'Caravans!!!' 'DON'T EVER SAY THAT WORD!!!!!' by Kara
Monday, May 14, 2007 at 7:24 AM

First off, watch this. Embrace it, enjoy it, make it viral. You know you wanna.

Secondly, let me talk about something I've rarely, if ever, talked about in a rant: nice drivers.

Last night, I made it home and discovered that Goldy's right rear wheel was flat. I called AAA and had them stick the spare on, but it was a rather ... inadequate? ... spare. Nonetheless, I had to come to work early-ish, and thus wouldn't have time to get a proper tyre on beforehand. (I'll be doing that at lunch today.) My only real choice was to take the long, slow way to work, which I really hate doing. Seeing as I live right outside Colonial Williamsburg with its 25 MPH speed limit, I get fairly annoyed with going slowly fairly, well, quickly.

So Goldy and I set out on his puny right rear wheel this morning, taking the partially-scenic route to my place of work. It wasn't long before I saw a car starting to tailgate me. Great, they were either gonna push me or cut me off. Normally I would've just sped up (either to get them off my tail or keep them from passing me as closely as people tend to), but then I looked in my mirror and saw something I don't think I've ever seen before.

They slowed down a bit, looked more closely at my tyres, and then backed off.

Now, I was going the exact speed limit (fine, I'll admit that's rare for me, but can anyone here say any differently?), but in this area speed limits are more guidelines than actual rules. So to see someone actually slow down and give me space -- and keep giving me space -- warmed my heart. Well, as much as my heart can be warmed.

When the car turned off at an intersection, I saw another bearing up on me, clearly annoyed (as I often get) at having been pinned behind a slow car, and seeing quite rightly that I was the culprit. She covered the space between us, came up as close as she could ... then slowed down a bit, looked more closely at my tyres, and backed off.

Twice, guys. Two drivers actually gave me leeway in my time of need. Now, later a third one didn't, but two out of three really ain't bad in a case like this. So I guess I'll try to hang on to this tiny sliver of respect for the human race ... at least until the commute home.

If you have been, watch this.