Ancient Aztecs

One benefit of being slightly older than my peers in school is my age gets me a few extra perks. For instance, when I traveled out of state with two colleagues and we rented a car, I was the only one who could drive it; I was 25, everyone else was 24 or younger, and they would have had to pay more for insurance.

Woo hoo!

The car rental place even upgraded our car to a Pontiac Aztec, for free! And because I was using a platinum credit card, I didn’t have to pay extra for the insurance. Things are looking up!

After the event, I drove us back to the hotel. Along the way, I needed to change lanes so I could turn right in a block or two. I started to signal and checked over my shoulder. No one was there. So I started to drift into the right lane.

And then my colleague in the rear passenger’s-side seat started to shout at me. “Don’t change lanes! Someone’s there!”

What? I had already checked and there was no one.

I checked the side mirror just to make sure and…there she was. Some lady driving a compact car in the right lane.

She pulled up until her bumper was in front of my bumper…and gave me the bird. I nodded politely and laid my hand out indicating that she was welcome to proceed.

Stupid rental car. My personal car is smaller and lower to the ground. All I have to do is look over my shoulder and I can see anything that might obstruct my movement.

But with the Aztec, I have to use all of the mirrors to see what is happening around me. My personal car doesn’t have a side-mirror on the right.

Newman!

I guess I shouldn’t blame the Aztec. Just my inexperience. Other larger cars would have the a similar configuration. However, I can blame the Aztec for putting a bar across the middle of the back window. Which, of course, has nothing to do with my inability to notice when I am about to run someone off the road.