Update: When you're done here head on over to De's place for her first Shamming/Sharing

Remember these? I post an anecdote that may or may not be true. You guess which it is, based on your knowledge of me and my curious ways. Whoever gets it right gets a point when the contest closes. Here we go:

I was in my early twenties, it was winter, I was driving home from a bar in the big red boat. The big red boat was a massively huge dodge station wagon. When it was new I'm sure it was a bright sparkly red but by the time I bought the relic for $200 as a winter beater it was more of a dull burnt umber. It drove much like a boat - the suspension was so soft and it was so heavy that it didn't turn so much as sway around curves. The frame was wracked too, so if it was coming straight at you you'd see the front and the driver's side of the car.

Damn I miss that car.

Back to the story - coming home from the bar, E-dog is in the passenger seat. The roads are clear but there are banks of snow alongside the road. As we start to pass SweetHome high school we see that up ahead is a car at an intersection failing to turn right on red. As we approach closer I get a wickedly stupid idea. I speed up a bit. I'm planning on playing chicken with the retard's rear end. Get as close as possible before wildy swinging around him.

Remember what I said about the suspension? Wish I had remembered at the time.

I did succeed in avoiding the vehicle that was now not turning on green, swinging wildly into the oncoming traffic lane and bringing my beast back into the right lane as we passed the (now obviously stalled) car at the intersection. Except my car wasn't pointed straight any more. It was sideways, then backwards, then facing the right way again but making a curious scraping sound as I pulled it to the side of the road.

Then the lights of the cop car went on. The one on the cross street who had stopped to help the stalled car.

Fuck.

I jumped out of the car, ran around to the passenger side and kicked the hell out of the (very flat) tire. I cursed up a storm as the Safety Patrol officer (University of Buffalo campus cops) approached.

I pulled off faking that the entire episode was caused by a tire failure and only my superb driving skill had avoided a terrible accident. E-dog never said a word, he was probably still watching the replay of his life. The safety cop drove us home as I didn't have a spare tire. I woke up my roomie's boyfriend and got him to take me back to my car so I could use his spare to get my beast home. His tire almost sort of fit okay. It made it back to my place anyway.

Ever since that day I've wondered whether the spin out and tire failure was bad karma paying me back for the original idiotic planned move or if it was good karma saving me from the cop.