so THAT'S why they were glaring at me

This morning I went on an excursion with my mom. She's a dear woman, who I adore. And many of you are aware that she is deaf. She talks a lot and doesn't expect much of an answer back, which is fortunate when she's the one doing the driving and would have to turn to read my lips. Yikes!

This morning's excursion was fairly uneventful except for this one thing that I am going to tell you about. (Duh! Why would I write to tell you that I went with my mom this morning and nothing interesting happened?)

When I got into her car, we hadn't driven more than a few yards before some jerk laid on their horn. Mom was blissfully unaware, but I took it upon myself to look around to discover the source of the offending honk and maybe even give them a dirty look. The problem was, there wasn't another car in sight. Within a matter of milliseconds I realized that, unwittingly, Mom was the honker. I told her what had happened and we had a good laugh. It turns out, the soft spot for the horn in her car is poorly placed right where she rests her hands while driving.

After a few moments of laughing about the accidental honking, she said to me, "Oh dear. That's why people keep looking at me funny." She explained that often when she's driving, people look at her like she's a mad woman, and she's always wondered why. And one time, she told me, as a man crossed the street in front of her car while she was at a stoplight he stared at her the entire time he crossed, even turning around when he had passed her car to look at her. At the time she shrugged it off assuming there was something wrong with the man.

And after laughing to the point of tears, we regained our composure and I told her, "Well now you know Mom." Honk to your heart's content.