Road Rage

So the other day I was dragged down into the aggressive spiral of road rage when I should have maintained the higher ground and ignored the impatient A-hole behind me. Hindsight is always 20-20.
So I was driving down Milwaukee Street, heading slightly up-hill on the way to our subdivision. I noticed that the minivan behind me was a bit closer than most people would consider safe (or polite). This sort of registered as a warning but I did not heed it. I was also traveling the speed limit of 35 mph so I was confident that I should not feel threatened by the tailgater.  As I approached the school zone located part way up the hill, I slowed down using my brakes to the posted 20 mph. Almost immediately the women driver behind me began laying on the horn. I don't mean a honking staccato but an aggressive, blaring of the horn. When I looked in my rear view mirror I could see her angry face and almost smell the stale cigarette breath through the layers of glass. She was pissed. And here is where I started to be dragged down. I held up my fingers. Not in an offensive gesture, but to show the numbers two and zero while mouthing school zone.  As I approached the end of the zone, I began to accelerate. Now, since the hill is steeper at this point and since I value the money I spend on gas as well as the environment I did not floor it; I started to accelerate at a steady, albeit, too slow pace apparently. The woman started signing "three" and "five" and shouting. I started to see the vein popping out of her head. So as I got close to my right hand turn, I slowed down again, rolled down my window and saw red. Yep, I was angry by this point. "It's 20 in a school zone!" I kept shouting. She pulled along side of me so I screamed, "Roll your window down!"  "I can't!" I heard through her window. So I tried again, "It's 20 in a school zone!" but my admonition went unheard. She was gesturing and yelling something about a mailbox. I didn't bother to look because I was thinking, does she want me to pull over past this intersection so she can get out of her minivan and kick my a##?  I made the right hand turn and heard her peel away.
I was so angry that she got angry at me- for abiding by the law!  Today I looked down the road towards this mysterious mailbox she may have been suggesting as the place of my physical demise and that's where I saw the 35 mph sign.
I wish that she would have noticed or cared one tiny bit for the clearly posted 20 mph signs "when children are present" located on both sides of the school zone. And if she travels that road even just once per day she has the opportunity to see the signs on both sides of the road. Depending on the time of day she will also notice that a crossing guard magically appears during the rush before and after school. This guard places small cones and more signs advertising the school zone. (It is appalling how many people still drive 35 through that area while children are walking to and from school.)  Furthermore, the police have made efforts throughout the school year to post-up around the school zone- during off-peak school day hours. They will pull over people who insist on going 35 through the 20 zone, even if it is not during the before or after school rushes. Finally, a speed limit detector marquee has also been placed at the beginning edges of the school zone for the duration of entire school days. It flashes your speed in red if you are going above 30 mph. It flashes yellow for speeds between 20 and 30 (I think those are the right numbers), and it shows your speed for anything 20 or under. 
I know that this woman is just one of many people who blatantly ignore the school zone. Perhaps some of the problem comes from not understanding what the sign means. However, ignorance is no excuse. And like I explained in exhausting detail above, you really have to be completely clueless or annoyingly arrogant to not see the clues and trust that they apply to you too.
I regret having gotten just as angry at that impatient woman. But I stand by my correctness and law abiding sensibilities. I was right damn it! I only wish that an officer of the law had been around to tell her that as well, with a big fat ticket.