A Midwinter's Tale
28 December 2007 00:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vibrantabyssScene: 2nd big snowfall, Waterhouse was not very plowed, 3"-5" of packed mush on the street. Snow mostly over, drizzle coming down.
I exit my house on the way to help![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
surrealestate dig out, and there's a woman digging out her car in front of my house. Sadly she was shoveling the snow up onto the mass between the sidewalk and the street, and a bunch of it was coming down onto my nicely clearly spath. So I grumped at her.
She leaves in a huff, and I start cleaning up the mess. A cab comes up the street about 2 minutes later, just as I am once again ready to head out. He's having serious traction issues, going maybe 5 mph.. and fishtails, and I hear a thump-bump. And then it looks like he's stuck before getting much past.
I go around, and sure enough he's left a paint streak like a bit of Morse code up the side of her car. And he's hung up on the front quarter, which is dented noticeably. So I go over, tap on his window, and point out that he hit the car, and thats what he's hung up on. So he gets out of the car, comes over and takes a look. "Oh fuck" he says.
"Maybe its not that bad," so he climbs back in and gets his car off hers. Mind you, this involved him rocking and making the dent bigger.... SO he gets out again, sees the dent. "Shit, so thats your car, huh?" "No, but it belongs to one of my neighbors."
And the guy looks at me and says "Be a pal, you didn't see anything, right?" <eh?> i think "No, sorry, can't do that to someone on my street." "Have a heart bud, think of the season." <ok now, so he thinks its ok to leave someone with the damage as an xmas surprise?> and he climbs back into the cab.
I go over and tap on his window, he rolls it down, and I say "if you leave I'm going to have to call the cops. Wait here while I get the owner." Not being utterly naive, I've typed his plate and medallion into my phone. And by the time I'm one house away, he's trying to leave, getting almost nowhere. When I'm two houses away, he's recruited someone on the street to help push him. I return, point out to this kind soul that the cab has hit a car, and that the police are coming. "Whatever" is the response.
OK so back to finding this woman - I don't know her so I have to do some door-to-door. First house I check, no luck. But the couple out clearing snow are helpful, and one copies the plate info, and calls the cab company, hoping to get his dispatch to tell him to knock it off. And I call into the police. Two more houses, no joy. The cab has made it *maybe* two houses further up the street, now has two people pushing it.
Get to the bottom of the street, and a nice guy shoveling points me to the right house - he hadn't seen the hit, but recognized the woman from my description. OK, down to three bells to ring. So I hit them all. Cop car finally comes down the street. So I go over to talk to him. Ellapsed time maybe 8 minutes since I called the police, 12 minutes since the cab tried to leave. He's still on the street, although just a few houses from the end.
The cop, after confirming which car was hit, goes after the cab. *If* you can call a no lights, no sirens pursuit 'going after' I understand he didn't want to spook the guy and have him gas and fishtail into something else. The cab still making 1 mph headway. The cop, with better transmission I guess, is managing about 3mph. I wish I had a videocam, it would have been worthy footage to post. Back to the story...
So the woman comes down, seem me through the front door glass, and clearly mouths "What the fuck do you want?" I mouth back "Please" with hand clasped. With a head toss as if to say "Oh, very well" she comes and opens the door "Don't shoot the messenger, but a cab going up the street fishtailed and hit your car. I made him get out and look, but he drove off afterwards" Looking at her face I added "Its not that bad, and the police are on it." She goes back inside, presumably to get bundled up again and survey the damage.
While waiting I stand at the bottom of the street and redirect what little traffic there is to keep going down Woodstock, which, like Victoria, seem to be plowed nearly to blacktop. The one driver that didn't heed my warning ends up backing down after about traveling three car lengths.
At about the same time, the woman emerges and the cop returns, so we take a walk up to her car. The cab sadly managed to get up onto Broadway and drive off, but really, when they have your plate and medallion, where can you run? And hey look, here comes a town plow, coming wrong way down Waterhouse, slowly clearing.
Looking over her car, the woman shrugs and says "Its mostly cosmetic" Talk about a kind-hearted soul - maybe she hadn't actually taken a good look at the front quarter panel at that point, but that's the calmest reaction I've seen to that sort of thing. And if the cabby had just stayed and talked to her.. he might have not gotten too badly slapped. Now the police are involved, etc etc. Really, not going to worry over his fate. It's not like I was unclear in the least.... Any experts in human behavior out there?
The officer is collecting info, the woman needs to go get her license, so he takes mine down. Scrcrrrr.. here comes the plow on another pass. By the time I'm free to go, I think there have been a total of four plow passes, and my street is looking in about the same condition as Vic and Wood. So.. was it the cop calling in because he wasn't able to make headway what caused the sudden attention? Any experts in town behavior care to comment?
My friend has long ago finished the shoveling, and at some point in this had actually called to find out what was up with me. So, original mission completely derailed, but I am still full of ... well, something. SO I set off to my old landlord's a couple streets away, to make sure they are all clear. During the there-and-back I stop to shovel various walks, drives, and parking spots - helping anyone still out digging (and willing to accept) so I can work off the feeling that I want to smack the cab driver upside the head with my shovel for being such a twit.
Mission accomplished I return home. Pretty sure I'm net up on karma for the day. And as I doff my outerwear I notice I haven't been wearing a hat - I was originally going out for 10-20 minutes, and its been... three hours in the cold drizzle. And the room is kinda wobbly. Yay chilled brain. No big harm there, all better after drying off and wrapping a towel around my head. But a reminder of things not to do.
