A Rather Tom-Centric Entry: None Too Flattering Either
Monday, May. 12, 2003

Last week, on Tuesday, we got a whole lotta rain. I�ll call last Tuesday �Flood Day� just so we can keep things straight.

TC lives near Aldridge Creek. When I was younger and lived at 10123, we all just called Aldridge Creek �TP Creek.� Or maybe Teepee Creek. In any case, it has been named Aldridge for a long time, but back in the seventies it was called Teepee creek by many people in southeast Huntsville. However, I have yet to meet anyone as an adult who called it that (though I�ve hardly been searching).

TC was a little disturbed about the creek on Thursday, as it was flowing backward. It seems that the improvements that the city has made to the creek did allow it to drain more quickly and not flood everyone like it did a few years ago. But, the Tennessee River didn�t crest until late on Thursday. And Aldridge flows so well now, that it decided to have the water run upstream instead. But it still didn�t flood TC.

Tom, my brother-in-law, was in his back yard and saw a turtle crawling away from the water that was flowing between his house and the park behind it. There is not a waterway normally there. Tom relayed this information in the following approximate conversation:

Tom: Man, back on Flood Day, the water behind here was so bad that a big turtle got stuck out of the water into our yard. It was this big (makes hands to be approx size of large potato). And I had to throw him back.

Me: Man, on Flood Day, Leafy brought a softshell turtle into the office to show around and it was bigger than that plate (points at average sized plate).

Tom: Well, this one wasn�t so wide though, but it was big.

Me (getting concerned): Was it tall?

Tom: Yeah, it was pretty tall.

Me: And you threw it in the water?

Tom: Yeah.

Me: You killed it, man. It was a box turtle. A land turtle.

Chorus (wailing and gnashing of teeth): Oooh, poooor turtle!

Another unfortunateness happened to Tom this weekend. We were all going up to Marvin�s, a really good restaurant that�s worth leaving the city for. It�s in Tennessee actually, just over the line. Tom was driving his mini-van (Warner Brothers Edition) and I was in my Miata with Brad, my nephew (Tom�s son). The people who were in the WB were Tom, Teri (his wife), Aisai (my wife), Aisai�s Mom (who�s also Tom�s mom), Teri�s Mom, and Christine (my niece).

Tom is a speed king, hear him sing. Yes, he�s a speed king, see him fly.

(It�s lyrics.)

Well, Brad and I are talking about everything from facial blemishes to speeding tickets and not really paying attention to our speed so we�re going considerably slower than Tom at times. We discussed speeding tickets when I had to go 90 mph to catch up with him. Tom was averaging 10 to 15 mph over the speed limit. That is, until he started slowing down.

When this happened, I was actually matching his speed. We were going around 80. Then we slowed down to around 45 or so rather quickly. I didn�t know what was going on and just stared at the van, expecting Tom to pull over or something, thinking that there was something wrong with the van. Then I saw the state trooper in my rearview mirror.

Oh, but don�t fret. I didn�t get a ticket.

The state trooper came up from behind and signaled to change lanes in front of me, pulling in behind Tom. Once he was in front of me, he put on his lights and pulled Tom over.

Brad asked if we should pull over too. I said, �Nooooohoooohooooooooo!� And we proceeded to Marvin�s, which we had a good idea where it was, and we did indeed find.

Aisai reported that Teri was a little peeved that Tom got a ticket in front of �the Mothers.� Also, since Tom didn�t have his proof of insurance it was $550, but after he shows he has insurance in court, it�ll be dropped to $167.

Now, the mystery is this. Why did the cop pull over the WB edition mini-van and ignore the just-washed mirror-like black Miata with it�s top down and a shaved head, goateed fellow driving?

My theory:

Johnny Law saw the WB zip by and went immediately into Roscoe P. Coletrain mode, "Geet geet geet." He wanted to zip into traffic, but there I was, traffic in his zipping space. So he had to wait for me, then pulled out and caught up to us. Since I was just background noise in his righteous quest, he ignored me.

On the diddlebug page that I made notes for this entry in my palm, it says: �Tom�s Turtle Monitor Fence Marvin�s Ticket.� I was going to write that I forgot what Fence meant, but after I wrote it (so I did actually write it) I remembered. I helped Aisai and her mom put up a dinky fence up. More details later (probably not really).

The next diddlebug page with Stuffo notes on it says: �Eye Near Miss Circus.� And that will be my topic to write about tomorrow (unless something amazing comes up).