The other day I was driving to work, which is something I do about 5 times per week. On the way, I came to a four way stop.
As I approached the stop sign, I noticed there was a motorcycle sitting there, as if he was waiting for his turn to go. There wasn't anyone else at the intersection, so I'm not sure what he was waiting for. (I'm noticing this from several hundred feet away.)
He was sitting at the stop sign, but was parked way over to the right side of the road, as if he was going to turn right.
While he sat there, pondering the universe and his role in it, a girl pulled up to the intersection. She wanted to turn left, so she pulled up to his left.
At this point, I arrived at the intersection, the picture below shows the layout of our story, in case my description was faulty. (I know that, at this point, the motorcycle man has not yet been cranky, and the girl is not yet confused, so pardon the labels for a moment.)
Car assumed the same thing and began to pull forward. That's when Motorcycle decided that A)he was done pondering the universe and wanted to go now and B)the universe needed to know that he was cranky.
He stuck his hand out in front of the car's windshield and wagged his finger as if to say, "no". He also shook his head to make the same communication. The car stopped, and the girl driving looked really confused. That's when the motorcycle proceeded to drive forward through the intersection while simultaneously flipping the bird back at the car as he drove away.
The girl still looked confused, but she made her left turn and moved on with her life. I then proceeded to drive forward, and pondered how I wished that I had a dash cam or similar device to record the strange event.
Having relayed that story, I want to take you back to my first statement. I don't understand people. They don't even make sense.
I've tried to put myself in Motorcycle Man's brain, and try to figure out what made him so cranky. He obviously felt he was entitled to go through the intersection first, since he was there first. But he had been sitting at the intersection for at least 30 seconds that I saw. In addition, it's not like her turning left made it so that he couldn't go straight.
What is the etiquette he was expecting her to follow? If someone is pulled over at an intersection, almost on the sidewalk, are you supposed to pull over behind them while they ponder and pray about when they want to proceed through the intersection?
Obviously there was a misunderstanding between the two. She didn't do what he expected, and he didn't do what any normal human being would expect. But why get cranky about it? Why flip her off? Why can't we all just be nice to each other?
I don't understand people.
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