I was emptying the garbages for my folks, home as I am for the holidays, and a face flashed on the muted TV. Something about the face was somehow familiar to me, and so a grabbed the TiVo remote and rewound the newscast. Sure enough, a benign ghost from my past reared his head on the tube. Good old Terence Hoveke had rear-ended a stopped police cruiser at 1:20 last night, sending the officer to the hospital.

T.C. Hoveke was a good kid when I first met him. His father coached the rec soccer team I played for, and he and I both played the same position of defender. Both he and I had powerful kicks and were in the habit of saving our goalie from working too hard. I played for that team for a few years, and so did T.C. once high-school rolled around, T.C. and I separated in a way, joining different social circles. The only clear recollections I have of him in High-School are those of him telling me to shut up in class, mostly because he had a hangover most of the time. He turned into an asshole, and got even bigger around than he had been in middle-school.

Things have a way of catching up to you. Terence rear-ended that cop because he had been drinking last night, not because of the rain that had been falling. He is now in jail, charged with DUII, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and third-degree assault.

Somehow, I think I saw this coming, as DUII was almost a fad at our HS, much to my dismay. In fact, arresting kids for DUII was about the only thing West Linn cops can do right.

I have no pity for the bastard. You reap what you sow.