Flashing Lights <wob-ish>

[SMILLER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Sorry if this thread has already died, I'm back to 5 days' Digests behind
again...

I used to give a quick hi-beam flash to anyone that cut me off in traffic,
which was my way of saying, "Hey, in case you didn't notice, there are
other cars back here and with that last idiodic move of yours, you almost
hit one".  I figured one of 2 things could come from this:  

1.  The driver, having just innocently forgotten to check their mirrors and
signal first, would recognize that someone was trying to warn them of
other traffic, of which they needed to be aware, and would be
appreciative.  (Yeah, right.)

2.  They would ignore my flash the way they ignored my car in the first
place.

Here's possible outcome #3:

One evening, with my wife and another couple in the car on our way to
a GGC Holiday Party/Awards Banquet (remember when we used to
have those?), I was driving down I-880 southbound to San Jose.  Some
teenager* (or possibly an adult of less-than-teen-ager intelligence, hard
to tell as it was just before sundown) driving like a maniac in a
Camaro/Firebird (what's the difference, really?) was driving more
aggressively than prudent for traffic conditions, and cut suddenly in front
of us, causing me to hit the brakes to avoid a near-collision.  Figuring this
guy just wasn't aware of the possible consequences of a collision at 60
MPH in traffic, I politely flashed my hi-beams to make him aware of my
presence.  Was he appreciative?  HELL NO!  BIG MISTAKE!

For the next 12 miles this guy did everything possible to get up next to us
so that he could express his displeasure with my little flash.  The number
of accidents he nearly caused in the process was only exceeded by the
number of other drivers he pissed off.  We didn't know if he had a gun or
intended to ram us or just wanted to flip me off or yell at me.  When he
couldn't get along side (I managed to make sure he didn't, it wasn't hard
or dangerous), he pulled in behind and tailgated us almost all the way to
our destination.  About 2 exits before ours, he suddenly swerved from a
middle lane onto an exit, cutting off a bunch of cars in the process.  Until
he abruptly exited the freeway, I was beginning to worry about whether
I had more fuel than him.

I've pretty much stopped flashing my headlights at other cars.  I don't
need that kind of excitement.  I also used to flash at left lane bandits to
get them to move over, but not even 1 in 10 actually moves over.  Now I
just wait for an opening and go around, so I don't have to flash.  It isn't
worth the aggrevation, and while you wait for the offending slowpoke to
move over, you usually miss an opening in the next lane which you could
use to pass.

Other drivers headed for a radar trap?  They should have bought a
detector.  Signalling to others driving a similar car?  They're probably not
paying attention anyway.  Go ahead, you guys just keep on flashing at
whoever you want for whatever reason you have, that's just fine with
me.  If you're just saying hi and I fail to flash back (but I might wave with
my hand, if I feel it won't be mis-interpreted), sorry I didn't play your
game.  I'm just trying to avoid unnecessary, unpleasant confrontations.

* OK, before you flame me for being anti-teenager, I'm not stereotyping
young people here, just observing that it was a young man driving the
F-body car, and that whoever he was, he obviously had no clue as to
how dangerous his driving was.  Probably needed a basic lesson in
Newtonian physics or something.  He should have tried that "two objects
cannot occupy the same space at the same time" test with his head and
a 2x4, he might have learned an important lesson.

OK, off my soapbox now, sorry for the rant, but I just couldn't be left out
of the latest exercise in <wob>.

Scott Miller
Golden Gate Chapter 
BMW CCA #44977

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