red truck incident

the entire new year, it can be said, is a huge drinking holiday, in texas as everywhere, but it's slightly colored by football, in the sense that if there's football on television all day on new year's day, there's drinking all day, and in fact there's drinking right through every game, college and pro, with tech games and cowboy games being maybe bigger than the rest. so it was no particular surprise that an incident happened on the night of january first, when a red truck came up on our lawn, up against a city sign, and then a tree; the truck was missing a wheel, and its hub had damaged the street going back on 20th street, and damaged the curb, and even tilled up a bit of our lawn as the driver had tried to get it back into the street.

my brother, who was visiting from england, and wasn't sleeping that well anyway, heard the noise and went out to talk to the two guys, young fellows, one might have had a pony tail. they were in fact quite drunk. at this point the truck was in front of our house, but in the morning, we noticed that it had moved forward and was actually blocking the neighbor's driveway. pieces of truck were scattered in the lawn. the wheel was missing. he seemed to have done an incredible amount of damage to the truck, on the front right, and on the front left, and oil had been dripping onto our curb and lawn. but the city sign and the tree were remarkably in good shape. we began to suspect that he had brought much of the problem with him as he'd poked holes in the street with his rim, driving along with no wheel. we followed the holes and ended up doing research way back in the neighborhoods of lubbock where he might have started. there was in fact a path of holes going all the way back to about 43rd street and through the neighborhoods up there, but no sign of a wheel, no sign of great destruction, and we gave up.

the neighbor came out in the morning and called the police, who wrote it up and called him an idiot. he had in fact driven miles on only a rim, as far as we could tell, and, by leaving it blocking the driveway, he forced us to call and have it towed, whereas we might have just waited for him to retrieve it otherwise. i wasn't feeling vindictive, since somebody just recently let me off the hook for a minor infraction, but i had to admit, he'd left pieces of truck all over our yard, and hadn't done much to set things right. in fact we never saw him again. if he came back for the truck, he didn't try to ask us, or apologize, or anything. the city has his truck, or what's left of it. it was a newer truck, bright red, damaged on at least two corners.

my brother did most of the legwork on the detective case, as if, in visiting from england, this was the best way to really know texas and get to the bottom of this mysterious behavior. actually we all agreed, he must have been pretty drunk, to lose it that bad, and drive around on a rim for so long. it is possible to park legally on a rim, or set a wheel beneath it, and come back for it later, without damaging a truck too badly. his truck was like a rototiller, tearing up new street everywhere he went.

as for us, we were just beginning to enjoy a quiet break, before the students return, where flint avenue is fairly quiet, since it feeds right into the university and nobody is going there, and so the whole neighborhood has a kind of cold, clear, peaceful air for days on end. i'd like to play ping pong, or basketball, or try out my son's new boomerang, but it's been too cold. the dogs and cats are a bit on edge because people are hanging around during the day, but hey, it's an environment, and you have to adjust to your environment one way or the other. one cat is so skittish that he hides whenever there are visitors around, he wasn't seen at all for several days, and when he was seen, it was skittering up to the litter box quickly while he could get away with it, and not get trapped by the dogs, or worse, people. he didn't run away, though. we settle into a vacation routine, for only a few days, because a reunion, and visitors from england, and kansas, were a big deal, and left us all worn out. i'm grateful though: my family doesn't have big fights, all got along well, all functional enough to make it down to new mexico without problems, all on flights around the country and the world. it was good to see everyone, catch up on family developments. the boys got worn out; the cousins have a lot of energy.

thinking of remodeling, making some sites commercial. not this one, of course. this one may go underground, out of public view, but won't get google commercials all over it, like the others might. not sure how i'll proceed. i'm interested in online advertising, and how and whether it works, so i'm going to do some experiments, and see what happens. as a result, you may see some commercials on some sites. i may even make them myself. and then, i'll give you a tour of my various sites. it's the least i could do, for my friends. more later.