I had an appointment with the Pain Management Clinic today to see how I was progressing with the program they set out for me and (predictably) I didn’t want to go. Not because I was avoiding the Pain Management people in fact I was looking forward to getting some feedback but rather because i didn’t want to drive across to Auchenflower for a 10am appointment. So I conned Yale into taking me.
We went to town without incident and the drive was fine, I had purposefully grabbed my mail on the way out the door so I would have something to read and maybe keep my mind off the traffic etc. The appointment went well, Mel (the Physio) was pretty pleased with that my flexibilty and strength program was working quite well at keeping me mobile and limber but the ‘crunching’ in my neck was still an issue. We spoke about the recumbent exercise bike I was considering purchasing if I could squeeze it ino my budget (Workcover are unlikely to assist with that cost I think) and she felt that it might be a lower impact way to get the aerobically beneficial exercise I needed without exacerbating the ‘crunching’ thing. So it was ok.
However on the way home around lunch time (which is normally a pretty quite time of day to be getting on the Riverside Expressway) we were entering the flow of traffic and a little stupid kid in a Pizza Hut delivery car came across two lanes of traffic and pulled in front of us really fast. If Yale hadn’t braked exactly when he did – the dickhead would have slammed right into the passenger side of our car… right where I was sitting. I mean we managed to avoid the accident by about 2 feet, and only because Yale was fast on the reflexes. And it started up all over again, I was scared shitless. I couldn’t breathe. I started to cry and cover my face and mouth. It was just a split second that I panicked and thought he was going to hit us and I just lost the plot. I was crying uncontrollably (in an unhappily animated and vociferous fashion) and muttering about how I felt like someone, someone was trying to kill me in an MVA, how I was so sick of this shit happening and why does it seem to happen all the fucking time. Just felt so immediatly anxious and scared… urgh… awful, awful feeling that makes me sick to my stomach.
We followed the little moron (at a safe distance) for a while as we headed for home and as both his vehicle and ours took the Stanley Road exit we ended up stopped side by side at the set of lights at the Gabba. I was staring daggers at the kid driving the car and I said I felt like screaming at the stupid kid. Yale said ‘Go on then… it might make you feel better.’ So I wound down the window and gave the kid both barrels.
I was still visibly crying and spoke in a barely controlled and obviously angry tone as I asked him if he even noticed what he’d done back when we merged onto the expressway. The kid was oblivious and was saying ‘What? What are you on about?’ He never even saw us. I told him that he was completely incompetent on the road, abused him for not indicating, for crossing two lanes of traffic without giving way to oncoming traffic and for obviously not shoulder checking as he merged. I told him that he’d nearly run us off the road and that if my driver hadn’t taken effective evasive action he’d be explaining to his employer right now about how he’d written off their work vehicle with his gross negligence. The more I said, the less tearful and more indignant I became and I was pointing at him telling told him that if he wasn’t going to obey the rules laid out for the safety of all road users then he ought not have a license at all and had no right operating a motorvehicle and I suggested he go back to square one and learn how to drive properly.
Eventually got home in one piece and once I calmed down I wondered for a while if the absolute tongue lashing lecture I doled out to the pimply faced kid was disproportionate to the offense but honestly… he scared the living shit out of me and I felt even worse when I realised he hadn’t seen us at all !!! That makes me feel positively nauseated… he didn’t look and he didn’t see us and we could have gotten all smooshed cos he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing. 🙁
Yale was right about one thing… I felt a little better after venting at the stupid idiot.
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