Friday, March 08, 2013

Instant karma

I love it when two negatives cancel each other out.

So here I am, driving into Washington DC, and as usual, I'm late due to traffic.

One of the reasons that traffic is backed up is a Virginia State Police cruiser about three or four cars ahead of me, doing exactly 55mph on the inbound Dulles Access Road. And of course, no one is willing to man up and pass him. I would pass him myself at this point, but I'm locked in by the cars ahead of and along side of me who won't. So we all coast on down the highway at 55mph, with no cars in sight ahead of us because they were all going faster and left us behind a while back.

Cue the jackass...the solution to the problem.

As I'm driving along, fuming. I catch a glimpse of something fast and white in my right side mirror. It's a Mercedes, and it's hauling.

The Dulles Access Road, for those not familiar, has a wide right shoulder which doubles as a bus-only lane. Car use of this lane is strictly verboten and the fine is high enough that few risk it. This guy in the Mercedes is risking it though, and I have the prime seat as he flies by me on the right then suddenly sees the marked State Police cruiser just before he passes it. He brakes. He tries to cut back in to the normal lanes. Sadly for him, no one else is willing to let him in. Not that it matters, because the trooper's seen him now. The trooper pulls to the right and just waits for the Mercedes to slink past, then the blue lights come on. Got him!

Now the arrogant jerk who couldn't wait his turn is getting his comeuppance, and the trooper who was slowing up the traffic is the one giving it to him, meaning that the road is now open for the rest of us to take off. My speed immediately increases by 20mph. Thanks, Mercedes jerkwater! And thanks, trooper, for snagging that scofflaw. Lane cheaters suck even on a good day, and this was far from being a good day.

8 comments:

  1. Just call me Werner Schadenfreude.

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  2. What a heart warming story.

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  3. Love it when that happens!!!

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  4. Does your heart good, doesn't it!! I have to smile when I see the Fast Eddie pulled over a few miles down the road. To me the principle is about the arroganct thinking by Fast Eddie that whatever he's about is more important than the safety and harmony of us in the cheap seats. Nice of you to share seeing Karma in action! Major two-fer.

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  5. Ha. In the days of big cars, if Dad spotted someone trying to slide up on the side like that he'd drift over enough to block them from easily getting by.

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  6. Without naming names, I can think of at least two people who had displayed more than an air of arrogance towards me, and who were included in the List of Bernie Madoff's clients.

    http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/madoffclientlist020409.pdf

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  7. That's great, and the same thing happened about 7pm on 237 toward 66E :-) And it was a Mercedes too! LOL

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  8. It's nice to hear once in a while someone gets their just deserts.

    When I was driving and a lane closure was coming up, one of the big trucks would get in the merge lane and act as blocker so those @ssholes couldn't climb up our butts and force themselves in.
    Of course you needed a CB and trust that the other driver would actually let you back in....

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