Feelin' Groovy

Contrary to the title, you may expect this to be a piece about boys and how they are unable to make themselves stop and ask for directions despite all indications that they are lost. Well, it's not... It's about this woman I saw today on my drive in to work....

For starters, the car ahead of me had to honk at this woman, who was in front of him, at two different traffic lights that had gone green while she just sat there, unmoving. It was a bit frustrating, though it was such a lovely day I was in no particular hurry to get into the office.

As we approached Yonge Street, a police officer had pulled over a car a couple of blocks ahead. His lights were on, and both the police car and the vehicle he'd stopped were parked along the side of the road. This is a relatively small side street we were on, only one lane each way, so not a ton of room. Certainly not enough to have cars double parked and still space for traffic to pass by.

As we come up on this scene, the woman pulls in behind the police car... I think this is a bit odd, but that maybe the cop was blocking the driveway she wanted or something. I barely give it a thought as both the driver ahead of me and myself, pass her and continue on by. I glance in her car on my way past and notice that she has a map in her hands. Aha, I think to myself, She WAS lost.... Not too sure why she stopped there though...Oh wait, I'm watching in my rearview mirror now, she's pulling up beside the police car just as the officer gets out, pad in hand, to write up the speeder/stop sign runner... and yes, while blocking all of the traffic coming up behind her, she's leaning across the front seat to talk to officer, apparently asking him for directions!!

That's all I was able to witness, since traffic for me was moving and I couldn't stop and watch. I don't know how long she took to make her request, how pissed off the traffic behind her got, how tempted the cop was to write her a ticket (for what, I don't know) or how upset the driver who was originally stopped was getting at being kept waiting longer than usual to get his ticket and carry on to work! Seriously though, would you stop an officer in the middle of whatever 'keeping the peace' task he was doing so you could ask him directions? And what makes you think a cop is going to know the answer anyway? There was a Tm Horton's coming up on her route... she'd certainly have been able to find someone in there who could help her.