I don’t know exactly why but I left work eight minutes earlier than usual this afternoon. I had put my eight hours in and I was at a good stopping point and it was getting dark and starting to rain and so…

It was a pretty smooth commute eight minutes early on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend. Traffic was NOT backed up south of Ellsworth Road and I didn’t even have to wait more than one traffic light cycle *at* Ellsworth Road. No trouble merging onto the I94 18-wheel Clogway on the antiquated entrance ramp. WWII-era cloverleaf anyone? Traffic was chugging along at a rather sedate pace, 65 mph or whatever. I chugged happily along with it. The Jackson/Maple left turn signal was having one of its fits. The kind where it only lets five vee-hickles (instead of 25) through at a time. Even that wasn’t much of a problem. I only had to sit through two light cycles.

I got home and changed my clothes (flinging an infamous undergarment in the process), washed my lunch dishes, did a couple other chores, and checked Twitter:

There’s an apparent police chase going on right now in Washtenaw County. On I-94 heading westbound at a high rate of speed. (Tweeted by Kyle Feldscher of annarbor.com)

That’s my freeway.

Subsequent tweets divulged some details: Two armed men. Driving a silver Dodge Caliber. Passed State Street. 110 mph on the shoulder at Ann Arbor/Saline Road. One of the po-leese cars chasing it crashed. Then the Caliber crashed. At Zeeb Road. The two occupants escaped on foot northbound into the woods and were still at-large last I knew.

Some people around here are questioning whether they were actually traveling 110 mph. And maybe they weren’t. I don’t know who was doing the estimating. But even 85 or 90 mph on a crowded freeway ON THE SHOULDER during rush hour is insane.

I wouldn’t exactly call my decision to leave work eight minutes early a Celtic Sixth Sense moment. It was more like, “I am done and it is dark and I wanna get outta Dodge.” But it was a good decision, don’tcha think? I mean, there has been no news about any fatalities or injuries but what if me and my Ninja had been in the way of these two desperate criminals. Glad I was (apparently) off the freeway before this started.

Rain is in our future. Lots of it apparently. Two inches over the next 24 hours or thereabouts. Changing to snow by Wednesday morning. I love the Great Lake State! So how was your Monday?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.