I'll state at the front that this is not a plea for sympathy so if you're of that bent knock yourself out... you're wrong. Again.
Had a gig about 3 1/2 hours away yesterday, have another one 5 1/2 hours away next week and I was asked to carpool and use my car on that one with compensation. I agreed. Normally we'd have a bus.
The guy I'm carpooling with next week called me Thursday to see if I wanted to ride with him this week. I'm fine driving alone (actually prefer it) but agreed to ride with him. I've worked with him for a couple of years now but had never ridden with him.
I'm not a good side-seat driver (just ask my wife) but I bit my tongue the entire trip down (other than mentioning he was running a red light in a camera'd intersection). About an hour into the trip I smell what I thought was a skunk, turns out he had lit a joint. Nice. No conversation about it, just fires it up. Like I said, bit my tongue, figuring (perhaps incorrectly) that worse case we get stopped, jailed... at least I know I'll pass a urine test
He's also one of those frequently distracted drivers so I kept my eye on the road the entire trip and he constantly looked for stuff in the car while taking his eyes off the road for seconds at a time. Still kept quiet. When we got there we agreed I'd drive back.
The event planner got us together and explained the plan. After the wedding party came in and we took our first break we were free to eat and drink whatever we wanted. Not sure exactly how he did it but almost before she got finished saying that he was walking back to the meeting with a beer. The leader reminded him that we were supposed to wait until the first break... he apparently heard the word "drink" and went on autopilot.
So he hit the open bar at every opportunity. This came through in his playing, as he would start songs alone as soon as the title was mentioned vs. waiting to begin propperly and couldn't keep from playing for a bar or two after we'd end the songs. We get finished the gig (it went great overall as usual), packed up and as I go to get in the truck I see an open beer in the center console... and five more in the passenger side floor. I told him that I can't allow an open container in the car while
I am driving.
You'd think I'd call his mom a tramp. He
really wanted to drink those beers so we ended up in a really stupid 15 minute discussion along with the leader, lead vocalist and drummer. It got to the point where I asked if they had room in their car, I'd ride with them.
Here's the (il)logic at work:
1. He didn't think there was any law against open containers despite all of us telling him otherwise.
2. Besides, it was his car and he should be able to do what he wanted. After all, he was nice enough to use his car for the trip.
3. If I didn't want to drive with an open container, he would. Because he's had way more to drink before than he had that day/night and nothing had happened.
4. Nothing would happen.
5. If something did happen, he'd pay the ticket for me. When I asked if he'd also clear up my record, he reverted to number 4.
6. (my favorite) people drink on busses and planes. What's the difference?
I explained that the reason I can't get pulled over for an open container is because I'm not going to put myself in that position to begin with when I'm in control and responsible. Period.
This is the condensed version of course. He finally decided to go along and not drink in the car and we got on the road. That of course didn't stop the conversation. What if this was a bus? What's the difference? At this point I'm talking to him as if he's a child:
"Because it's a car and no matter how many questions you ask it will neither be a bus or a plane". After about twenty minutes of that (I am easily amused) he moved onto the fact that I hadn't said anything about him firing up a joint, to which I said I should've said something but I decided to deal with it
while he was driving and keep an eye on him. Then onto the hypothetical...
What if it wasn't illegal? My answer was I still wouldn't choose to be in a car with it.
What if this truck was a bus? How about a plane?
One of my answers was "What if it were a handtruck? Or a pony? What time would we get back?"
He finally got bored with me shooting everything down and changed the subject. We made a couple of stops so he could drink a beer and smoke a joint outside the car, I got us back in one piece with no other drama. I had told him we weren't carpooling next week before we left, after he wound down he said we could still carpool and he'd abide by what I asked. I told him nope, no hard feelings but if he got into the same state next week the same conversation could easily arise. That would be my fault based on what I now knew. Besides, I couldn't relax while he drove because he was all over the road. So I'll drive... alone. Like I usually do.
That's the point I believe Brad was attempting (and failing) to make with this brainless individual. 
