Don't You Hate It When...? (28/11/11) Sense and Senility

Don't get me wrong...

I love old people as much as the next person, and I know a few "oldies but goodies" whom I have a great time with... But lately, I've been hit by a large dose of Senile Rage, and I needed a moment to rant it out...

First of all, am I the only person who thinks that certain people over the age of 70 should have their driver's licence revoked? Seriously, I have lost count of the amount of times that I'd be driving along, minding my own business, when suddenly this little old lady driving in front of me randomly brakes forcefully because she thought she saw something passing... Or when you driving happily in an empty road, without a care in the world, and all of a sudden your daydream of being in a 50's convertible wearing sunglasses and a scarf around your head come crashing to a halt, when you reach an old guy in his falling-apart-but-still-technically-works Ford from 1961 going at 20mph in a 70mph zone...

Now one of the most recent episodes that happened to me, and that made me most aggravated was last Friday, when I was driving to the Salesian Oratory in Sliema in the evening. As I was turning from Sir Adrian Dingli road to Karm Galea street, I find a group of about 7 senior citizens yapping away at the very beginning of the road I was turning into... Now, thankfully, I always turn slowly as it is quite a sharp turn, so I didn't end up with any pieces of dentures or toupees stuck to my windscreen. Reminding myself that these people had been around on this Earth before me, and probably remembered WWII clearly, I patiently bit my tongue and waited for them to notice my car's presence (not too difficult, considering I've got a modestly-sized Kia Avella). 

However, instead of seeing me, apologizing for standing in the street and moving their conversation to the pavement, they just gave me some really dirty looks, and a couple of them started going "People have to stop turning into this road so fast!"... My jaw literally dropped so far, it almost hit my gas pedal... To avoid jumping out of the car and knocking a couple of cobwebby heads together, I took a deep breath, and prepared to keep driving into the road. Not satisfied with having just annoyed me, the old darlings came up to my window as I was driving and started telling me off and shouting "Mhux suppost idduru daqsekk malajr f'din it-triq!" ("You shouldn't turn into this road so fast!")... That's when my temper went all the way to 10 and I shouted right back "Mhux suppost toqod tparla f'nofs it-triq!" ("You shouldn't stand around in the middle of the road yapping!")

It's the first time I ever yelled at an old person...