Jill's Journal: ‘The fast and the curious’

It was just before 5 o’clock last Tuesday when I was putzing along Veterans Parkway after delivering copies of the Brandon Valley Journal to the newsstands when a car that had been behind me at one point changed lanes and zoomed past me.

And I mean zoomed past me. I figure the driver was cruising at a good 75 mph or better, despite the posted 50-mph speed limit.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I tend to “speed” a bit on that road, too, but most times I keep it in the 55-mph range. I’m a rebel, but a cautious rebel.

Whenever I see a driver putting the pedal to the metal like that, I figure he or she must have somewhere important to be and something really important to do. Maybe someone is waiting. Maybe there’s an emergency. Maybe they’re late for work.

Or maybe they just really, really need to get somewhere.

With two stops left on my “paper route,” you can imagine my surprise when I pulled into the Casey’s parking lot, only to spot the very same car that had blasted past me and several others on Veterans Parkway five minutes earlier.

Call me sexist if you want, but I was even more surprised to see that the driver was a woman. And she wasn’t a teenager. Or in her 20s. Or her 30s or 40s.

Nope. This driver looked to be in her late 50s or mid-60s.

I was surprised, to say the least. Apparently, I had just witnessed a master class in getting from Point A to Point B in record time, only to discover that Point B was the convenience store.

Naturally, my curiosity got the better of me. When I stepped inside to plunk down copies of the Journal on the counter, I had to ask the clerk if she personally knew the woman who had just walked out the door.

She didn’t. But she did go on to tell me the woman had stopped to buy lottery tickets.

Now, with the Powerball jackpot well into the millions, I certainly understand taking a chance on a little financial independence. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of checking those winning numbers and discovering that we can finally retire, pay off the bills and buy groceries without checking our bank balance first?

But with the speed this woman had been traveling on Veterans Parkway, surely, she couldn’t have been in that much of a hurry just to buy lottery tickets. 

Unless, of course, she had a foolproof system for picking the winning numbers and was racing to get her ticket before the drawing closed. That couldn’t be it, as there were still hours to go before the drawing.

I have no idea what was so urgent that Tuesday afternoon. Maybe she was late for an appointment. Maybe she had somewhere else to be. Or maybe she was just having one of those days when it just felt good to put the pedal to the metal.

And while I have no idea what spurred her speed, I can only hope that if she happened win the multi-million Powerball jackpot, that she was taking down license plate numbers and remembers the rest of us folks who were “putzing” along Veterans Parkway at a more reasonable above-the-speed-limit 55 mph.

And if she doesn’t win? Well, at least she got to Casey’s in a hurry.

As for me, I’ll keep putzing along on my paper route. I may not get anywhere in record time, but I figure I have a better chance of keeping my money in my wallet than I do of winning the lottery.

Besides, if I ever do win millions, I’ll be able to hand off my paper route and avoid others’ need to speed.