Monday, August 08, 2005

Famous Final Words

Earlier tonight I was stopped at a 3 way stop in fairly heavy traffic. I was waiting for quite a while before a break on the right side came along. When I looked to the left, there was this Fireman/Rescue truck slowing down with his signal on, appearing like he was turning onto the road I was trying to exit. So I decided that I should go since there was a huge line behind him.

As I started out onto the road I said to Nicci “Well, if you can’t trust a Fireman who can you trust.” A natural reaction. Plus, he didn’t disappoint me and turned where he had signaled he would.

So now I’m in the road accelerating ready to pass another street on the right of me. It was one of those weird staggered streets that was very close to the one we just left. Within maybe 3-5 seconds we were right there. So just as I finished saying the “who can you trust” line I noticed out of the corner of my eye a BMW turning right at me to go into this new road. No turn signal, no apparent intention of slowing down to make the turn. Nope, just a solid, squealing left across our path. Without any hesitation the next words out of my mouth after ‘trust’ were, “I guess maybe BMW drivers.”

The idiot in the beamer just turned right into our path without looking and when she saw us, she hit the gas hard enough that she started going sideways. I couldn’t go left because there was too much traffic so I turned hard right and slammed the brakes. Luckily the BMW driver had done the right thing because the slide and acceleration caused her to basically do a donut right in front of us and then she just headed up the street. No fuss, no muss. The clearance between our cars couldn’t possibly have been enough to put your hand into.

Once I caught my breath and started on again, all I could think about was that my last words on this earth almost were “I guess maybe BMW drivers.” Somehow I hope that my last words are a bit more memorable than that. How lame can you get?

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