Priceless

I probably shouldn't have enjoyed the incident so much. But I did.

Driving cross town today, I fell in behind a black, sharp-looking Cadillac CTS with Arkansas license plate "GOP4ME." Knew it had to be a Republican, right? Dealership label indicated the car was purchased in Harrison, Arkansas, a pretty conservative area (including the HQ of the KKK, not that there's a connection).

The driver zipped away from the stop light at Kings Ave. heading east on Grand, exceeding the 20mph speed limit along SMS's border. Ended up behind the driver waiting at the stop light at National, zipped away again past Rountree Elementary. Caught up with the driver waiting for the light at Fremont, zipped away again. Caught up again at the light at Glenstone.

By now a pattern had been established and little sterotypes began running through my head...expensive car, personalized license plate, obvious fondness for GOP, speeding past a school and through a residential area. I know the stereotype isn't accurate. I know I shouldn't pass judgement. But hey, it was just in my head, playing a little game while driving cross town.

Then it got really good.

The east leg of the Glenstone-Grand intersection is kind of kooky. A convenience store on the northeast corner, a liquore store on the southeast corner. Both have parking that more or less is just an extension of the street pavement. No curbs, no dips. But just past that, Grand narrows a bit and curbing begins. It doesn't pose a problem unless you're not really paying attention, or you have money to burn, or you just don't care.

The Cadillac CTS driver fits into one of those categories, but I don't know which. True to form, the Cady zipped through the Glenstone-Grand intersection and had hit probably 35 mph by the time it got to that curbing, which it hit solidly with both passenger side tires. Both tires popped with a loud hiss as the air was driven out of them, the locking hub caps went flying, and the Cady kept on driving along Grand, riding the rims. It went over the railroad tracks a bit further east before turning into the parking lot of the martial arts studio on the south side of Grand. This was more than two blocks past the point of "explosion" and may have been about the first point the driver figured out what had happened.

As I drove past I could see the driver was talking on a cell phone. Perhaps that was the problem. Perhaps the cell phone call will cost a bit more than the driver anticipated, what with needing a couple new tires, possibly new rims, the tow truck charge, etc.

I probably shouldn't have enjoyed the incident so much. But I did.