Somehow, I lost my title for this post

I almost got run off the road today by a guy driving an oil truck.

I've got nothing against truckers, commercial drivers and so forth. Well, maybe limo drivers. After spending four years drag-racing with limo drivers on I-78, well, I can see why Jayson Williams shot his.

But the thing is, I don't mind truckers. Or at least the ones who realize they're driving large, road-clogging lethal weapons - and handle themselves with the appropriate amount of care. I'm not going to begrudge someone doing his job, and an important one at that, so long as they don't jeopardize others doing it.

But this idiot - who wasn't even in a rig - was just a menace. I was driving uphill, toward the highway, behind him. That was fine, albeit slow. But then, I got to a part where the lanes widened, and I could pass him (on the left, legally), and instead, he suddenly veered into the left lane - no signal or anything.

Turns out he was trying to pass a dump truck that was going even slower.

So when he gets past the dump truck, he signals to pull right, and then does. So I signal and start passing him again.

Which is when he veered into my lane again. He was running right down the middle of the dotted line, occupying both lines and forcing me to jam on the brakes.

Mind you, there's oncoming traffic on the other side of the road.

When he finally gets back to the right, and I go to pass him (all of this is along about a 150-yard stretch of road), he veers back over the dotted line again. At this point, I'm already halfway by, so I've got to swerve, then jam on the gas to get around him and a) get out of the way of oncoming cars and b) get to my on-ramp.

It wasn't like I flipped him off or anything - this isn't "Duel" we're talking about. I was just passing him, legally, in a good spot. I didn't even hit the horn until he forced me to swerve.

Freakin' idiot. I hate drivers like that, especially the ones in rigs or (most often) moving vans either don't know how wide their vehicle is, or just can't keep it in the lane.

Maybe he didn't see me. It hasn't been my week for cars, and I'm driving around a little POS Hyundai that's on loan from my dealer. My car failed inspection, needed a repair anyway, and waaaaaaaaay too much money later, I'll get my car back Friday. Or Saturday. But after 136,000 miles, I guess my baby's entitled to a little TLC. Still, it's costing me a fortune and it's a pain in the ass. Went to get the car today, and the dealer forgot to call to tell me it wasn't ready. But while I was there, conveniently, I could approve a big ol' repair needed to pass the inspection. Great.

And I got pulled over the other day, but I got away without a ticket because it wasn't really my fault. Kind of a Catch-22. I pulled out of a store right near my house into the turning lane of 206, when I realized the car coming up behind me was coming up really fast, so rather than pulling into the right (driving) lane, I waited for him to go by, tooling along up the middle lane in the meanwhile. Only he never passed me, and then my turn came up (it's only maybe 100 yards up 206), so I turned.

Then I realized why he had been zipping along so fast, and then slowed down behind me: Cop. But he was a local guy, knew I was about a block from home, and when I told him what happened he let me go because he realized I was right - I was waiting for him to go by, and he wasn't going by because he was waiting for me to pull in front of him. Still have never gotten a ticket, and when I do, I'd sure like it to be for something more than driving in the turning lane.

And hopefully it won't be in this stupid Hyundai loaner car, either. That's what I pay all this money to keep my sports car running hot for.

Links:
• Heating oil futures
• Global Auto Mall, where my car is sitting
• Mitsubishi Motors
• Hyundai of America
• The Hillsborough Township PD

We were discussing Karl Rove at work the other day, so I'm thinking of writing a post about him. Well, not really about him, but about political movers and shakers like him. Stay tuned.