Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

I had a "Karen" moment today, although my Karen was actually a male.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while filling icebags to combat the continuing pain in my surgically-repaired knee:

** There are times when I wish I thought quicker on my feet, as it were. Often, opportunities arise in my life in which I realize later that I should have dome something as a counter to an aggravating situation, and had I just been thinking, I could have done it and felt a lot better about myself afterward. 

Here's one such situation, in which I found myself the target of a "Karen-like" situation.

Earlier today, I had just gotten out of a physical therapy session for my knee, which is still hurting like hell even though the surgery took place on Aug. 11. To cheer myself up, I stopped at the new Patriot Place Starbucks for an egg nog latte, and then headed back to to my home in the neighboring town of Mansfield. Once I was on the divided portion of Route 140, I stopped at the Forbes Boulevard light and turned left, onto the new rotary and then to Copeland Drive, where I needed to make a stop at the post office.

Immediately upon making the turn onto Copeland Drive, I noticed in the rear-view mirror that there’s a white Buick sedan that's practically riding up onto my trunk. In the rear view mirror, I could see the driver is gesturing wildly at me. So after I pass the new pre-school on the left, I looked at my speedometer and it said 36 … 4 miles per hour below the limit at that point on the highway, but the speed goes down to 30 less than a half-mile later, by the time you get to Giles Place, where the post office is located. So I pay the gesturing soul no mind, slow down legally, put on the signal for a right turn and I turn … first into Giles Place and then into the parking lot of the post office. 

The Buick follows me in.

Suspecting something was awry, I stayed in the car as the guy raced into the post office. He’s about 5-foot-2, and he seems to be channeling his inner Little Stevie Van Zandt, including the do-rag on what I suspect was a bald head. And he’s eyeballing me, so I let him go his way.

These days, given the knee soreness, it takes me longer than usual to exit my car. By the time I make it to my feet and the left knee stops wobbling, the impatient Buick driver was walking past my car and started mouthing off at me, as if he wants a confrontation. But when I stepped from behind the door and he realized I’m almost a foot taller than he is, he started moving quickly toward his car, which was parked nearer to the street. 

All the while, he kept blathering about cameras, and insurance, and God knows what, so I turned to him and said in my best lower-octave voice, “What is your problem?” By this time he was standing next to his car and stayed there, but he continues to yell at me -- about me going 30 in a 40 zone (as I said, I was going 36) and slamming on my brakes (I signaled and decelerated safely before turning into Giles Place), and then he said he has a camera in his car and he’s going to “report me to insurance.” 

Whatever that means. Given that I currently get the largest-possible safe-driver discount from my insurance company, I'd think my agents would be rather pleased.

Now, I'm not particularly proud of myself for this part. Again, this is where I wish I reacted faster. This was classic "Karen" behavior -- you've seen the videos where deranged individuals harangue unsuspecting or undeserving people for perceived slights, and those videos go viral on the Internet as just another example of how fucked up our society has become in the Donald Trump Era -- and yes, I don't doubt for a minute that my runty accuser was MAGA through and through.

But I didn't grab for my phone -- even though it was in easy reach, clipped to the front of my fleece jacket as it was. Instead, I allowed my baser instincts to take over. As he got in his car, still muttering about how cars come with cameras, I mustered my best baritone and said, in a tone both annoyed and dismissive, “Go fuck yourself.”

As I said, I'm not proud of that. But I swear I will learn from it. I will train myself to whip out the iPhone, and I promise I'll use every media source at my disposal to shame the next reprobate that wants to act threatening toward me just because I was driving safely. 

And to be honest, Little Stevie's behavior makes me wonder about something -- the fact that there's a new school and an urgent care clinic (frequented by seniors, in fact) on that street, and yet the Buick bomber was pissed that I was going 36 mph? What did he want to do, go 60? And where the hell are cops when you need them?

"What a maroon," as Bugs Bunny would say.

** The MIAA Board of Directors should have the winter sports recommendations from the association's COVID-19 task force as I am typing this, and from what I have heard, they're not radical departures from the norm at least where the sports themselves are concerned.

I'm hearing there will be some minor changes in out-of-bounds plays and jump balls where basketball is concerned, and maybe even a mask-replacement break in each quarter for basketball (and yes, everyone will be wearing masks). I'm also hearing that checking is being preserved in boys' hockey, although the referees will be quick to stop multi-player scrums against the boards.

My guess is that there will be a much later start to the season -- possibly mid-December for practice, and no games until the new year. That will make for a much shorter season, although that's mostly speculation on my part.

We should hear the changes next week. Sad, too, because it should have been the start of preparation for the Thanksgiving football rivalries.

All I can say is that we should all hope for the best -- and do our best to bring those COVID infection rates down by wearing masks and observing social distancing.