20 Minutes Difference

This happened last night, but I had wanted to write what I already had in my head. I'm also cheating by posting a cheery motel photo, but, hey, our Budget Motels are pretty dull. This will be a short post, as I'm at work battling the machine again, but the post might as well be as abrupt as the event. That 383 bus I mentioned in the last post? I got off at 86th Street to go to the CVS and buy some Altoids. More to stay warm a few minutes more. I left and continued on my way, not really noticing squad cars or sirens on my way. The tunnel vision of the truly cold. Turns out that about five minutes after I walked across Cicero, Burbank cops were kicking in a door at the Budget Motel at 8540 So. Cicero. Two guys with outstanding warrants, one here, one up in Rockford. How the hell I never heard the full automatic from the guy who shot the first cop twice in his Kevlar vest and the second in his leg is something I'm still amazed at. Both cops are doing well, the vest obviously saving the first cop's life. The shooter dead, the other guy in custody, one of the guy's sisters saying on how the cops just came bustin in and shooting, crap-ass dialogue from a Maury Povich episode. The creepiest part of this whole "what if?" scenario, the whole what if I had crossed at 87th as I do most every night, or what if I had stayed around the CVS longer and then walked right into the big blowdown, well, I'll tell you this. I was kidding, thinking to myself, well, maybe if I was hit by a car and started bleeding, at least the blood would warm me up....Wayne