Snow day tempers flare | on the road to the movie
Manley and Libby would have happened upon mister personality on a snow day while on the way to the movies. And this is the outcome. Here now is episode 16 in the series. chapter sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Poetic justice
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Because, in his selfish desire to park, he blocked the whole road.
And then the fines which he was forced to pay amounted to quite a mighty load.
Poetic Justice lends itself well to the judicial code
As the cheering voices gave way to relieved breath from the nodding crowd.
It was two days after the big snow storm, the usable parts of most of the roadways being reduced to about a third of the usual norm, snow being piled up high at several points where the snow plows had pushed it. As I inched my way along in the slow-moving traffic, trying to get out of the city.
Libby was sitting right there beside me seemingly oblivious to the time slowly slipping away.
We were finally nearing the end of the one-way street, after almost half an hour of us just crawling through at the speed of a turtle on route to Sunday school, on lessons review morning.
This car - which was immediately in front of our car, proceeded to pull off of the roadways, venturing to breach the accumulating snow and slush to the left side of us in order to park.
Meanwhile, to the right of where he ended up parking was another stopped vehicle, which seemed to be throttling, and a man was sitting in the driver's seat. So this second vehicle, braze the snow and slush and then stopped, crookedly.
He shut down the engine and crack the door open to get out. I tapped on the horn to solicit his attention, he turned and look at me, then quickly seemed to survey the long line of traffic behind me and then close the door to the driver seat, and proceeded to get a small boy out of the back seat, to go off somewhere I’d assumed. Again I tapped on the horn very gently and roll the window down. I stuck my head out of the window and said, “can you just move over a bit more so that the rest of us can pass by you?”
“Too much snow,” he said, as he closed the door out of which he had just taken the little boy, and turned to walk away.
“So,” I said. Because there is "too much snow" that makes it okay for you to block the entire street, and hinder everybody else from moving along?
“Calm down,” he said, “calm down,” and again he said, “calm down.” I was as calm as could be. And believe me when I say, I was calm.
The snow of which we speak, (both he and I,) were of the slushy type, it tends to shifts and move under the weight of the vehicles.
“He said to calm down,” said Libby, “but he is the one who is aggressive here, passively aggressive.”
So, he went away leaving this long line of vehicles stuck behind his crookedly parked street-blocking vehicle. Turning his head around while leaving to say: "ask the other guy to move."
"He was there before you, I said, and neither you nor I know if his vehicle is, in fact, mobile, but your vehicle is.
“Yes,” said Libby, “it's always the other person's responsibility, never yours or mine.”
“Why am I even here arguing with you though?” He said, as he took the child's hand and walked away, leaving everyone there stuck in a gridlock.
Since I was sitting in my warm and comfortable car, having my favorite person in the world (at this point in time,) sitting right there next to me, and who seemed just as content with the thought of being here with me as she would, being in the cinema staring at the screen, maybe even more so.
I pulled off of the roadways and park behind his vehicle and sat there, just watching the scene...
The driver of the pick-up truck which was behind me wasn't as patient as the rest of us were. As soon as I pulled off and park behind the agitator’s vehicle, navigating over much more of the very same sort of snow and slush which he was avoiding at every cost.
The pick-up truck passed by my vehicle and proceed to take the mirror off of the crookedly parked vehicle and also leaving a long streak mark on the side of the vehicle for him to deal with when he gets back.
Did you all hear those shouts and cheers just now?
That came from the many other satisfied drivers and onlookers who had seen it go down, and whose faith has now been restored in the concept of Poetic Justice.
The very next vehicle which happened to pull up though, was a city bus, whoa, whoa.
Such a letdown, the people's bubbles have just been burst. If he, the bus driver, had followed the lead of the pick-up truck and just push that car out of the way, man oh man! No matter what they were showing up at the cinema at that moment, it couldn't have rivaled the satisfaction which all of us looking on would have gotten out of it, but the bus driver was cut from a different cloth than that guy just before him, or it could be just the fact that he - the bus driver, has much more responsibilities riding on him. He just stopped there, with his Hazzard lights going, case closed, street close, everything close.
Complete standstill now for traffic on that street, as if it wasn't so before.
Next, there was flashing lights and siren, a police car pulled up from the other direction and against the traffic flow, and stopped. Then came the tow truck with yet more flashing lights, and proceeded to back up in front of the car, the crookedly parked car. Libby and I were not yet at the cinema, and at this rate, we probably won't make it there any time soon, but we were having the time of our lives, show time that is.
The cop by now was coming out with his ticketing pad, the tow truck guy was moving into position too. And now...
Here he comes, here he comes... Guess who? Yep. To the loudest of applause ever, entered the man of the hour, but, hey! Why aren't you smiling, aren't you happy? You are the star of the show here.
So now it's negotiating time, but neither the cop nor the tow truck guy was budging. So, the begging and pleading went on until…
Not sure how it all went with him thereafter, since the goodly police officer and the tow guy did manage to clear the street enough, to get us moving and out of there.
That’s it for now folks. See you again tomorrow.
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Extra, extra. On this day in history.
Mon. February 11
1990 - In Tokyo, Japan, James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the heavyweight championship.
1990 - Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.
1975 - Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a major party in Britain when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party.
1960 - Jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the "Tonight Show" with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.
1958 - Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess by making her initial flight.
1929 - The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.
1812 - The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.
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