Interesting 24 hrs........

[Hound dog]

It started yesterday evening. Nichole and boyfriend had passed through our town to go to his grandparents for dinner. On the way back through town on the trip home, her boyfriend stopped at a gas station not far from where my bff and her astranged husband used to live.

About that time we had a short power outage.

Nichole's boyfriend was paying for the gas via credit card. Well due to the power outage.....it messed up the station's credit card machine.

I know this because.........

Nichole calls me.

Nichole: OMG mom I'm about to die.

Me: What did boyfriend do now? (lol)

Nichole: We stopped at ****** station for gas. And boyfriend is standing in line, and bff's astranged husband is standing right behind him talking to him. And they've been in there FOREVER! And it's killing me!

Me: Do not, I repeat, don't you dare go in there. You'll just make it worse.

Nichole: But they've been standing there FOREVER, and bff's husband keeps talking to him........

Me: how much is your bill? You dad will bring you the cash so you can get out of there instead of waiting for them to call it in to the credit card place.

Nichole: Mom you don't have to do that........but it's 15 bucks........and he keeps talking to boyfriend!

husband has passed by my desk at this point and I told him he was going to go pay for Nichole's gas.....did he have 15 bucks in cash. Once I told him why husband went to grab his coat......

Nichole:: oh hold on mom, looks like they're done. Here he comes......

Told her to tell me about it when she got home.

Now for those who don't recall, my deceased bff's husband is the one who took advantage of Nichole about a year ago........Just mentioning the guys name enrages her boyfriend. One of the reasons they moved was due to this jerk. Nichole bruised his over inflated ego.........and now he won't leave her alone if he spots her........evidently boyfriend now too.

I asked her what the jerk said to boyfriend. He asked boyfriend if she was Nichole's man, then offered to pay cash for the gas.......ugh boyfriend pretended he didn't exist. lol

Got through what could have turned very violent and very nasty with an enormous sigh of relief.

Today I go with easy child, sister in law and the grands to go to lunch with Nichole, boyfriend and aubrey. This is an hour and a half drive.

Well we're going along just fine on the rural highway. sister in law comes up on this white caddy with an elderly couple in it. He was NOT tailgating, even when the caddy slowed way down. He WAS waiting for an opportunity to pass the guy as by this point he was going like 40 mph.

Suddenly the guy slams on his brakes. We were all like wth?? sister in law almost hit him. sister in law still does not tail gate and is trying to get an opening to pass cuz the caddy is going even slower.

The caddy hits the brakes again. sister in law almost hit him. Then he hit them again!

Well about that time there was an opening to pass. sister in law passed, then stopped the car dead on the highway and the caddy almost hit us.

sister in law was enraged. easy child was attempting to keep him in the car. I kept my mouth shut as I was tempted to do exactly what sister in law was going to do..... sister in law got out of the car to give the old guy a piece of his mind. And bawled the guy out for attempting to make him hit him 3 times when he has babies in the car!!

And of course he said it much more colorfully than that,. Then he got in the car and we were off again., easy child was furious!

I, on the other hand, was hiding a grin of pride.

Ok yes I know it could've turned really ugly. Yes I know sister in law probably scared that old guy to death (guessing about 60ish), but the man WAS purposely trying to get sister in law to hit him! If sister in law wasn't such a good driver, we would've hit him.

The jerk deserved it. Actually he deserved a punch in the face. in my opinion As his antics could've caused a multiple car accident, which is what enraged sister in law.

Yeah. sister in law should have stayed in the car and just kept driving. But his family's welfare had been threatened by someone acting like an idiot. He reacted. in my opinion he reacted appropriately given the situation. Even IF he should've stayed in the car. Thus the attempt to hide the smile of pride.lol

That old man could've caused many deaths on the highway today because he wanted to act like an *ss. Maybe someone else had tailgated him before we came along and riled him up........maybe he just wanted sister in law to hit him to collect insurance money and sue. Who knows.

easy child was upset at first that it appeared I sided with sister in law........until I explained why I felt the way I did.

Been an eventful 24 hrs.

 

[KTMom91]

Glad everyone is safe...and there was no punching of anyone's face.

 

[HaoZi]

I agree with KT on that.

 

[susiestar]

Wow, y'all just can't escape the drama, can you?

Sorry that the guy who took advantage of Nichole is now harrassing her. Can she get a TRO if it continues? She IS keeping track of everything, isn't she? I am glad that her boyfriend handled it all appropriately by not responding to the guy. That is a sign he is growing up, isn't it!?!

I don't blame sister in law for bawling the guy out either! What a fool and a nasty person to do that. Ohio is more lawsuit happy than any other place I have been. I was shocked at the many things people will try to do in order to sue someone, and sadly this is a strategy I have seen more than a few times. The Alzheimer freeway (Cross County Hwy in Cincy) is NOTORIOUS for this, or was the first year or 2 they opened all of it. With the way it meanders around with the curves, and they had NOTHING between the different directions of traffic but a little strip of grass even with all the twisty curves, it had enough accidents. Stunts like that one caused people to not just hit cars going the same direction, but to cross the median and hit cars on the other side also.

in my opinion this man wanted to get hit and then sue you. Bless sister in law's safe driving, paying attention, and good instincts!!!

I hope things get calmer this week.

 

[DammitJanet]

Wow and wow. Cant say I blame sister in law for doing what he did. I would have probably wanted to do the same but by the time I could climb my ancient self out of the car, the old man would have probably driven off...lol. I know there are people who do the stop suddenly routine to get insurance payouts. Seen it plenty of times. And boy do they get the worst cases of whiplash when they get hit! They can get hit at 10 mph in an old junker but suddenly they cant move...lol. Makes me furious.

 

[Marguerite]

Whether it was the right thing to do or not, depends a great deal on what is acceptable in that area. I've done it here in Australia - stopped to tell someone off for idiotic behaviour - but in some parts of the world, it can get you killed. I'm female, I an also get away with more than a bloke can.

Soon after my disability became an issue but while I was still working, I was driving to work in our distinctive and tiny mini-van. Really tiny - motorbikes have a bigger motor. A very large truck was riding my tail, dangerously so because we were in thick traffic. My usual trick is to touch the brakes enough to make the tail lights come on, but not slow the car. I did that, and the truck backed off for a little; but he soon realised I was not slowing, and went back to tailgating so close that I could only see the truck grille in my back window. Then we stopped at traffic lights, and I baled out. I knew those lights, knew how long I had. I had my walking stick with me and I brandished it, shouting full volume (I have very good vocal projection!) for the guy to back off, stop tailgating and harassing me when I had a carload of kids. I yelled that he was being a bully and clearly getting his jollies trying to scare me; I said I was not scared and asked him to step down from his truck and deal with me like a man. That, or back up. He backed up. I think (I hope!) that having a crippled woman shouting at him so loud that everyone could hear, and pointing at him so everyone could see, embarrassed the crud out of him.

It worked for me. But husband has pointed out, that if he had tried that, he would have had his head very publicly kicked in.

Scary about that creep hassling Nichole. I've got my own creep who these days seems to have mostly forgotten about me, but could start up again if he decides he's bored... lives nearby so I'm constantly staying below his radar. I dealt with the problem by documenting stuff and as soon as I had enough, I began legal action.

With bullies, you need to show that you will not be cowed, and you will not stand for mistreatment.

Marg