[Leica] Greetings

[kanner at acm.org (Herbert Kanner)]

Happy holidays everyone.  

I?ve been pretty disorganized all week and not thinking about photography. 
My car was totaled last Friday evening by what must have been a drunk 
driving without headlights. My car was hit from the right at about a 
forty-five degree angle as I was making a left turn. Street showed no 
headlights as far as I could see in either direction and there was no flash 
of light at my car interior as I was hit. The car spun around, crossed the 
street in the process and ended up in the grass in a park, facing the street 
I had been on. I wasn?t even bruised. Airbags did not deploy. I never got 
any details about the other driver other than that he was taken to the 
hospital, claiming pain. Street so wide that I couldn?t even distinguish 
between cop cars, and the one that hit me. Cops didn?t cross the street; the 
cop with me knew nothing about what was known on the other side of the 
street. He just got my story. All I could do re reporting the incident to my 
insurance company was to tell them to get the police report.

An amazing thing did happen. The young cop on my side was chatting me up. 
Possibly to see if I was campus mantis and sober. The conversation got into 
where I was heading, a specific restaurant that I named, and what I was 
planning to eat: a steak, rare.

After the two truck took both cars away, the cop gave me a lift home in the 
back of the squad car. About fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang. It 
was the cop, holding a plastic sack. He went to that restaurant and bought 
me dinner; refused compensation. I got to tell his sergeant about it over 
the phone, and was told the cop would get a commendation.

Because I?m 93, I can?t tell how many driving years are left in me, and I 
decided not to go through the hassle of buying a car but just use Uber and 
Lyft services.

Herb


Herbert Kanner
kanner at acm.org

Question Authority and the authorities will question you.