I find myself often asking, "Why Can't Everyone Just Get Along?" especially in reference to the world situation. Constant wars; constant civil unrest. Well, this past weekend I think I figured out the answer to my question.
My husband and I took some vacation time from work and drove up to Denver, Colorado to relax, see some of his family, and do some shopping. Since my husband drove all the way from our home to Denver, I figured I'd drive back. Kind of even out the driving. The drive was going well, in-spite-of the construction and traffic backups in some places. I was driving south on I-25, a long and in some places boring drive. We had stopped once for gas and now I was coming up on Trinidad, Colorado just before the Raton Pass and the fuel indicator was drifting near a quarter of a tank.
There were several exists for Trinidad passing by and then I saw a Shell station with a Wendy's attached, so I pulled off at the exit. All of the gas lanes were busy, so my husband and I decided to take a bathroom break, get some lunch at Wendy's, and then get some gas.
So, we finished inside the building and came out, got in the truck, and pulled up to the pump to get gas. My husband is pumping the gas and I'm setting in the driver's seat filling out a little register we use to keep track of the amount of gas we buy, the truck mileage, the date when we fill up, the quantity of gas we buy, and the amount of money we spend on fuel. And, as I'm filling out the register I happen to look up and a vehicle is pulling into the Shell station, it goes down the row of pumps, and stops in front of our truck.
A woman and a girl get out of the vehicle and go into the station. The person left in the vehicle (I thought it was an ugly, skinny woman) is setting in the vehicle waiting for us to get done. I'm thinking, now why doesn't that woman go around and get in back of me so she can pull up to the pump when we're done instead of getting in front of me when I'm going to exit the pump to the right to get back on I-25 South. She's going to have to back up a little so I can get out.
My husband finishes pumping the gas, gets in the truck, and hands me the pump receipt so I can finish filling out the register. I'm filling out the register, and I say to my husband, "Why doesn't that ugly woman back up because I'm going out that way?" His response is, "That's not a woman, it's a man, and I don't know why he is in the way." So, I finish with the register and put it back in the glovebox. I started the truck and motioned for this guy to back up a little so I can get out of his way.
The guy shakes his head "no" and motions for me to exit to the left, go all the way around the pumps, and exit the station that way. I shake my head "no" and motion I want to exit to the right and get back on the highway. He just shakes his head "no." I look at my husband and say, " What's the matter with this guy? Why doesn't he just get the hell out of my way?" My husband says, " Just go left and go around because he isn't moving." So, I motion once more to the guy to move back a little so I can get out to the right. "If you don't move that thing, I'm going to run you over," I said in a low voice.
My husband says to me again, "Just go to the left, he isn't moving." Well, ya know, my husband is probably right, why make a big deal out of it; but, damn I was there first and he had all the other pumps to go to, so what is his problem? So, I made up my mind that I was going to the right and get on the highway, even if I have to drive over him. I have a loaded down truck and he has a small SUV type vehicle that I think I can squash.
Now let us pause for a moment to clarify what I'm thinking. My husband and I are driving a Ford Explorer Sportrac truck that we bought new back in 2007; and I've been shopping at IKEA and Castle Rock Outlet Mall, so the truck is loaded. In the state of New Mexico, where we live, it is only required that you put a state license plate on the back of the vehicle; you can put whatever you want on the front. Since the Ford dealer, where we purchased the truck, wanted to put an advertisement plate for his dealership on the front, and we didn't want to give him free advertising, we put our old Alaskan license plate on the front. We lived in Alaska back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. OK, now back to the story.
I decided that I was going my way and to heck with this guy, so, I put the truck in drive, inched my way forward so that I was sure I wouldn't hit his vehicle, to make my husband happy. Slowly I turned the truck to the right and inched my way past him until I got even with his rolled down window. I pushed the button and rolled down my window, Then I looked him in the eye and said, "Why the hell can't you just move back a little?" and his answer was, "Do you think you're still driving in Alaska?"
There, that was it, it was finally out. His reason for doing the whole thing was that he assumed that because we had an Alaskan license plate on the front of our truck, that we were Alaskans and he was going to show us he was an asshole from Colorado which made him superior to us. Instead of finding out where we were from, and instead of trying to be gracious to out-of-state visitors, he had to be an asshole.
Well, my comment was, "If I WERE from Alaska, I'd have just driven over your ass, cause that's how us Alaskans are."
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