Return of the Death Star

In the waning month of Daylight Savings Time, one of the creepy aspects of my commute was a black, Hummer H2 in the Remington Park Subdivision of Colleyville. After several weeks, seeing it most mornings, I came to think of it as an early 21st Century precursor to the Star Wars "Death Star."

You see, this vehicle was off on the dark side of Remington Parkway, silently waiting, just waiting, but with all of its running lights eerily glowing in the dark. I guess it was probably a mom waiting with her child for the school bus to show up, but it seemed vaguely sinister to me somehow. Not that it ever appeared to threaten me or any other traffic or pedestrian anywhere in the vicinity. It just seemed BAD. Like as in "the dark side."

Surprisingly, when Standard Time arrived, I no longer saw the Hummer parked in its appointed spot. Instead, on a few mornings, I'd see (I'm happy to report) a Jaguar XKR, or, more often, nothing at all. I figured the Hummer/Death Star decided to patrol some other galaxy, or at least another neighborhood. Until this morning, that is. Perhaps the Death Star needed a bit more shortening of the days before it felt it safe to reappear.

This morning, it was there once again, in the dark, complete with its glowing running lights. Seeing it, I resolved to capture it in a photo and so I stopped to pull out my iPhone camera. The intelligence associated with it was apparently disturbed by my stopping, or perhaps was just concerned I felt endangered, because its lights suddenly all winked out. With no flash, the opportunity for a picture was gone and so you see, instead, my impression of what I saw.

One might wonder why it's necessary to drive a child to a bus pickup point, within a subdivision, on a nice, albeit slightly crisp, morning, but maybe there's a good reason. Maybe it's just someone that's gotten a little too used to driving everywhere due to an infrastructure that has neglected the simple pleasures of walking around the neighborhood - and this is very common in subdivisions around here. Myself, walking about in the morning is enjoyable (unless I have a flat tire on my bike). Where people walk, they enjoy things a bit more. Just my personal take. Submitted for y'all's consideration...