The "F" word and almost getting hit: An Inside Joke

I was kind of surprised. Well, no, not surprised. We had at least a few people do that to us each day. And each time they did it I wondered why they would do something like that. The only difference was that Andy almost got hit by the guy who was going at least 70 MPH across the shoulder-less bridge. Sure the guy swerved a bit into the other lane, but the Pontiac coming the other way was not happy that he had to leave the road to avoid a head on collision. His insistent honking communicated that. The guy speeding past in the Dodge Ram honked back. A long, hard, kind of annoying honk. It was the middle of the day, but I couldn't help but wonder if he had been drinking. Happy hour, perhaps.

So after he almost killed Andy, almost collided head on with the guy he ran off the road, the guy in the truck decided he had caused about as much chaos as he could with his gas pedal. So he hit the brakes. In an intense effort to make himself look more like an upstanding citizen he swerved to the side of the road to proceed to tell us what we were doing wrong.

And I know it's no good to make fun of people who irritate you, but I have to mention that the saying that "guys who drive big trucks are trying to make up for something" came to mind as soon as he used the steps to climb down from the Dodge Ram. He immediately raised his arms, and--now standing about 5 feet 5 inches tall--spouted something that resembled this:

"What the F--- are you guys doing in the middle of the F---ing road" (at this point Andy wisely understood that it would be unwise to point out to the man that technically we were single file along the side of the road--and that he was easily going 70 in a 55) "You guys are F---ing supposed to be single file on the road..." (at this point he seemed to have realized a few different things: 1. he might have realized that if we were as easily provoked as he was the fight would be 3 on 1--not good odds for him; 2. he might have seen me holding the flip camera getting ready to film him; 3. he might encountered one of those moments when you're mind is racing so fast and you're going and going and then all the sudden you hit this blank and don't really no what to say even though you know you haven't really finished the thought, I'm not sure. So he proceeded in a fashion I could only assume was consistent with his personality: humorous to those observing at the time and humorous to him the next weekend after a few cold ones) "F--- (pause for thought) everyone knows that." We could all see the rage leaving him.

Andy: "Sorry." I think he started fiddling with his fingers, not really knowing how to respond to something like that.

The man then took the opportunity to quickly get in his truck and drive away. The inside joke: "f---, everyone knows that." remains.