Automotive Discombobulations or A Pedestrian View Point

and surrender your booty!  Wait, that's Highwaymen.  Sorry.

     So those of you who read this column on a regular basis know two things.  One, I am a professional pedestrian who loves walking pretty much anywhere I can reach whenever I can and B.  that this has occasionally brought me into conflict with those who prefer motorized vehicular transport.  I also include biking in the same group with pedestrians since both are foot (Feet?) powered.   See http://sometimeass.blogspot.com/2011/05/right-of-way-wrong-in-head.html for an example of my many encounters.  Whelp, today gave me one of the prime examples of such conflicts.
     I was out front working in the yard.  I had cleaned up a bunch of limbs that had fallen during a recent storm and had just started mowing the yard.  It was a beautiful, sunny day with a nice temperature for working outside.  I was enjoying the physical efforts and generally in a decent mood.  First time in a week for that since I have just recently delivered my wife to her new job in our Nation's capital and will not see her for weeks at best.  I was happily humming a song and was just completing a lower cut close to the street when some asshole SCREECHED on his brakes and honked his horn at me.

That's not a targeting sight, peeples.

     ( Now before I continue let me explainify some things for those who don't live anywhere near me.  I live in a very quiet, old neighborhood.  I see maybe 10 or so cars on a given day all day.  Except at the very end of my yard, visibility can be counted in hundreds of feet and the speed limit is 15 MPH.  Okay back to the rant.)
     So this very cranky man leans out his window and starts yelling at me.  He claims that he almost ran into me and that I should be more careful.  He mentioned a few choice words about my ancestry and said "If I had hit you, it would have been all your fault." 
     Now let us ignore the ancestry part (Some of which was eerily accurate.  How did he know?) and focus on the last part.  If he had hit me, it would have been all my fault.  I admit that Pedestrians, Cyclists, Bikers etc share a chunk of responsibility for road safety.  Look both ways, check yourself etc.  If a pedestrian blindly walks out into traffic and gets hit by a car because the driver wasn't expecting stupid, then some of the responsibility rests on the walker.
    Hells, I might have accepted the fact that it could have been my fault except for one teensy little fact.  Folks, his brakes SCREECHED when he slammed to a stop.  That's right, screeched as in "OH CRAP I AM GOING TO FAST!"  Given the clearance on either side of where I was standing, the only reason he would have had to slam on brakes like that was to have been greatly exceeding the speed limit.  In other words, he was braking the law and in the wrong.

Why yes, I do believe he was a little on the slow side.

     So let us recap.  Asshole in car speeding very fast.  Asshole in car almost hits nice old white guy because Asshole is speeding very fast.  Instead of being grateful that he hadn't hit old guy while speeding, Asshole screams and yells blaming the old white dude for almost being hit.  Have no fear.  The old white man (That's me BTW) is just fine and I am sure Asshole is off somewhere else making some other person's day bright.
     Always remember, no matter how you transport yourself, you are sharing the road with other people and other modes of transport.  Take responsibility for your own actions and keep an eye on everyone around you.

End of Rant