yeah, i know i'm supposed to stop

yesterday i'm biking home and i come to a lazy little 4 way stop about 6 blocks from home. it's a quiet, muggy day and as i approach the corner there is a car coming in the opposite direction from me and nobody else around. the car i'm facing is going straight and so am i.

as i approach the stop sign on my bike i realize that i'm not in the way of the car coming in the opposite direction, there are no pedestrians or any reason to stop at this stop sign. it's a quiet lazy street and i've built up a lot of kinetic energy that i don't want to cancel around the corner from my house. as i reach the stop sign the car across from me decides to put his left turn signal on right in front of me and i lay on the brakes to avoid the collision that apparently i'm about to get into.

i stop in time and the car proceeds into the intersection going straight ahead, turns his signal off and rolls his window down to tell me that i'm supposed to stop.

yes i realize that i'm supposed to stop at a stop sign but at the same time i wasn't in anyone's way and there was no danger of me getting hurt ... until you turned on your signal. so i laid on the brakes, nearly killed myself just so that you could tell me that i'm supposed to stop. you didn't even have to turn, and you didn't turn so i still wasn't in your way.

i'm supposed to stop. hear me when i say that. but you sir, are an ass. thanks for nearly breaking my neck when i wasn't in your way or anyone else's way. i'm so glad that the heart attack you gave me taught me a lesson.

the lesson i learned though wasn't about stopping for stop signs, it's that people are vindictive jerks who will go out of their way to prove that assumptions shouldn't be made. i assumed i was not in your way and you proved that you would just rather force me to learn a lesson i didn't actually have to learn.

whatever, i learned. i learned not to assume anything because you know what happens when you assume? you make an ass out of you ...