Broken?

I was taken aback once again on the ride in this morning. Cruising gently along, sun was shining strong, temps were beginning to climb the thermometer a bit…when LOOKOUT! Crazy driver flying out of a side street right in front of me – didn’t even slow down! Wow, there used to be a stop sign there, I wonder what happened to…nope, it’s still there. Huh, damn thing must be broken. Pity. It looks like a perfectly good stop sign, too (just looking at it, I would have thought it had years of service left in it). But I guess it’ll just have to be chalked up with all the other broken ones. Because all the stop signs that I see people flying through all the time…they must be broken, right?

And speaking of broken; I see all kinds of vehicles on the road nowadays that apparently have broken turn signals. It’s a damn shame – most of these vehicles are brand new, too! Why, I was behind a guy not too long ago and he looked like he’d driven his shiny 4 wheeled cage right off the lot. I was admiring this machine and thinking wow, what a nice ride that looks to be. We were approaching a side street that I was going to take, so I signaled my intentions, and began to slow down. Imagine my surprise when the guy in front of me also braked, but for no apparent reason. There was no indication why he was braking - was there something in the road? Nope, he was turning, also. Huh. Well now that just stinks. The poor guy obviously paid good money for that ride, and the damn thing doesn’t even have working turn signals? I felt very badly for him. And then it happened again! Another turn approaching for me…I signaled and slowed in preparation. Whoa, he’s slowing down again – I don’t see any reason for him to be braking…could it be…? Hey yeah, he’s turning also! And no signal again. Now by this time, I could just picture him, all upset and mad at himself for buying something that didn’t come with working signals. I opted to commiserate with him at the next light. Rolling up beside him, I gave him my most-sincere smile and said “That’s a nice ride you’ve got there!”, to which he happily replied “Thanks!” “Yeah”, I said, “It’s a damn shame the turn signals don’t work on it, huh?” at which point his face kind of glazed over with a look of confusion as his brain tried to sort out what had just happened. The light turned green and I smiled at him again. He rolled ahead of me and I pulled in behind him, happy to have made a new friend. (That’s a true story, too.)

So be careful out there. Broken stop signs…broken turn signals…

Wait…you don’t think…could it actually be the drivers that are broken?

Ride Hard, Take Chances