Home
June 5,1998
|
x |
x |
x |
The revolutionary aspect of Seinfeld as a TV show was that it's about nothing and nothing happens, right? Similarity to my life? Maybe. Today I did not see a bear on I-495. There are a lot of other things I didn't see on I-495 today (snow, cheese, marine iguanas to name just a few) but today's entry is about not seeing a bear. The strangest thing I ever saw on I-495 was a crashed ultralight in the median strip. It looked like some little kid's escaped kite, all torn and broken. That's another thing I didn't see on 495 today: the crashed ultralight - that was some years back now. Once I got stuck in a monumental traffic jam that went on for hours and hours and hours because a lumber truck had spilled many board feet of lumber on top of a car in the next lane, killing the occupants. The rescue workers had a hard time getting through the lumber to the victims. So strange accidents do happen on 495. Last night's accident was beyond strange. It was inexplicable. And tragic. A car veered off the high speed lane onto the median and rolled over in Methuen. Traffic was tied up for hours. Fortunately I was not on 495 at the time and heard about it on the radio in time to avoid it. Cars roll over all the time. This rollover caused a huge investigation. It turns out it was a murder-suicide. The driver shot the passenger and then himself. While driving in the high speed lane on 495. It is a miracle nobody else was killed. Last night's accident scared me a little more than it should have. I thought about how I drive that stretch of highway regularly and could have been there and might have been caught up in a chain reaction crash, or seen the murder, or ... I don't know, it just shook me. So, today I was driving south on 495 to Groton as usual, thinking about last night's crash and listening to the traffic reports. I noticed a big backup on the northbound side just as I passed the Boston Road exit in Westford. The traffic report said: "That is a bear you're seeing in the median on 495 near the Boston Road exit." and went on to talk about the traffic on Rt. 2 for President Clinton's visit to the Thoreau Institute and warning people that Rt. 2 would be closed for 40 minutes or so while the President was there. No further mention of the bear. I scanned the median but I guess I was already past it. An entire entry about not seeing a bear on 495? Not quite. The nieces and I arrived at Mrs. Reed's for piano at the usual time. No Mrs. Reed. Hmm, this is the last lesson before the recital, where could she be? We waited close to 10 minutes. The rules about associate professor 10 minutes, full professor 15 minutes we learned in college don't seem to apply to sitting on the piano teacher's porch on a June afternoon, so we left. About 40 minutes later, the phone rang. Mrs. Reed. Apologizing for missing us. She was stuck on Rt. 2 when they blocked it off for President Clinton. Did she see Clinton? Of course not. Gee, she could write a journal entry about not seeing the president. The kids and I did see a lot of TV. Other than that, I guess it was a day of things unseen. |
| |
|
x |
x |
|
|
|