Third Time's The... Something

I took the day off today because Joe's working all. damn. weekend. Yes, including Monday, but not including today. So, no brainer.

We took off a little after noon to have some lunch and take in a movie. As we were motoring over to Bethesda, some jerk in a commercial van suddenly decided he was going the wrong way and blocked the left lane while he waited to make an illegal U-turn. Joe hit the brakes and we stopped just in time. One block farther? A left turn lane with its own light.

We made it to Bethesda, had great (and I do mean GREAT) burgers at BGR (they made an excellent vanilla milkshake too, I might add), and saw a wonderful indie movie called Get Low, starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, and Sissy Spacek. It's very moving, and Joe had to hand me his handkerchief before we could leave. Yeah, I said it.

Anyway, we were on the way home in rush-hour traffic. It's the time of year when the firefighters in our area collect money for Muscular Dystrophy with their "Fill the Boot" campaign. Sure enough, two of them were filling their boots at a very busy intersection. We were heading east on the cross street on the green light when the idiot woman two cars ahead of us suddenly decided she had to fill the goddamn boot. She stopped short, just past the intersection, with lots of moving traffic behind her. The guy in back of her stopped shorter, and we stopped shortest. Thank God we got the brakes done last week! The firefighter even yelled at her for being really stupid.

Okay. Two close calls. Whew.

You know what's coming, don't you? Of course you do. We were almost home. Traffic was flowing right along and then jammed up, as it is wont to do, and the car ahead of us stopped short. So did we.

The woman behind us, alas, did not. We're fine. The bumper has a big old dent. We have her insurance information. Happy Labor Day weekend!