Incompetence Anyone?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that law enforcement officials were supposed to be, well, enforcing the law. You know, tracking down the people doing bad things to protect the people who aren't. The older I get, the more of my illusions are being stripped away.

Although some police officers seem to have all the time in the world to enforce things like volume control, others can't even seem to manage stopping people from trying to run others over.
On our way home from the coffee shop today, Melody and I took a slightly different route back, and saw at least four patrol cars patrolling the streets.

Even so, while we were crossing the street, a car was coming up to a stop sign. We were already in the road and as pedestrians with the right of way, continued across the street. The woman driver (yes, I KNOW it was a woman) stopped at the stop sign, and then SPED up, swerving from the center of her lane towards us. I'm not exaggerating.

Both Melody and I turned to get the license plate, checked the streets we were at and verified that we both thought she was a woman. We called the cops when we got home.

Even though Melody said she had the license plate number, the woman didn't ask for it. Her solution? That they'd put out a patrol car. Wait a second - we'd seen FOUR. What's one more going to do?

Needless to say, I think they should have someone with the slightest amount of competence answering the phone and taking/directing calls. But maybe that's just me.

The 2008 Chicago Auto Show

Last Sunday, Mike and I took the train to the Chicago Auto Show. It was a long long long day, but it was truly amazing. I've never actually been much of a car person. I mean, I can look at a car and say, "Wow, that car looks nice," but it took my miata (which is sadly, no longer mine) for me to truly understand how amazing cars can be. In short, now I love cars, making this a truly fantastic experience.


I've included some pics - and we were there for five hours and didn't see it all. These are some of my favorites. These are the new Suzuki trucks. I love love love the color of the green one.


This the semi that Mike loved. He saw it, and I'd just heard an announcement about getting a coupon for $500 off a new car. Since I'm planning on buying a car this summer, that caught my interest, and I said, "Honey, we should go check that out."
"Okay, whatever..." and then, a second later, "I need... I want... I have no idea what you said."
I looked at him, and his eyes were GLUED to this semi. "Okay, we can go look."
He pulled my camera from around my neck, gave me his drink and said, "Let's trade."


And then we saw the army vehicles and spent a LOT of time taking pics there.

Seriously, we were at the auto show for five hours and didn't see everything. If you're interested in heading out there, the train tickets are about $18 roundtrip to Chicago from Southbend, tickets for the show are $10 apiece, and food inside is EXPENSIVE - bring a lunch. This is the last weekend (February 16 and 17) to see it, and it's totally worth it.

Now, if you want to see the rest of my pictures, you can go to any of these three links, which will take you to albums one, two and three of my facebook picture collections. I'd put more up here, but this has taken forever.