ecocabs

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Ecocabs By Unanimous Decision!

It strikes you as you weave through downtown and Capitol Hill in the early morning rounds: driving is like fighting here. In the tight confines of the city, hard up against your opponent, you're going to absorb some punishment. You do your best to avoid the heavy blows, keep your elbows tucked in and your eyes wide open. You feint, hook, butt heads and then backpedal away. You put a little distance between yourself and the danger, dance away, dance, until that infighting has given way to stretches of nervous waiting crossed with hurtling lefts and right of great mass. Then, at just the right moment, you sneak in a short uppercut that lands just where you want it to. The man in your corner had said, "Take this to Gaithersburg!" and you had done it, and it makes you feel like the best damn middle, er, light heavyweight in the world. You still have to go the distance, though. On the return, crashing down a country road whose old telephone lines hang as loose as the ropes at the Ali-Foreman fight, you have the crude intent of a late round haymaker. You throw two last roundhouse rights and a straight left. Near Bethesda you're backed into trouble and have to duck out quickly to escape a jam. You talk a little trash as you slip away, and then quickly jab and jab again, always anticipating your adversaries next move and shiftng to the side before you can be tagged yourself. Stick and move. Pop! Deliver your blow and go, always moving, until the bell rings signalling the end of the fight.