maybe drugs or maybe just reckless. I try to get the license number to report it.

There was a day when that situation would have called for some antagonizing. I would have slowed to a crawl to taunt them, looking at them in the mirror, you know the drill. It's Christmas time though and I quit doing stuff like that years ago.

My sister shipped our gifts in a beer box. She emailed me about how she was told she would have to mark out all the logos on the box! She did it with good humor, but we thought it was pretty silly. I laugh when I see the box with all the scribble marks!

I sometimes do better at conversing with "strangers" in lines than I do some people I am related to!