20 July 2011

On the Skids in Carbon Canyon #7981: The Tortoise and the Harebrained

Puttering along this morning westbound on Carbon Canyon Road at the obnoxious snail's pace of a paltry 50 mph, I had the privilege to be passed, after being closely tailed from near Summit Ranch on, by a black BMW just past Canon Lane, where a left-turn lane for eastbounders granted ample enough room, it seems, for the righteous to roar past doddering fools only barely transgressing the posted speed limit (45 mph, as if it mattered.) 

Did she not heed the sign back at the start of the highway at Chino Hills Parkway that sternly warns "DO NOT PASS"?

Crowning her achievement, as she eased into bucolic lil' ol' Sleepy Hollow behind a line of cars ahead and yet having saved her brutal commute to the OC at least twelve (maybe thirteen) whole seconds, our daring driver deigned to deposit, through the opened passenger's side window, a can of whatever it was that made her dreaded dreary drive somehow bearable. 

Why, if she were to be caught by our local constabulary, that would render a punishment of a $1000 fine--the sign, very near the aforementioned one, says so!

Duly, in fact doubly, impressed by her dual dismissal of ordinances as we came to a stop in Brea, I rolled down my window and called out to my antagonist, "Thank you for taking my life into your hands and for littering my neighborhood!" 

Her curt reply:  "No problem.  Maybe you should drive faster!"  Touche!

Incidentally, in the early evening last Friday, with our younger son in tow, my wife was passed by a pickup truck as she drove westbound and made the first curve into Sleepy Hollow (not the fairly long straightaway leading to it, but in the curve.)

In both cases, oncoming vehicles were but a couple of seconds away.  But for circumstances being otherwise, this would have been a very different, and not so glib, a post.

Next, back to history.

1 comment:

Lex Valentine said...

My husband is considering a voice activated sun visor mounted portable video camera for his SUV. They are very affordable these days. He can snap a video of people breaking the law in front of him, with their license plates prominently displayed. He's a little hesitant to turn them in to the local authorities for fear of reprisal though. He already had to endure people in our complex thinking he'd picked on some senior citizen when in fact the old guy had followed my husband home after trying to ram him from behind. Sheesh. That road is crazy! Be safe out there!