Originally Posted by
Minde
Reposted from the Delta Lounge because it seems applicable here, too:
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I think I would categorize the following as a "PoLR hit":
A few days ago, I was driving my car in the far left of a two-lane lefthand turn onto a highway. It was quite crowded because of an accident further up the road, so the lines started to form in the median lane. I had maybe 10 cars ahead of me and a bunch more lining up behind me.
Suddenly I see movement out of the corner of my eye, look to my left, and there's a car less than two feet from me *on my left*, maybe a foot further back than I was. Technically she was not quite in oncoming traffic, because the the median was very wide, but it was close, and I could see the oncoming cars swerving a bit. No one else was behind her, so I think she was just attempting a shortcut.
The car in front of me moved up a bit, so I did, too, and she moved up closer to me. I started feeling panicky, pressured, and very annoyed. She didn't let up so to preserve my car's paint I finally let her in. As I was doing so, LSE next to me says, "Either let her in or go for it, don't play the middle ground."
After she had wedged her way in, LSE says, "That would have been a great time for a long, loud car horn blast." They were right, of course.
As I finally turned onto the highway, my hands were shaking and I held back tears. Internally, I berated myself for being weak, not just in letting the car push me around but for being so upset about it. A former SLE boss's voice came echoing back to me, "You cry too easily."
LSE laid back to take a nap, and for the next hour I tried to process why that whole situation bothered me so much. Interestingly, I also became increasingly sleepy, though I'm not sure if that ties directly in or not...