Sheer Stupidity

There are people in this world who just practice sheer stupidity. Do idiotic things that make reasonable people drop their jaws in wonder at the lack of common sense. Two examples of this from today:

I was driving north on Route 1 when I noticed a group of kids on bikes. Teenage boys, probably around 13 or 14 years old. Small bikes and no helmets. I immediately slowed down because I don’t trust that people on bikes won’t lose their balance and fall right in front of my vehicle. Luckily I slowed down because, to my amazement, a couple of the boys rode their bikes across the road in front of me. So now there is a group of boys on the left side and some on the right. On a two lane road where people are driving 40 mph.

That was stupid for those boys to do, crossing the road right in front of my vehicle. But the depth of their stupidity hadn’t really been manifested. The next thing the boys did was start playing chicken with the cars! If there was a two or three car length space in between cars, they would cross the road together in front of the cars. Zig zagging up the road causing all the cars to slam on their brakes as the boys crossed back and forth!!

This was not some residential road. This was a major road with traffic traveling at a good clip. Plus they were doing this on a part of the road where there are a number of curves. So they couldn’t really see the extent of the traffic heading towards them. Sheer stupidity!

The second example happened when I was heading back down Route 1 later in the day. Traffic was a little heavy where I was because I was passing by a popular biker bar. A biker bar that was having an antique car show. So a lot of people were slowing down to see the cars and to turn into the parking lot. I slowed down just because I didn’t want to hit anyone who might not be paying attention.

As I passed the biker bar, I noticed there was a steady stream of traffic heading north and a steady stream of traffic on my side heading south. Just as I made note of this, I saw something in my right side mirror. For a split second I thought it was someone on a bike but then I realized it was too big. It was a kid in a small black car passing me on the right! Driving on the shoulder!!

Now I wasn’t slowing to turn, didn’t have my turn signal on and gave no indication that I wasn’t doing anything except driving straight. But this kid felt the need to pass me. Illegally!

I leaned on my horn after he passed me (he drove to fast to use my horn while he was passing me) and his arm shot out of the window of his car and he gave me the finger. Not in a sarcastic casual way but in a angry pissed off way. After I stopped blowing my horn, he put his arm inside so I decided to lean on the horn again just to let him know he was an idiot. His arm popped back out again in the same angry pissed off way. Now that I think about it, I should have kept giving him the horn all the way down the road and just see if his arm would keep popping out. Sort of like a trained monkey. Because that was the extent of his intelligence. Anyone who would do such a stupid thing on a busy road is definitely a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

The one thing I noticed with each one of these incidents is that there wasn’t a cop in sight each time. Never is a cop around when needed, it seems like. Actually that is a bit harsh since I have always noticed that the police do come quickly when called. But I wish they would patrol Route 1 more often. I drive the road a great deal and it seems like people do a number of idiotic things on that particular road and there is never a cop around to catch them doing it. Of course, having said that, I need to be careful to watch my speed for a while since, because they might just start patrolling the road and I would hate to get a ticket. Especially since it would tick me off to get in trouble for speeding when others are doing much more idiotic things on that stretch of road.

The scary thing is that with the extent of people driving while talking on the phone or, worse yet, texting, a lot of drivers may not have noticed the kids playing chicken with the cars or the idiot who likes to pass people on the shoulder. There could have easily been an accident in each case. Then the mother of one of these idiots will cry on the local news about how wonderful her little boy is and how she can’t imagine how this could have happened. Well, not to be harsh, but cry me a river, lady! You raised an idiot and you have to live with the consequences of that. And so does everyone else who is involved in the results of your precious boy’s accident, either by being in the accident or witnessing it. Because it isn’t just the idiots of the world who have to deal with the results of their stupidity but a lot of innocent bystanders. That is the saddest part of sheer stupidity.