it's the one armed man!

I was awoken about 3:30am. It came to me slowly with building intensity. The far off sound of a police siren increasingly growing louder. Now we live in an older neighborhood with a mix of younger families and older retired folk. More retired older folk than not so the majority of "action" we see around here is the occaisonal fire and rescue vehicle checking out a heart attack or similar with the old folk. Generally the sirens stop before they hit our street. Not so the case of my awakening this early AM. I happen to be sleeping on the couch enjoying the relatively cool air coming in from outside and actually sleeping more comfortably than our out of shape bed. As I started to focus on what had woken me from slumber I realized the siren was getting closer. Before I had a chance to even sit up I heard vehicles at an extreme rate of speed flying down our street. The sirens pierced my ears and the lights lit up the living room. I bolted straight up! What was going on? As I gathered my bearings and look out the window I cannot see anything but can surely hear it. Within the next 20-30 seconds I hear an awful screeching of tires and low and behold here they are again, making pass number two. A grayish colored older sedan and a cop car hot on it's tail. I hear them go around again and as I 'm watching the end of the street to see if they will make yet another pass I see them both go flying down one of the other streets. Seconds later the tire screeching and a HUGE BOOM! Gray car must have tried to take the end corner much to fast and lost control. It was amazing. I saw two neighbors jump in their cars and head off that direction. I've yet to venture that direction but after hearing more approaching sirens all quieted down within the next 15 minutes and I finally drifted back to sleep. What an interestingly and heart thudding awakening. At first I wasn't even sure if it had all been real considering I had to take some meds to help me sleep more comfortably but when husband came to check things out I realized it was defiantely real. It still seems a bit surreal this morning in the normal light. Hopefully in the end the bad guy was caught and no one of too badly injured. To me it will now be a great story to pass on and a little something to get my heart pumping just to remind me how alive and lucky I am.