So, I'm driving to work Saturday morning. I make a left at Woodbine and there's a lady in a minivan plastered with work logos in front of me. At every light, I sidle up next to her, as I'm not sure if she's turning left or not, and I'm interested in going straight for the highway. And at every light, she burns rubber to beat me off the line.
At no point am I burning rubber, just strategizing. It never fails that if I'm in the left lane behind someone, they'll suddenly turn on their turning signal and I'll be trapped behind them and miss the light completely, so, of course, who wouldn't, at every light I slide into the right lane.
Anyways...my point being I've been sensing a change in the current of life. I've been wondering if the odds which have always favoured me have quietly shifted into the opposite quarter. I have mounting evidence all around me. And then on this Saturday morning, another sign of the shift...but this one is slightly confusing.
The woman I've been driving behind burns off the line at Queen and establishes a solid lead. She's in the left lane and I'm in the right lane. Acceleration finished, distance established, she reduces speed and cruises. I'm wondering as I follow behind her if you speed up, establish distance, and then reduce speed to legal limit, if everyone is going the limit, does one maintain that established distance? I'm curious and I'm leaning towards yes, that's probably so...when suddenly, as we drive around the curve leading to Lakeshore, a police officer is standing in the middle of the road on the dotted line with his radar gun aimed at her. He lifts his hand in the universal "Stop...and pull over...right here right now" motion and then motions to me to not hit him as he walks back across the lanes to the sidewalk.
Unbelievable. He got her. Not me. Her in the left lane. Me in the right. Wow. Two things I have never seen before. A police officer with a radar gun on the dotted line on a two-lane one way road. And a police speed trap without a police car close by. For him to have been there, he had to have parked his car either in the parking lot one block away, or in the residential area one block north.
Aha...a new strategy by canny police officers.
So, maybe my luck is changing back. She got the ticket, not me, and I have new information that will save me speeding tickets in the future. Coppers don't always hide with their cars, behind bushes or on roadways or driveways close to the road. Coppers now do speedtraps from sidewalks in the middle of a block, nowhere near any other roadway or driveway. Good to know. It means nowhere is safe. Now I know.
But it was close. It could have been me. So what does that say about my luck?
