Oh Twitter, do I have a magical story for you!
Today was supposed to be a vacation day, but due to circumstances outside of my immediate control I had to come to work. You can imagine my additional fury when there was a wall-to-wall traffic jam in the pouring rain.
The road I take to work has few easy detours and is, itself, very dangerous. Here’s an article on how it’s one of California’s most dangerous roads: abc7news.com/traffic/highwa…
The highway is only two lanes and on rainy days it is often slow moving and very susceptible to catastrophic car wrecks.
As we were sitting stil,l a firetruck followed by a police car, began to push through the traffic forcing the left lane into the right lane and the right lane onto the *very* narrow shoulder.
Following the police car is, of course, a parade of assholes who don’t let people (now on the shoulder) BACK into traffic. The whole thing is an infuriating nightmare.
As I approach whatever happened, I notice the flares indicating the right lane is completely closed. I merge left and make it all the way to the accident site.
I am now the “keystone” car. All of the traffic on this two lane highway is behind me and only by me moving forward can anyone continue their commute.
My car is stopped by a fireman. This is what I see:
My car is stopped by a fireman. This is what I see:
One Fireman is directing traffic, another is administering a breathalyzer test to a shaken 20-something dude in the right lane, between a stopped firetruck and an overturned, completely destroyed Toyota.
In the left lane, my lane, DIRECTLY in front of me, there is a tow-truck driver in blue overalls chasing a brown mouse across the street.
Seeing that I have stopped, the fireman directing traffic starts chasing the tow-truck driver chasing the brown mouse.
Keep in mind the fireman is in full yellow boots, yellow jacket, yellow fireman's hat…whole shebang. Also it is pouring rain. The overalls on the tow-truck driver are getting soaked.
The mouse is now running up the walls of the highway median. Both men are trying to nab it and are comically failing. It's legit, real-world Keystone Cops shit.
The dubiously sober 20-something looks concerned, but you can't tell because his arms are stretched out like Christ the Redeemer and his face obscured by a breathalyzer.
To be clear: I never got any confirmation of WHY this was happening but I assume the mouse was the beloved pet (or possible lab animal) of the driver and Overalls and Fireman were moved to pity.
The mouse, then, evades Overalls and runs under my car.
Overalls responds by banging on the hood of my car, I assume to scare the mouse back out.
Overalls responds by banging on the hood of my car, I assume to scare the mouse back out.
I roll down my window. “Should I move back?” I ask.
“No!” shouts a very wet Overalls.
The mouse runs back out and then, miraculously, Overalls catches it!
Like, with his hands! While wearing heavy duty mechanic's gloves!
He is clearly proud of himself.
(He should be, no criticism...)
He is clearly proud of himself.
(He should be, no criticism...)
Fireman starts clapping. I look over for the response of the driver but I'm being waved forward and I can't be a dick and continue to hold up traffic.
So I just...continue on with my day? Like nothing happened. Like my life isn't a magic realism play sometimes.
Anyway, a mouse was saved today. Thought you guys should know. It's the little things.
-FIN-
-FIN-
