Nightmares in the light
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Not to be a name dropper but I met the mayor last night. I only mention that because it's a lead in to a few stories.
This morning a light came on in my head. Why? please tell us more you say?
Here's the deal - A few years ago I got tagged with a minor speading ticket just down the street from my house, on my way to work in the early morning hours. It seemed odd at the time because of the location where the policeman was stationed. I've lived in this neighborhood for 20 years now and I've never seen a cop at or around that spot with a radar gun. It's a residential street with a 25 mph speed limit. I imagine if a policeman were to be stationed there he or she could probably tag about half the people who drive by for speeding. Not that speeding is right mind you. I don't like it at all when people zoom by my house. Especially since there are kids in the neighborhood. Anyway I was coming down the hill a few years back and got up to maybe 30 or over...and the cop gave me a ticket. I just thought it was odd that he was sitting parked in front of a house on a residential street with a radar gun going (usually the Everett P.D. is busy with higher priority activity). Turns out the mayor's house is right about at that spot.
Postscript - Come to think of it this guy wasn't the mayor a few years ago when I got that ticket. So much for that theory. Maybe that cop had a quota to meet...or maybe it just wasn't my lucky day. May all my troubles be that small. Aside from getting the ticket which was a minor annoyance, the thing that bugged me was that for whatever reason we had a city policeman devoted to a speed check on a neighborhood residential street where well-off people live and no small children were in site. To be equitable with taxpayer money, I hope we can get some devoted policeman to set up a speed check in some of the less affluent areas of our fair city as well. I'd recommend some of the areas where there are lot's of kids playing around or near the street as a start.
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About 30 years ago I was working as a bartender in Montana. A couple of goofy old guys came into the bar. They weren't locals and they were pretty scruffy. I'm not sure how they were getting around the country or what their source of income might have been. In the course of the conversation they asked me if there was any work available. I told them (honestly) that the town was looking for a mayor. They thought that was funnnyyyy. It was funny, but you would have had to have been there I suppose to appreciate it fully. Those two guys were having a ball talking to each other about which one would be mayor.
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And finally another political story.
My sister in law from Minnesota is a sweet and gentle soul. She can be a bit goofy about some things. She's smart, just kind of ditzy or naive sometimes (I mean that in a good way..hopefully we can all be a little ditzy or naive sometimes and not too pompous). Anyway a friend of hers had married a politician, who happened to be the governor of North Dakota. The friend had told my sister in law this of course, because she was pretty proud of it.
Sometime later my sister in law was at a dinner of some sort and ran into her friend and her hub. She says something like, "Oh hi Ann so good to see you. And your husband...aren't you involved in politics?". He says (I imagine in a bit of a huff), "Yes I'm the governor of North Dakata."
Oh yes of course.
