h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I play the Zen card with tailgaters. I only do this when there's another lane open. For some reason, drivers here in Ft. Worth will get right on your tailgate and just ride your bumper all the way down the highway, even when there's plenty of space for them to go somewhere else. They act as if it's your duty to drive as fast as possible so they won't have to pass you in order to break the law.

So I just start slowing down. If the speed limit won't do it, I go five miles slower. And slower, and slower, until finally they give up and jet around me.

R. is an aggressive braker. He'll slam on the brakes if there's a tailgater, which is all well and good, but only if you have full coverage insurance and don't mind a dent in your bumper.

I've often wondered if tailgaters have a problem with depth perception.

On a related note, my rear view mirror just fell off. I got in the car and found it on the floor. *cross*

Did I forget to thank d'E for scribing .
Tailgaters , I just stay at the same speed , turn up the CD player put one hand on the wheel and blank em'

Today the the phone box says 'Kung Fu Panda'

[click for pic http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/2636074097_0160acdcc2.jpg]

I had that moment of sheer panic when I downloaded the update for Tiger, and then my computer restarted...and a gray screen. Yikes! But then a friend of mine with a mac happened to call, and said "just push the start button until it makes a very loud, annoyed beep". Which it did, and then all was right with the world.

32 pages...almost lost. I am so emailing it to myself from now on...

[Mol]

[lil] suffering horribly from an influx of Stupid People

i hate when people pass me when i'm already doing 5-10 over the speed limit, so i rather childishly do the whole 'am i giving you the finger or just resting my chin on my hand' bit?

yeah, i'm a poltroon.

A passive-aggressive poltroon.

<>

That's Mrs. D's way of dealing with them too. She just shrugs her shoulders and says "well, I'm driving an old Micra, what do they expect?"

Friends of ours had her car written off by TWOCers a while back. They'd taken a car from a woman who for some reason thought it a good idea to go to the ATM while her car was unlocked and running. This happened shortly before a LARP weekend so she had to borrow someone elses car to get to the event (Birmingham to Bridgend, not a short journey by any stretch of the imagination).
So anyway, she got herself a new(ish) car... and then the day before the next LARP event someone smashed her windscreen!

Regarding tailgaters: I had a friend whose favorite method of dealing with them during daylight hours was to spontaneously flip on her headlights, which of course also light up in the back, simulating brake lights.

Tailgater's yeah turn the fog lamps on and off a couple of times then apply the brakes...is what I used to do....

Several years ago used to drive a dotto train..US call them land-trains
http://www.eastbournebuses.co.uk/dotto/

And of course several drivers used to get impatient and overtake in the most inappropriate places, used to love putting my foot down, just a touch at the right time to leave the driver sandwiched in the middle of the road facing a traffic bollard as had failed to get by so consequently often was forced to rejoin the traffic several cars behind
one of the joys of that job...

Ooh, I hate that too - whenever I can, I try to position my car so that the person using the emergency lane to pass is thwarted, and has to rejoin the traffic, usually behind where they started in the first place.

Austinites seems to be mostly polite drivers. The exception to this is any time that it precipitates - be it rain or hail or snow or ice, they seem to be completely incompetent at dealing with weather. During the storm, they will all creep around at exceptionally low speeds as if awaiting utter destruction. As soon as the weather breaks, though, it's breakneck speeds - despite the fact that the road is still wet.

/* Waves to Ben, Gw7en, and KerrAvon */

I try to take a deep breath and forget that the other driver is there. Or speed up until there is an acceptable distance, and then immediately slow down to the exact same speed I was going before, again and again, as long as it takes until they give up. I'm often unbelievably patient.

/* Takes the quill pen set out of Zeppo's mouth and admires how the artist delicately carved the bas relief Labrador to so realistically appear to be chewing the quill */

I nearly lost three ink cartridges today, but only the one one was punctured. I can probably find out who was guilty by looking to see if it's Zeppo or Gummo who has cyan teeth.

It's true about Austinites... heck, everybody in Texas freaks out when the weather turns cold. The last ice storm we had, everybody was either creeping around, or driving like a maniac. We just don't know how to behave.

To our credit, we have the worst kind of ice when it freezes. We usually get black ice, which means you can't tell that the road is frozen unless you're on it, and then it's too late.

Good night all.

[mr]

Morning all.

Grey and grim outside, where's Summer gone?

Mornin All

We haven't got the NotSummer yet but it's on it's way later this afternoon.

The Mirror was saying that we've had summer, Magwitch. Mind you, that was the Mirror.

I think I've found the car I want to buy, but would appreciate any thoughts on it.

It's a four year old Suzuki Alto with 18000 miles on the clock.
Benefits: low mileage, 35 quid a year to tax, astonishingly good fuel economy, cheap to buy - it looks like a good trundler.
Downside: slow and noisy on motorways.

My logic is that I'm doing very little motorway driving thee days, and most of that is on the M65 which is more of a visit to retro-land than a motorway. My commute is 15 miles each way, but only 1 mile of that is on a road with a speed limit over 50. I very much like the idea of having a car which just swirls the fuel around and inhales the fumes rather than one which swigs it back like a wino at 10 in the morning.

Any first hand knowledge of them, here in the Atelier?

Ben