Stupid should hurt

So Sunday night, we had a fair bit of rain.

Actually, a LOT of rain for our area.

So much rain that I had to look again at the rain gauge (after starting on my coffee) to be sure that my eyes had seen the correct amount displayed Monday morning.

I left early for work, and stopped by my local range to check that the pumps were working to keep the entrance from being under water (they weren't). I reset the pumps and prepared to leave..

When I had driven down the road to the range (county road) a car had turned in behind me...

Now I had known that with the large amount of rain, and what I had seen on the way to the range that the county road to the range would be flooded. However, even I was surprised at the amount of flooding. The water ponded at the low point was nearly 4 feet deep. My truck is a 4wd Dodge diesel. But this water was close to the max that I can ford even with this truck. I idled across the low spot and proceeded to the range.There was a reason that I had taken the truck instead of the prius.....

Upon leaving the range after resetting the pumps , I had a choice: either go back the way I had come, or try the other way. As there is another low spot that might actually be worse, and as I knew the water level along the route I had come, I went back the way I had entered.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the same red monte carlo that had turned behind me....he had made it almost all the way across the 100' pond across the road.

Almost.

He was sitting in about 2 feet of muddy water. (in the center of the road).

I was able to get beside him, and I told him I would turn around and push him out of the water with the truck.

I did. I thought about leaving him there, but figured he might drown or something.

Got him to the higher point, and got out to make sure that he had a cell phone and could call a tow truck.


The first words out of his mouth were "life just keeps fucking me in the ass...I can't get ahead....it's always something like this which gets me...."

I replied that he might want to think about where the blame lied, as he had seen me drive into the water, and had known how deep the water was. much too deep for his car.

His reply? "I figured if you could do it, I could"

Truck.....7 foot tall, air intake at 51 inches 34 inch tall tires...car at what??? 20 inches? 25 inch tires... Diesel, with no coils to short versus gas with easily shorted spark system. I think he locked up a cylinder, 'cause the car wouldn't even turn over, much less start or run. Water is, after all, non-compressible. If he's lucky, it didn't bend any engine parts.

Fool. I told him that stupid should hurt so that the lesson would be better learned, then left as he began to get steamed up.

Look: Stupid SHOULD hurt. At best, he ingested enough water to lock his engine...at worst, he damaged it badly. He's looking at a hundred bucks at a minimum, plus the tow....Lots more if he bent a rod.

I bet it'll cost him a pretty penny. And I bet that he is incapable of learning either.

But he did it to himself.  Bet he blames someone else though. I wonder if the stupid hurt enough.