It is safe to say that my day got off to a bad start. The old prospector next door, with his eight noisy mongrels, woke me up when two of the animals began barking at just before 6 a.m. Despite best attempts to head back to the Land of Nod (I was tired as sleep in the night was interrupted by an idiot who was trying to start an engine with no muffler, aka exhaust pipe, attached to it from 23:30 to 00:30, that is half 11 pm to half gone midnight for those who have difficulty with the 24 hour clock) I was unsuccessful, it was too light and I was too annoyed. On top of that it was blooming hot and once awake, both at night and in the morning, sleep was, in the former instance a long time coming and in the latter, not approachable at all.
To exacerbate the poor start to my day, literally yards from my desert dwelling, an elderly neighbour came within a cat’s whisker of knocking me and my bike right off the road. Completely oblivious, at least I hope he was and that this was not a deliberate attempt to help me meet my maker, the sod never slowed down, although to be fair he was not travelling that fast, nor did he acknowledge my shouts of fury and my, very, rude gestures. As my adrenaline surged, I found myself making obscene remarks about his lineage and accusing him of self masturbation, in other words of being a wanker. Had I thought of it, I would have grabbed a rock and sincerely tried to hit the windscreen on the back of his Chevy pickup truck.
I am, it is safe to say, still furious. I still have the huge bump and bruising on my right leg from the other unconscious prat who knocked me off the car park surface, aka parking lot, at Love’s Truck Stop. *A place I have avoided like the plague since that little incident in March.* After my close brush with yet another attempt on my life, I was paranoid about every vehicle that passed me.
I realize that many of my fellow desert dwellers are, as stated in the title, close to death. Failing skill sets, a lack of cohesive attention to tasks at hand, failing health and, in some cases, just a bad attitude full stop, do not make these folks the best of neighbours.
Needless to say, blogging while angry is not a good idea, but, like the Incredible Hulk, sans the green and the increased size, my rage has been running on high since this idiot almost hit me with his bloody truck. All the way to the public library, titles for my first blog post scampered across my imaginary laptop screen, the one in my head, each more annoyed and insulting than the last.
Title’s like, “Rednecks Never Die, They Just Move to Quartzsite,” was the least offensive of the lot. The thing that calmed me down was the continual attempt to rework the old mot, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed Jack is king.” This last internal dialogue, where I kept trying to substitute several annoyed phrases in place of blind, finally allowed the worst of my vitriol to dissipate.
Not completely though.
Just enough to stop the “Hulk smash” urge.
The problem is not just living amongst folks who are closer to death than I am, at least in terms of age. With an existing hole, apparently still in my aortic arch and damage to veins and arteries, as well as in one kidney, I may pop off more quickly than they will. With the exception of a dear new neighbour who has only a short time to live, and this lovely chap will be sorely missed by all who know him, the rest of the population in the neighborhood are a mixed bag who may all outlive me, especially if they persist in trying to kill me with their effing motor vehicles and that is where the problem lies.
These inept drivers may be quite nice away from their cars, trucks, vans and ATVs, although others seem to have the type of bad attitude that brings out the worst in me. If I can keep from becoming road statistic, I will remain tickled to death to have survived my further close brushes with the grim reaper.
Hopefully writing this rant out on a hot and dry day in the desert will help my anger and annoyance to abate further. If not my next update may come from behind bars and not, I hasten to add, the kind that serve drinks.
1 June 2015
Michael Knox-Smith
I’m beginning to believe it!
Me too!
There are people out there who will try to hit you I’m sure. Not what you expect.
I’m sincerely sorry you didn’t get the bastard.
He wouldn’t have if I’d hit him on the bean with a rock through his rear windscreen…I was furious enough to do it…
Some of them think it’s funny.
In my mind, this morning at least, I believe the old bugger did it on purpose. He was coming up to the end of a T junction where he had to stop. I was on the main road he was turning onto and he literally almost drove right into me and then stayed a hand’s breadth away from me.
OFF not OF
Or they simply do not understand we can’t stop on a dime, or that you can’t drive so close you brush us of with your door handles. And some people do it on purpose.
Same here! I’m getting the feeling that I survived two stabs at dying over in England only to be mashed like a big bug by some idiot driver in the country of my birth! Mind you, a lovely chap I worked with in the prison service was killed on his way home from work. A motorbike rider who was very careful and taught motorcycle safety who died too soon because a driver was not paying attention…
My brother was nearly killed on his motorcycle — and he was the most careful rider I know. Cars ignore bikes, push or motor. They just do. Sometimes, they fail to see us … but as often as not, they don’t seem to understand that we are part of the traffic and they can’t just keep going like we aren’t. I gave up riding a bike after one brush with a car too many. I know you don’t have much choice, but I wish you did.