[The Lone Ranger]

So, I had an interesting experience last night.

I went to the store to do some grocery shopping, and on the way home decided that I'd stop by the local bank to visit the ATM. The turn-off to go to the bank is a "Y" intersection -- coming from the direction I was coming from, you can either bear right onto a new road or go straight; someone coming from the other direction can either go straight or turn left onto the new road.

By law, of course, traffic bearing right has right-of-way. Accordingly, there is a "Yield" sign for traffic coming from the opposing direction, but there isn't one for traffic coming from the direction I was coming from.

So, when I got to the intersection, a pick-up truck was arriving at the same time. I signaled and bore right. He turned left and came up right behind me.

I drove up to the bank and pulled up to the ATM, with the truck right on my bumper the whole time. "Interesting coincidence that he's going to the ATM too," I thought.

As soon as I stopped at the ATM, the driver of the truck started honking his horn. Not a quick honk to get my attention -- a long, steady honk followed by a brief rest, then another long, steady honk. "Do I have a tail light out or something?" I wondered. So, I leaned out to ask him what the problem was. No response, except for another long honk.

So, I quickly concluded my business, figuring he must really want to use the ATM.

As soon as I pulled out, instead of pulling up to the ATM, the guy stayed right on my bumper, laying on the horn again. "Something must be wrong," I figured.

So, I stopped and prepared to get out, wondering what the problem was. The guy pulled up right next to me, close-enough that it would have been difficult to open my door. He was a rather heavyset white guy, somewhere in his 60s, I'd guess.

He proceeded to scream at me. He screamed at me about how I'd gone right through the "Yield" sign and how he'd almost hit me. This caught me off-guard for a couple of seconds while I reviewed the previous couple of minutes. Of course, I hadn't seen (nor obeyed) the "Yield" sign because there wasn't one -- not in my lane; it was in his.

He screamed at me a few more seconds, and insisted that I was clearly on drugs of some kind. [Maybe because I wasn't responding the way that he thought I should?] I nearly burst out laughing at that, but I managed to keep my composure.


After hurling a few more insults, he roared off.

I've pondered the incident for awhile, and my guess is that he's some privileged white dude who's used to getting his way. That I had the sheer gall to make him wait for a couple of seconds before making his turn (what was I supposed to do, I wonder? -- come to a full stop in the middle of traffic; he's the one who had a turning lane and a "Yield" sign, not me) apparently really ticked him off.

It was dark, so I couldn't tell, but I'll bet good money he had at least one "Trump" bumper sticker ....