Last evening, I went to a party out past Pasadena, some distance from my home. I was driving on the 2 North freeway and about to transition to the 134 East when Henrietta said something. Henrietta is what I call the lady built into the Global Positioning System in my car. Her voice is turned off for directions but she does occasionally speak up to tell me, "Five miles ahead on the route, slow traffic" or "Two miles ahead on the route, stop-and-go traffic."
What she said this time was something I'd never heard from her before. She said, "Seven miles ahead on the route, dangerous event."
"Dangerous event?" I thought to myself, "What am I supposed to do with that piece of information? Put on a Hazmat suit?
What was this dangerous event? A fire? A flood? Someone driving a red 1971 Pinto? Maybe a food truck full of cole slaw…
I turned on the radio and I thought, "Well, it's seven miles from me. Maybe before I get too close, either a traffic report or Henrietta will tell me what it is."
I had gone no more than a mile from the first warning when she gave me the second: "Four miles ahead on the route, dangerous event." So not only was the event dangerous, it was coming my way. I decided before it was upon me, I'd better change courses. I got off the freeway at the next exit and took surface streets to the party.
The radio told me nothing so I never did find out what the "dangerous event" was if indeed there was one. Usually, Henrietta tells me if there's an accident. I'm wondering if it was police pursuit — presumably on the other side of the freeway since it was apparently coming in my direction. But those make the news pretty rapidly and I heard nothing. I'm thinking it was a Saturday night so maybe Henrietta had been drinking.