By Jordan W. Charness
Usually I am a very calm driver. I am not one of those who let the actions of other people bother me while I am behind the wheel. I don’t swear at drivers who unintentionally or even intentionally cut me off. Road rage is just not my thing. But like everyone else I am human.
I must admit, however, that on Friday when I was late for work and somewhat annoyed by all of the construction detours and delays I did get upset when I came to a corner a block away from my office and a truck that was driving on the wrong side of the road pulled across the front of my vehicle blocking me from making a right hand turn that I needed to make.
I admit that I honked my horn and gave the driver a nasty look in frustration. It was then that I noticed that his pickup truck was festooned with transportation safety flags. The driver of the truck rolled down his window. He very sweetly asked me to back up. I asked him why and he suggested that I look to my right.
I did. I saw two trucks carrying what looked like the main stages of the Saturn five rocket lumbering down the street. These things were huge. I have no idea what they were but was amazed that anything so big could or would be transported on a major downtown street in a truck. Each truck carried one giant white cylinder on its massive trailer. The cylinder itself hung out over both sides of the flatbed and the truck used up a good chunk of both sides of the road. I happily backed up to get out of the way.
The truck that had blocked me was just doing its job. The driver was clearing the road to allow these giant vehicles to pass. To my even greater surprise the giant truck tried to make a right-hand turn onto a side street that had parked cars on both sides. It was obvious from where I sat that there was no way that it could make it, at least not in one go. It didn’t.
I always enjoy watching professionals do their job. No matter what the field if somebody does something properly it’s impressive. These truck drivers were impressive. In order to make the turn the trailer truck driver had to do some serious maneuvering. While backing up I thought that it was going to hit one of the street signs hanging on a pole right in front of me. It did.
