Everyone feels underappreciated now and then, but I really think my efforts to avoid knocking people into the afterlife deserve more gratitude than they've gotten.
But we always think we should get a pat on the back when we don't run someone over, right? Right. Human nature. But you be the judge.
Guy on a bike: He's going the wrong way down a one-way street. I don't want to hit him — I'm just peculiar that way — and I honk as a means of informing him that he is in error and should mend his ways.
For this I get a rude gesture, accompanied by a pistoning action to indicate vigorous, repeated application of the sentiment.
It's possible he had lost four fingers in an accident down at the mill and was just trying to play rock-paper-scissors.
It's possible that I honked too long. Not a short, instructive toot, but two judgmental seconds that made him defensive: "OK, I may be going the wrong way down the street with an air of casual entitlement, but you took one hand off the wheel to honk, and that's not exactly making safety Job One, is it now?"
So we'll call that one a draw.
But half an hour later there was a fellow ambling across the street, unconcerned that the light had changed and a torrent of metal was headed his way. I provided a heads-up beep so he could hasten his way to the safety of the curb, and I was rewarded with the same lone digit.
