Journal

July 4th, 2004

Wasn't it Murphy's Law that said, "If anything can go wrong, it will"? Part III

pulled over by this moron…He’s a local cop who felt the need to pull me over… He saunters up to the car window… I’m not 20 feet from the driveway of a McDonald’s where I was going to get a sausage muffin for breakfast... sheesh... can’t even eat in piece… so he knocks on my window… I roll it down… after taking my hands off of the steering wheel… I look up at him, and ask, “Is there a problem Sir?” He says, “Yes, you have a taillight out” I look at my dashboard, because it would tell me if I have a taillight out. I say, “that’s strange, my car doesn’t think it’s out” He says, “it’s out” I said, “prove it, show me it’s out” So I walk around with him to the back of my car... both taillights are on and working fine.. I look at him and say, “What’s your badge number? And where is your police headquarters?” He looks at my car... then at me, says, “It was out.” I say, “I assume your being an officer of the law; you know it is illegal to stop someone without provocation, and I could get you a reprimand for this?” He’s like, “yes Ma’am” and I say, “was there another reason you stopped me, or was this the only one?” He said, “This was the only one.” I said, “Were you just bored? I’m hungry, I’m going to pull into that McDonald’s over there and we’re going to act like this didn’t happen, I expect you’ll want to run my plates before I go?” He’s like, “no, I don’t need to” I’m like, “okay then, are we done?” He’s like, “yes ma’am”

     So, I get back into my car and drive through the McDonald’s drive through and get myself a sausage biscuit. Well... from there I continue through Missouri and Kansas without a hitch, stop in Colby, Kansas for dinner... at Arby’s…Now... Colby Kansas is not far from the Colorado border… I’m eating my chicken bacon and swiss sandwich as I’m driving over the state line… Burlington Colorado is about 12 miles west of the border... I drive past the last exit for Burlington, the temperature drops what feels like 20 degrees…The sky got dark and ominous…and then the rain came… it started lightly.. but within 3-4 minutes was very heavy… enough to make you want to slow down from the posted speed limit of 75 to about 60 MPH…So I’m passing under an overpass… and then small hail starts hitting the car.. I’m like... it’s not a big deal... I hear a bulletin over the radio that they have golf ball sized hail in Cheyenne County... where ever that is…and then this huge block of ice... about the size of a baseball hits my hood... I’m like... “Christ!!!”…So I’m looking around… finally I get to another overpass... I pull off the side of the road onto the shoulder underneath it... and wait a good 45 minutes for the hail to stop falling…

     I ended up with 2 dents in my hood from the baseball sized hail...Well... after that I continue.. Make it into Denver... and then to Boulder and I know my family has already gone to the fireworks display at Folsom Field... where the CU Buffs Play (GO BUFFS!!!)…it’s a few minutes after 9 and I know the display started at 9PM... I know I’ll never find them there...

     So I pull up to their house and let myself in... Bring in my bags... and figure… I deserved it so I leave their house and go to the Outback Saloon on 28th street, in Boulder. I pull up and get out of my car... I don’t even make it to the door when I hear… “I’ll be damned... Kim…!”... I look around, and I see someone I haven’t seen in 15 years, her name is Stephanie… I found out she had just gotten married in August… So we were all talking when my cell phone rings... I had walked into the bar and got a couple white Russians.

     My mother is on the other end of the phone... meanwhile there are fireworks going off in the parking lot... my mother wants to know when I’ll be home... she saw my stuff and was wondering where I’m at, I tell her and explain where I’m at, who I ran into .. Etc... She’s okay with this, just says, “Don’t be too late” I’m like, “okay”... and thinking... Christ... y’all aren’t here when I get there, and *I’m* inconviencing YOU? I just endured the wrath of Mother Nature to get there and I can’t even have a drink in peace? Sheesh!!! So we trade numbers and I go home after yelling at some drunk moron for setting off fireworks too close to my car... he moved his little display (hehe)…So he stops the fireworks so I can leave.. (Mighty nice of him... ya think?)…

     So I return to my parent’s house... find out my children have already been into my licorice... which is fine... I bought it in Ohio for them... Amish Licorice…yum...