Sunday, August 9, 2009

Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do

Dear lady in the SUV turning right off of Kimball onto the 114 service road,

I just wanted to extend my most heartfelt thanks to you for showing me the error of my driving ways. All this time I thought it was proper driving technique that when you are turning right, to turn into the most right-hand lane of the road you are turning onto.

But the other day when you made a right-hand turn onto the three lane service road and ended up in the far left lane (or as I saw it; my lane, since I was turning left into it), all the while honking, shaking your rather hairy knuckles, and yelling what looked like "bass-pole" at me, I realized I had been wrong all this time.

You can't really blame me for not being aware of the "turn into any bloody lane that you feel like" rule. You see, up in Canada (where I hail from), we follow the rule as I stated it above. When I moved to California and had to take my road test again, I found that they too have strict rules when it comes to turning.

But now that I've lived here in Texas awhile, I've discovered that most people don't care what lane they turn into, just as long as nobody impedes them.

Now that I've learned my lesson of the lanes, I'm going to take it up a notch. I figure I'll start turning left from the centre lane from now on. Or, when I get really good at it, make a right hand turn from the far left lane. I also see that a lot of people here like to drive the wrong way on the highway. Maybe I'll add that to my repertoire.

So thank you again scary, crazy lady; the finger you flipped me at the end was the icing on my cake. I hadn't received the one-finger salute in awhile and had forgotten how much it makes me laugh.

Sincerely,
Joanne

In case my description of the incident above is a tad confusing: I was turning left onto the service road, angrylady was turning right onto the same road. We turned at the same time; I into the left lane, and she, also into the left lane. At which point the fun began.

1 comments:

Nate said...

Just in case you were wondering.. I found out on Friday that it IS still illegal to turn left from the center lane! In downtown Fort Worth, between the one-way streets and the far too small signs to let you know at last minute that you will be missing your destination and thus forced to circle the downtown area for another 20 minutes to get to that same 1/2 block area again, I took my chance. I got 20 feet. The fact that I had the cop laughing and shaking his head at the fact that I was so turned around I didn't know I was literally sitting in front of where I was headed, I thankfully got out of a ticket. Not sure that my friend from St. Louis was impressed though. (and no, that was not me turning into the far left lane that day.) :)
~Leanna