Speed

Ugh. I am rather annoyed right now. This morning someone, who was almost certainly driving too fast, knocked the driver's side mirror off of my car. Naturally, they didnt stop or leave a note or anything like that. I heard it happen but because I have all that stupid plastic on my bedroom window with the blinds closed in between the plastic and the window, I wasnt able to quickly look to see who it was. Not that I probably could have anyways since it sounded like they were going pretty fast. It upsets me though because I know that for someone to drive close enough to my car to knock off the driver's side mirror, they had to be mere inches away from hitting the more expensive to replace parts on the car like the back part and the side part. I just hope that my mirror scratched the HECK out of their car but since the mirror was made of mostly plastic, that is probably too much to hope for. Maybe they will at least feel guilty all day about it.

The thing is that people drive really fast down my street. Part of my morning routine is to lie in bed and listen to NPR and the people scraping the bottoms of their cars on the street as they go over the railroad tracks. It happens a lot -- enough so that there are huge gouges in the road on either side of the railroad tracks.

It isnt even necessarily people who live on my street either although to be honest I wouldnt be surprised if I found "M. Andretti" on a mailbox down the street. No, a good number of these speed demons seem to be gunning around the light at Michigan and Prospect by turning left onto N. Grove and then right onto Locust and then left again at Prospect.

I think the main reason for all of this is that the street is just so wide. Wide streets encourage speeding. I also imagine that the N. Grove/Locust shortcut doesnt bother enough people to have any money spent trying to do something about it. The city certainly has more pressing problems on its hands (like public housing projects catching on fire and the cops shooting people in residential neighborhoods and not having any money)

I am not worried about my pets because the dog has been trained not to go into the street and the cat doesnt like leaving the yard. But I am worried about all the kids who regularly hang out in the street. There is a boys/girls club RIGHT THERE and the kids often walk home from there and they often walk in the street, especially if they are teenagers because well, everyone knows...teenagers are TOO COOL for the street. Anyways in warmer months those teenagers sometimes walk in the street wearing dark clothes. One of these days, one of the speed demons is going to squish one of those kids!

I also worry about my car. I think I am going to have to spend some time/money this summer on fencing or a new gate so that I can create a place in my back yard for parking. My neighbor parks her car in the back and I think she has the right idea.