DC Drivers

should not be let out on rainy days. Come to think of it, I don’t think that anyone should let most of them behind the wheel of any motorized vehicle on any day.

Take a bit of road construction on I495 (aka the Beltway) a light drizzle turning to rain at the odd moment and the idiots come crawling out from under rocks to terrorize anyone with even a modicum of common sense.

You watch them tear by you at high speed, swerving from lane to lane. Of course, not one has the courtesy to signal their lane changes. For that matter, I was startled by more than one of the fools who suddenly figured out that there was a car next to them. And headlights? Why in the world would any of them bother to turn on headlights on a day so dreary that the visibility was down to greyish mist. Much better to keep everyone around you on their toes and brakes by slaloming out of nowhere to skid with massive application of brakes.

Driving from Harper’s on the Virginia leg of this trip wasn’t difficult. Even the pick-up truck drivers had lights on to accompany the blasting country western escaping through the closed windows of vehicles running their A/C on high. Them good ‘old boys (and girls) even managed to acknowledge a few lane changes and allowed entering cars to merge with the traffic.

Once I hit the Beltway, all bets were off. I should have been expecting it – after all the south bound traffic was at a standstill just shortly after 1400.

Taking a few deep breaths, I navigated that stretch before exiting onto 270. Wondering the whole time why I just hadn’t followed my instincts and headed up 395 to Rock Creek Parkway and avoided the whole mess.

Not quite ready for the fainting couch, I arrived safely at Carmen’s. Ignored by Odin (the cat) I settled my nerves with a Gosling’s Ginger Beer, hauled out the knitting and turned on an audio book.