Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Getting Screwed at the Drive-Thru

I've been having bad luck at fast food drive-thrus lately. About a week ago we stopped by KFC. The only thing my wife will eat there is a chicken pot-pie, so when the big board buzzbox told me they were out of pot-pies I hit the gas and swerved around the car ahead of me to leave. I barely realized that I had nearly killed some old man wearing a leather jacket as he came zipping through the drive-thru corridor on his motorized wheelchair. I felt bad but I am also a little upset at the man because what the hell was he doing cruising in my blindspot in a fast food drive thru in his wheelchair? I'm just glad I didn't hit him. It's probably the closest I've ever come to killing someone.

Tonight it was wet and miserable weather so we let the kids talk us into taking them to Burger King to play on the slides again. But I wasn't going to eat there. So on the way home I stopped for some tacos. Waiting to place an order, I was five feet away with my headlights on when I saw the backup lights on the Infiniti sedan in front of me turn on. When the car started to roll back toward me I laid on the horn. She backed right into our van anyway.

The driver stepped out of her car and approached to assess the damage. She said, "I didn't see you there. And I looked. But I stopped as soon as I heard you yell (referring to my horn, I guess)."

I immediately forgave her as I was certain she was utterly retarded. But I did have misgivings about letting her continue to operate that big piece of machinery. I didn't realize the "High Maintenance" bumper sticker on the rear of her car applied to everyone in her vicinity. It does. The taco sellers were all pumped up about it, as they had watched the whole thing on their parking lot cameras.

No real harm has been done but maybe I'll start going inside and just ordering to go instead.

5 comments:

Native Minnow said...

Did it do anything to the van?

flieswithoutwings said...

no, I think we connected on our license plates and the plastic bumper just popped back into place.

ShootingStar said...

I'm a pretty big beliver in signs. The world always has something to say to us. In your case, it probably isn't just telling you to stop going through drive throughs--It's telling you to stop eating fast food. The world is smart. You should listen.

PsychDoctor said...

That sounds like my experience with a huge RC Willey Semi-Truck. I was leaving my home in Santaquin and got stuck behind an RC Willey Semi. Our street ended at a road that formed a T shape. The Semi Truck had attempted to turn left, but decided he wanted to turn right...so he put his truck in reverse and without looking behind him, started backing up. I desperately tried to get the stickshift into reverse, at the same time trying to lay on the horn. The semi kept advancing, hit my bumper, and pushed me back in the gravel about 3 feet. Then he finally realized I was there, stopped, came back and apologized. No harm was done to the car, so it was no big deal, but it was a little nerve-wracking to feel that powerless to do anything.

Glad the wheelchair man's guardian angel was looking out for him.

Anonymous said...

I'm with shooting star...either listen to the signs, or deal with getting screwed.