the great american car swap

i go running pretty much every morning before work. this usually happens between 630 and 730 each morning (i take some days off because i feel like an old too often). running in the winter months here in florence is a dangerous task (i have fallen several times - almost exclusively on my left knee, and usually return home with bear-cicles). but there is something lately that has been on my mind each morning as i drudge through the ice and snow on the streets:

in these cold climates, people will typically turn their cars on to de-ice their windows and warm up the car several minutes before they leave for work and school and such. on any given morning, there are dozens of these cars i pass by - sometimes half a dozen on a block. i have thought, on several occasions, how easy it would be to steal any number of these cars. my mind usually then wanders to where i might go and how i would not get caught in this venture (i have always belived that i am intelligent enough to get away with at least one good crime). but recently, i have come up with what seems to me to be a brilliant idea. what if we (americans? runners? heidi and i? whoever) went out one morning, jumped into a few of these cars, and switched all the "warming up" cars. what would happen? i believe that people would come out to their cars and respond in one of the following ways:

1) unknowledge (made up word). it's morning, you're not fully awake and you just don't happen to notice the sky blue mercury topaz you just crawled into is not the grey toyota camry you drive every day. (this would probably be me)

2) anger and confusion. the most expected response. this is being pissed off. the last thing you need on a cold morning is to have to take the time to figure out why there is a datsun in your driveway where there used to be a lexus.

3) joy and exuberence. the guy who gets the lexus in his driveway where there once was a datsun. this guy gets in the lexus, drives to work and prays to God the whole day that it isn't a dream.

4) appreciation. this is the enlightened individual who, after some moments of confusion and bewilderment, figures out what is going on, and grins to herself because she realizes that something incredible and meaningless has just happened.

this is how i pass my time as my legs move slowly and the breath leaves my body and dissapates into the cold morning air.