Where Reanie goes to school is in a neighborhood where it is customary for parents to drive their kids to school for the .5 to 1 mile walk it may be. I'm not judging them at all, as I'll take our scooter the .5 mile to the bus stop to pick up Noah so he doesn't have to drag his drum kit all the way home.
Anyway, in the mornings, it is an absolute whipping to get Reanie to school, as she does have to be driven to school because we can't leave her at the bus stop in the mornings while getting Buddy to school (no buses for him), and because Noah doesn't always ride the bus from here, so he can't wait with her.
As I said, anyway...
So I'm in the daily traffic jam in front of Reanie's school. I never wait in the car line to drop her off at the door, as doing so would make Buddy late for school, and because I'll eat my brain by just sitting there waiting to move 5 feet, whereas I'm ok being 5 min late if it means we kept moving. So I usually go into a nearby cul-de-sac, park the car, walk Reanie 100yard or so to the crosswalk in front of the school, where a teacher works that crosswalk, and from there Reanie can get to the school and to class by herself.
Today there was even more congestion than usual, and we sat parked in traffic for 5 minutes, just a couple car lengths from the crosswalk. Thinking I'd help get Reanie to school on time, I told her she could go ahead and get out and walk in the grass to the crosswalk instead of waiting until we went all the way around to our normal parking spot. I thought I was helping move things along since we were stopped anyway.
In getting out of the car, she fell (in the grass). No big deal, but as I said, we'd been sitting there in traffic for 5 minutes. Of course, that's when traffic ahead of me started moving. With Reanie on the ground and her backpack under the car, the car behind me lays into the horn. Not the "beep beep, traffic is moving again" honk, but the "@%$&! YOU are the cause of everything bad and are probably a terrorist" honk.
And when I got out to help her, the car behind me decided that there would be no break in the honking, so they just laid into it with a middle finger extended out the window and a HHHOOOOOOOOOONNNNNKK. Good morning.
I gathered Reanie and helped her get composed, and she went on up to the teacher at the crosswalk. At my car door, I looked back to the lady behind me and was going to give some "I'm sorry" gesture. She rolled up her window (middle finger was out the window), started honking again, and her two kids got out of the car and walked to the crosswalk, while I just stood there looking dumber than normal.
I couldn't even think of something clever to say, though she appeared to be swearing up a storm. So I opened my door...
...then decided to tie my shoe before getting in the car.
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