Give Way Never

I saw something interesting on the way home from the grocery store a couple days ago. I had already seen something funny inside the grocery store, you see: There was a grown man- one who I assume was a father, for he was pushing a shopping cart with a kid in it- trying to make the same kid behave. That in itself is not at all out of the ordinary or interesting, but it got more so when I heard him say "Are you kidding me, bro?"

It was while I frantically typed that into my phone before I forgot it that I saw something more. I was walking along Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood, which is a difficult one to cross in spite of being of rather modest size. There was an old man on a bicycle who was either trying to cross Magnolia  or was trying merely to enter traffic and travel along it. Either way, he got into a rather interesting scrape.

While trying to get at least a bit across the road, he found a truck competing with him for the space. He forced his way out in front of it, very likely jeopardizing his life. The driver of the truck was naturally aggrieved, and honked at the old man incessantly in hopes of getting him out of the way, but to no avail. The old man proved intractable, continuing to ride ahead out in front of the truck and slowing it down considerably.

Neither was the old man content to suffer the anger of the driver. While continuing to pedal forward, he turned himself around enough on the bike to face the driver and to flip him off, which did nothing to defuse the tension of the situation. I shook my head in disbelief as I walked on home, though I took some considerable pleasure in relating the story later. I suppose everyone around here has seen something like that.