Need to rant...

[martureo]

I just had to vent a little bit. I know from personal experience that the world is full of idiots, but for some reason I needed to get just a little bit more validating experience last night. (A statement which will show it’s irony as you keep reading)

So I had 516 miles on the tank last night as I was leaving work. (stock 84 300D ~300,000 miles on it) The reserve light had been on for two days now (it’s 20 miles one way to work) and I didn’t want to fill up at the expensive station near my work. I’ve put around 560 miles on a tank before and have never completely run the tank dry, so I hoped that even with the loss of mpg caused by winter mix of diesel I’d be able to make it the 19 miles to the station I wanted to fill up at.

I didn’t make it.

I ended up getting stuck on a two lane road with no shoulders and had embankments on either side of the road. It was also starting to snow. Awesome.

So I flip on the 4 ways, shut off the headlights and running lights and wait for traffic to die down a minute before I get out and walk behind the car. I got out my trusty Euro warning triangle and set it out about 20ft behind the car, then went back to the car to grab a flare. I usually carry about 10 30-minute flares, I get them from a captain of the county Police department. (I met him at an accident scene when I was the first responder and was complaining that I’d used my last flare, he responded that he’d supply me with new flares as long as he worked there). Anyway, I set a flare down about 10-15 feet in front of the triangle because it was starting to get darker out. (5:35pm at the time)

I went back and called my wife and then called MBZ roadside assistance. There are two dealerships near me and they said it might take 30-45 minutes to get there. (It took a total of 70 minutes because the driver got lost and was looking for me on the wrong road)

While I was waiting I’d see people fly past me in the opposing lane, others would wait and slowly creep around, while still others would wait for traffic to appear in the opposing lane before driving by next to them, three cars wide across the road. But with all the idiots and overcautious people (I had one woman sit behind me for a full minute before she felt safe… I know, because I was able to sit there and time her with my watch), I still can’t figure out what I saw next.

It was probably the third flare I had out, standing at about a 45 degree angle from the ground, that I see some guy creeping up really close to the flare. He finally decides to move around me and RUNS OVER THE FLARE. He barely missed hitting my triangle as well. WHO RUNS OVER A FLARE?!!?!

He put the flare out so I ran out and being unable to re-strike that flare I pulled out another and used the new to reignite the old one (I figured more light is better). But then 15 minutes later the roadkill flare had just run out and someone else runs over the lit flare. OMG! What the heck!?! Now I have to wait again for traffic to die back down and go put another out.

Before the MBZ guys got there I had three people run over flares. I had 8 flares in my trunk when I started (that should have lasted me 4 hours in total) and now I have one left.

I know I’m the idiot who decided to drive on a back road with no fuel in his tank, and slowed traffic for an hour and a half. BUT WHAT TYPE OF MORON RUNS OVER FLARES? Especially flares that are propped up?