Well, that's all the bits of the story I know. Haven't seen the woman or her car since, nor heard anything from anyone else involved in the tale. Think I managed to make up for the karma-hit I took at the beginning of it all.
I exit my house on the way to help
surrealestate dig out, and there's a woman digging out her car in front of my house. Sadly she was shoveling the snow up onto the mass between the sidewalk and the street, and a bunch of it was coming down onto my nicely clearly spath. So I grumped at her.She leaves in a huff, and I start cleaning up the mess. A cab comes up the street about 2 minutes later, just as I am once again ready to head out. He's having serious traction issues, going maybe 5 mph.. and fishtails, and I hear a thump-bump. And then it looks like he's stuck before getting much past.
I go around, and sure enough he's left a paint streak like a bit of Morse code up the side of her car. And he's hung up on the front quarter, which is dented noticeably. So I go over, tap on his window, and point out that he hit the car, and thats what he's hung up on. So he gets out of the car, comes over and takes a look. "Oh fuck" he says.
"Maybe its not that bad," so he climbs back in and gets his car off hers. Mind you, this involved him rocking and making the dent bigger.... SO he gets out again, sees the dent. "Shit, so thats your car, huh?" "No, but it belongs to one of my neighbors."
And the guy looks at me and says "Be a pal, you didn't see anything, right?" <eh?> i think "No, sorry, can't do that to someone on my street." "Have a heart bud, think of the season." <ok now, so he thinks its ok to leave someone with the damage as an xmas surprise?> and he climbs back into the cab.
I go over and tap on his window, he rolls it down, and I say "if you leave I'm going to have to call the cops. Wait here while I get the owner." Not being utterly naive, I've typed his plate and medallion into my phone. And by the time I'm one house away, he's trying to leave, getting almost nowhere. When I'm two houses away, he's recruited someone on the street to help push him. I return, point out to this kind soul that the cab has hit a car, and that the police are coming. "Whatever" is the response.
OK so back to finding this woman - I don't know her so I have to do some door-to-door. First house I check, no luck. But the couple out clearing snow are helpful, and one copies the plate info, and calls the cab company, hoping to get his dispatch to tell him to knock it off. And I call into the police. Two more houses, no joy. The cab has made it *maybe* two houses further up the street, now has two people pushing it.
Get to the bottom of the street, and a nice guy shoveling points me to the right house - he hadn't seen the hit, but recognized the woman from my description. OK, down to three bells to ring. So I hit them all. Cop car finally comes down the street. So I go over to talk to him. Ellapsed time maybe 8 minutes since I called the police, 12 minutes since the cab tried to leave. He's still on the street, although just a few houses from the end.
The cop, after confirming which car was hit, goes after the cab. *If* you can call a no lights, no sirens pursuit 'going after' I understand he didn't want to spook the guy and have him gas and fishtail into something else. The cab still making 1 mph headway. The cop, with better transmission I guess, is managing about 3mph. I wish I had a videocam, it would have been worthy footage to post. Back to the story...
So the woman comes down, seem me through the front door glass, and clearly mouths "What the fuck do you want?" I mouth back "Please" with hand clasped. With a head toss as if to say "Oh, very well" she comes and opens the door "Don't shoot the messenger, but a cab going up the street fishtailed and hit your car. I made him get out and look, but he drove off afterwards" Looking at her face I added "Its not that bad, and the police are on it." She goes back inside, presumably to get bundled up again and survey the damage.
While waiting I stand at the bottom of the street and redirect what little traffic there is to keep going down Woodstock, which, like Victoria, seem to be plowed nearly to blacktop. The one driver that didn't heed my warning ends up backing down after about traveling three car lengths.
At about the same time, the woman emerges and the cop returns, so we take a walk up to her car. The cab sadly managed to get up onto Broadway and drive off, but really, when they have your plate and medallion, where can you run? And hey look, here comes a town plow, coming wrong way down Waterhouse, slowly clearing.
Looking over her car, the woman shrugs and says "Its mostly cosmetic" Talk about a kind-hearted soul - maybe she hadn't actually taken a good look at the front quarter panel at that point, but that's the calmest reaction I've seen to that sort of thing. And if the cabby had just stayed and talked to her.. he might have not gotten too badly slapped. Now the police are involved, etc etc. Really, not going to worry over his fate. It's not like I was unclear in the least.... Any experts in human behavior out there?
The officer is collecting info, the woman needs to go get her license, so he takes mine down. Scrcrrrr.. here comes the plow on another pass. By the time I'm free to go, I think there have been a total of four plow passes, and my street is looking in about the same condition as Vic and Wood. So.. was it the cop calling in because he wasn't able to make headway what caused the sudden attention? Any experts in town behavior care to comment?
My friend has long ago finished the shoveling, and at some point in this had actually called to find out what was up with me. So, original mission completely derailed, but I am still full of ... well, something. SO I set off to my old landlord's a couple streets away, to make sure they are all clear. During the there-and-back I stop to shovel various walks, drives, and parking spots - helping anyone still out digging (and willing to accept) so I can work off the feeling that I want to smack the cab driver upside the head with my shovel for being such a twit.
Mission accomplished I return home. Pretty sure I'm net up on karma for the day. And as I doff my outerwear I notice I haven't been wearing a hat - I was originally going out for 10-20 minutes, and its been... three hours in the cold drizzle. And the room is kinda wobbly. Yay chilled brain. No big harm there, all better after drying off and wrapping a towel around my head. But a reminder of things not to do.
Well, that's all the bits of the story I know. Haven't seen the woman or her car since, nor heard anything from anyone else involved in the tale. Think I managed to make up for the karma-hit I took at the beginning of it all.
