Did You Miss Me?

I was thinking about writing, really . . . but uh . . .

Well here's what I was going to write, but forgot (repeatedly) to type out:

We were driving to church and some cat behind us in a green Civic saw that he would be stuck at a light behind four other cars, so he cut through the parking lot at a shopping strip. This, in Texas, is known as "Cutting Through Private Property to Avoid an Intersection" and the fine is hundreds of dollars. We got through that light and pulled up at the next intersection (also red) . . . beside the joker who had just cut through the parking lot and gas station. Then, to my amusement, they were SLOW off the line at the light. Reaction time: double what the guy with a gray beard in a minvan had. Time saved by committing a misdimeanor: zero!

How would you know what the fine is, VFD?

Because this is an offense near and dear to my family. When we first came back to Texas, my Darling Wife wanted to cut through a gas station to go around a red light. I told her it was not only lame but against the law, and when the officer caught her, he wouldn't want to hear her story. Many years later, I knew a place a half-mile south of where I worked had a low price on gas. I needed fuel in the Hot Rod, so I went down that way even though I lived up North. When I got to the gas station, as I pulled up to the pumps I looked at the big sign and saw the price was higher than I wanted to pay. Without stopping (I did slow considerably for caution's sake) at the pumps I went through the station parking lot and out the other side, onto the street. I went to make a U-turn on a side street and caught the lights from a COP who, unsurprisingly, did not want to hear my story. Fun factoids: The intersection I was supposed to be avoiding was one where I could have made a U-turn and there was nobody stopped in the left lane. It had nobody in the right lane, from which I could have turned down the side street instead of cutting through the gas station. The maneuver I was supposed to be pulling was both out of my way AND involved a higher number of turns than just turning around. When I got to court, the judge said "VFD, thank you for coming. Your case is dismissed." and the COP was right there in the courthouse.

Anyway, that intersection was across the street from the one where greencivicboy pulled his genuine execution of the offending maneuver. *sigh* small world, ain't it?