Well, I was going to start my post by saying I had a little run-in with the cops today... but Ive been thinking about what I should tell about my funny story - maybe its not that funny...well, you decide. Ron and I went to Burnet tonight, driving south on 281 at about 9 pm. on what is normally a lonely stretch of road. We were stunned by the steady stream of traffic coming at us - literally miles of headlights bumper-to-bumper headed at us - and as far as we could see, we were the only vehicle headed south. Eerie. But, once in Burnet, all was well - no clue to the unusual amount of traffic. We went to one of our favorite little restaurants and were happy to see they were doing a brisk business - the parking lot was almost full. No worries, we thought - theres always the handicapped space by the door, but LO! It was taken, so we parked at the outermost edge of the parking lot. I grumbled about the long walk under my breath, but when we passed the handicapped space and noticed the car parked there, I stood up straight, slammed my walking stick on the pavement and hooted. OH, BOY, am I about to cause TROUBLE!! Ron looked horrified. The offending car was a police cruiser! The owner greeted us at the door and asked us how we were doing - I told him about the parking situation and we laughed - till Ron told him I was probably going to end up in jail tonight - nodding toward the three tables of law-enforcement officers from three different departments, police, sheriff and state troopers. But it was too late to stop me - I was on a mission. We got our table, then I walked over to the closest table of uniforms, smiled and introduced myself and said I had to say this, as it had struck me as so funny. I told them about the parking situation, then asked which one of you is disabled? One of them owned up to it, apologized and went out and moved his car. I thanked them and went back to my seat, puzzling over their lack of an apparent sense of humor. Its just not normal for our guys in unifrom to seem so dead-serious with people. After the offending officer moved his car and came back in, I went and shook his hand and thanked him - and he apologized again. But not a single smile at the table. Brrr! Our next stop was HEB for a few grocery items, and the girl running the register breathlessly updated us on the local high school football game that was underway as we spoke. Ron said Oh! Does that account for the crazy traffic on 281 tonight? and she got very serious and said oh, no - there was a horrible head-on collision just south of town. Traffic was tied up for over an hour as they flew in two life-flight helicopters for the survivors and tried to clear the highway. So, Im guessing I had added another unnecessary straw onto the camels back for the guys that had the unfortunate duty to work the wreck - Im just assuming they all met at our restaurant to wind down. There I was, trying to do good for disabled people everywhere, and feeling good about having the cajones as the guys said, to say something. Im not feeling that good about now - pray for me.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 06:03:22 +0000