I decided to head to 7-11 for a Super Big Gulp after my jog today because, well, you can never have too much Diet Coke, and I had the most annoying experience.
They are doing all this road work on the four-lane road that runs in front of my apartment complex. So, there's like ten dump trucks parked on the streets around here, and all these construction people, and they've pulled up the top layer of asphalt for about twenty blocks up and down the street. I pulled out in Guacamole Kid's car to head to 7-11 (just up the street) and encountered my first flagger. Although there is a perfectly good light there, and the flagger didn't appear to be doing any traffic direction in addition to the light, he still made a point of waving me through. Two blocks up, yet another flagger. She was standing on the side of the road, away from traffic, with the "Stop" side of the sign pointed at me. However, since she wasn't anywhere near my lane, I didn't stop. She didn't seem to care. Then, another couple of blocks, another flagger. This one didn't have a sign...maybe he's on double secret sign probation or something. He waved me through yet another perfectly good stoplight with his bare hand. Frankly, when I drove through the bare handed flagger's area I felt like yelling "You can't tell me what to do! You're not the boss of me, Mr. Bare Hands No Sign Flagger Guy!" Finally, a mere one block later, and perhaps one block from 7-11, ANOTHER damn flagger. This one was the worst. As each car would go by, she would tip the sign right towards the car and sort of wave it in the driver's face. And by "driver's face" I mean "my face." Seriously, I get it, "Slow." I was only going 15mph on a 40mph stretch of road -- no offense to Guac. Kid, but if I go much slower the car will stall out -- he did say something the other day about "adjusting the idle" or something.
Anyway, on the way home from 7-11 The Sign Bandit waved her sign in my face again..."STOP!" But, I had to stop because another construction vehicle was stopped in front of me blocking the whole road -- so see how the hostility was totally unnecessary? My God. I feel like I need to have a beer and relax after one lousy trip to 7-11...it was the Odyssey of the Flaggers.
