So last night, at about 11 PM, I'm driving home on the loop 101,
heading east from I-17. The traffic was predictably light, and I
strolled down the open road, drink in my lap, my right hand lightly
resting on the steering wheel, my left hand holding a smoke, as the
cool desert wind blows against my youthful visage. The smell of
moisture in the air promised the possibility of rain today. I railed
along at 75 MPH or so, which was a reasonable and safe speed for that
particular stretch of highway.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, two highway patrol men come up behind me and
pass me at a great speed; one passed in the lane to the left of me and
one passed in to the lane to the right. Well! That was certainly a
humbling experience, so I put on my blinker and sheepishly switched to
the slow lane. The cops passed me at a speed of 80 MPH, and I still
can't get the smell of bacon out of my truck.

Now I'm not ashamed to drive fast around cops. If I come across a cop
and I'm doing 5-8 over, I won't blink. If one passes me on the freeway
doing 20 over, I'll let him get a few hundred yards ahead of me and
then speed up to match his speed (or drive at the highest speed I feel
comfortable with, whichever is less). This is a strategy that I've had
success with, and the only time it blew up in my face - I got a ticket
for a 78 in a 75 - I beat it in court.

So I'm in the left lane by now whizzing by idiots who say "OMG! COP!
Better drop to 45!!!" And by now the cops are in the two leftmost
lanes. We are all just passing underneath the AZ 51 interchange when
the cop in the left lane comes across an old, beat-up pickup truck. I
can't really estimate how fast he was going but it was much slower than
the cops, and he appeared to be engine breaking.

I was sporting some serious wood at this point. This guy was an
a.shole. He was even pissing me off and I'm not even behind him. If
there is one guy to get a ticket for LLB, its this guy!! Alas, a few
seconds later, the cop in the left lane switches behind his buddy in
the middle lane.

Damn. Disappointment...

But then, what seemed like a fraction of a second later, the cop in the
middle lane made what seemed like a dangerous lane change and nailed
the guy in the left lane!! LLB taken DOWN!

I was going to try to get the cops car # or his license so that I could
write a letter to the department to thank him. I was seriously going to
do that, but some idiot up the road a few car lengths saw the lights
and slowed to a ridiculous speed, and I was distracted by trying to
merge to the middle lane to give the cop pulling over the LLB a.shole
his safety distance. Oh well. Maybe he's a fan of RAD and will read
this?