5/07/2002 06:06:00 PM [ link ]
Today, I headed out for the 3 hour drive home in pouring rain. Everything was grey and green, and I was seized by a sudden desire for my car to be a convertible so I could put the top down. I guess at 70mph, rain would hurt a little, though...
The next thing I knew, all of the traffic was stopping. Everything came to a standstill, so I turned my engine off and listened to the rain, counted the cop cars that came by, and hoped the wreck ahead wasn't too bad. After about 30 minutes, they evidently decided that the road wasn't going to be cleared anytime soon, because a policeman walked back and started motioning people to turn around. I ended up driving the along the shoulder going the wrong way, while the people inside of several miles of stopped cars gave me confused looks. Once I got past the piled-up cars, I moved over onto the road and kept on driving in the wrong direction. The next thing I saw was a very old man on a very old bike driving along the shoulder. He was dwarfed by a poncho that blew back in the wind like a large plastic cape. He was so tiny that if he had lifted off of the ground, ET-style, I would not have been surprised. He was, of course, completely unaware that not too far ahead, cars coming the other way would block the shoulder he rode on. What in the world was such a frail old man doing, riding his bike along the highway in the pouring rain?
