Crazy Albertans!

After 6 months of waiting, I finally was able to go for an MRI a couple weekends ago...

Originally my doctor told me I had to wait for a specialist to refer me before I could get an MRI. Two months later the specialist shows up in Whitehorse but he/she wouldn't see me because I wasn't a priority case. My family doctor then tells me that I can now be referred by a regular doctor as some regulations have changed. I had a choice of waiting several more months for Alberta, or another 6-12 months for Vancouver. The choice was obvious even though I would have preferred Vancouver.

My friends from Manitoba that I met in Whitehorse are temporarily living in Edmonton for several months. They were very nice to me and insisted that they come get me at the airport, take me to the hospital and then drop me off at the airport again. I didn't know the Edmonton airport was so far from the city!

I was only in Edmonton for 15 hours (1am to 4pm).Between those hours, my super nice friend got fingered 3 times on the road by crazy Edmontonians/Albertans. I like to consider myself a conscientious driver these days (I wasn't when I was younger). I still have my mood swings, but overall, I think I'm a safe driver. As an observer/passenger, I'd say my friend is a fairly safe driver too!

In one of the incidents, s/he was driving on the left lane of the highway and signaled right to get into the right lane so the vehicle from behind could pass us. As this vehicle passed us, the driver (she looked like a middle aged mother) raised her hand, looked us in the eye, and popped the bird at us, and held it there for at least 3-4 seconds. Obviously all of us in the car was in shock! Can you imagine your nice mom or grandma giving you or someone else the middle finger???

The funny thing was that a few cars ahead of us was the RCMP or local police driving the posted speed limit. The 1 finger lady had to follow the cop at the speed limit for the next 10 minutes, and we were only a few cars behind her.

Crazy Albertans... the oil must be getting to their heads!

CBC News Article: Crackdown on oilsands highway nets more than 300 speeders