2 weird things happened while driving recently.
1. Last night we were going out to dinner because I was exhausted and wanted someone to place a hot meal in front of me so I could fall face first onto it and move my jaw a little and hope some food made it to my belly before I fell asleep. (For the record, Dave offered to cook, but I also had a craving to order from a menu.)
Anyway, while driving on that short piece of 288 between our apartment and 59, we saw brake lights and cars swerving. As we neared the commotion, we saw a LADDER was in the middle of one of the right lanes. 5 lane highway, people doing 70, and a giant aluminum ladder in the middle of the highway. We were both like, “Holy shit!” Dave said his dad would go back and move it. I asked, “Are we turning around?”
“Yeah.” And at that moment I fell more in love with him because while some people might call getting a ladder out of the middle of the road on a busy highway (in the dark no less) crazy, I call it The Right Thing To Do.
We turned around (not quick at the 288/59 interchange!) and when we approached the place with the brake lights again, I pulled on to the shoulder. The ladder had been demolished. As we sat, we listened to the sounds of cars passing us and large fragments of aluminum bouncing all over the highway.
2. Tonight we were waiting at an intersection and a guy walked down the crosswalk in front of us. He got to the corner and seemed a little unsure of his next action. The light turned green and I paused, in case he wanted to cross the other street because I was turning right and he would have had the right of way. (I know! Pedestrians have the right of way sometimes! And you thought 4×4 trucks always had the right of way.) He could have been 15, could have been 25. Who knows. He was in plain black pants and an untucked white t-shirt. He approached my car and began talking to Dave. So I stopped.
“Excuse me mister, I need a ride.”
Dave, “I’m sorry?”
“I just need a ride.”
At this point, my Intuition Compass spun directly to NO, DO NOT DO THIS.
Dave, “A ride? What? To where?”
“I just need a ride.”
The car behind me (a very patient Infiniti SUV) honked loudly and swerved around me. It scared me and I instinctively moved forward and Dave told the guy we couldn’t help him and we drove away. We were more than a little weirded out. Dave commented on how itchy he seemed and how he kept scratching his skin.
Sigh, you just can’t help everyone, man.
