Fourth Of July Fun

So, on my way to my mom and dad’s in the early afternoon, I was driving down the freeway, minding my own business when this man pulled up beside me, got to the middle of my front passenger seat door, and decided to come over into my lane.

Which meant he had to SPEED up to try to hit me.

Luckily, I was paying attention, sped up and swerved onto the shoulder where my car fish tailed and squealed its poor tires before it stopped.  And the truck behind me (not the one that had just run me off the road) pulls over behind me and a man leaps out with a radio.

“NOW what?!?” I think (along with a few other choice words that do not bear repeating) as the man walks up to my door, talking into the radio.

He taps on my window and I roll it down juuuust a crack. (Yes, I am aware I have  just changed tenses.  I will be changing them back shortly.  I can do that, it’s my blog. )

“Are you okay?” he asks.  I nod.

“Well, can you open your door?” he asks, and I know I give him a “you must be crazy” look and shake my head.

“I’m off duty police (he actually said the name of his city police department, but in the interests of privacy, I am not telling), can you open your door?” he says.

“Do you have a badge?” Brilliant me.

He runs back to his truck and returns with one of those little 6 oz bottles of water and his badge.  I open my door.

He continues to ask if I am okay while commending me on my prudence in not trusting some random guy off the street and informs me that he has radioed ahead to a speed trap that I am not supposed to know about and that they are on the look out for the truck.  I didn’t bother to tell him that I didn’t think off duty police officers carried their radios as I was really glad that he had it, OR that I was thinking he was calling someone to give me a ticket, since I know I was going WELL over 80 when I pulled off (taking into consideration that I was doing 75 before I stomped the gas to avoid the jerk).

He then wants to know if he needs to call an ambulance (this is after he kept trying to take my pulse and I couldn’t figure out why he kept reaching for my wrist.  The phrase, “Can I help you?” slipped out and he explained that he was trying to check my pulse since I was really rather pale) and I tell him that I didn’t get hit so I can’t imagine why I would need an ambulance.

He informs me that ambulances carry oxygen.  I knew this, but he was being super nice so I didn’t point that out.  I tell him that I don’t think this is necessary.

He then makes me drink the miny bottle of water while he talks about how he hopes his daughters have enough common sense to do what I had done in avoiding the wreck and asking to see id.

Twenty minutes later he says I can leave, and tells me to drive down the shoulder of the road and that he will pace me and then get back on the freeway first so that I can get on.

Very nice man.

In other news, today my 3 year old niece decided to inform my Great Aunt that she knew how old she was, and that that numbers was, “Fifty-EIGHT!!!”.

Also, in her world, the end of Row, Row, Row Your Boat remains, “Like a butter dream” and is best sung in the swimming pool whilst throwing little rubber torpedoes at people on rafts.

The fireworks were nice, they had some that were all sparkly and reminded me of fairy dust, very pretty.  Almost made up for the fact that, after a big surge of adrenaline, like, oh, say, getting run off the road gives, my heart beats funny for the whole rest of the day. That was a big bunch of no fun, but I did get to hear a lot of stories about my Grampa growing up, so that was a real treat.

All in all, a good day.  Hope everyone else had a nice Fourth as well!

~ by mexalapotis on July 5, 2009.