What I did This Week

So, I had the flu. At least, I think it was the flu. You know, achey, stuffy, generally cruddy feeling,.... I wanted to go dancing. For those of you who know me, I know this is really odd, but I'm taking square dancing. You should try it, and I won't defend myself further.

Anyway, it was Monday night, and I went to the hall where lessons are given, but I relly didn't feel up to dancing. Besides, there are elderly folks involved, and I didn't want to play "Typhoid Mary." So, I didn't dance. I tried to go home.

I got about halfway there, and pulled into a left turn lane behind a silver SUV. The SUV was continuing into the intersection, so I checked the lights and found that all three lights, both through traffic lanes, and the left turn signal, were green. So, I continued into the intersection behind the SUV.

I noticed a car stopped at the intersection in the turn lane to get onto the street the SUV and I were turning from, and the SUV came to a complete stop in the intersection. I thought the car might be blocking the lane.

I heard a horn blow, and the SUV was hit in the front by a black sports car, hard enough to turn the SUV about one hundred fifty or so degrees. I pulled around the SUV and off the road to see if I could offer some assistance.

Thankfully, there were no injuries. The story gets pretty strange, though. The driver of the SUV was a young man in his late teens. The other driver was older, maybe in his late twenties, but certainly not as old as me.

I approached the driver of the sports car first, as he was closest, and asked if there was anyone injured in the car. Then this guy throws a temper tantrum, right there on the side of the highway, complete with pounding on the telephone switch boxes. I went to find out if the other guy was okay.

I took some pictures of the scene, and talked a bit with the driver of the SUV, exchanging my telephone number for is e-mail address. I just had a funny feeling about the whole thing.

Later in the evening the driver of the SUV calls me. He wants to know if I can send copies of the pictures. I told him that I would send them straight away, but he didn't get them.

I sent them another time later inthe week, but still, my technology was not up to the task, and the pics did not go through.

I recounted the story, much as I have here, to the insurance company of the driver of the sports car, the insurance company of the driver of the SUV, and to the Florida Highway Patrol, the latter of whom had issued a citation to the driver of the SUV.

I guess that got my hackles up. I've recently been through a situation where parties who were supposed to be impartial really cost me dearly. I coudn't see that kind of thing happen to this young man, and I guess I took it upon myself to justly protect his interests.

This evening the young man called me. He still hadn't recieved the photos I'd tried to send to him. I printed the photos, and copied them to a disk, and put the whole shebang into an envelope, and drove about fifteen minutes to a local store to give the pictures to the man. I was glad to do it.

The young man thanked me several times. He told me how much help I had been. He helped me understand the Spanish expression, "De nada." It is for nothing I have done this. It is a beautiful thing to feel. I recommend it to everyone.