while driving once up in washington state, my wife and i came upon a long line of cars waiting to board a ferry for the trip across puget sound. i don't remember if i was in the darn line or wanted to get out of the darn line, but i guess my tires crossed some double yellow line, AND a cop just happened to be standing right in the middle of the street! i mean he was 20 feet away watching whatever minor (imo) criminal action i had just committed.
i remember quickly glancing over at his empty patrol car a half a block away, thinking, man, i could be long gone before Mr. Officer gets to his ride. but as i'm thinking, he's rapidly approaching on foot, face all contorted and he's yelling something, i can't tell what.
so i elect to remain there in the car and bear the full force brunt of Officer Conniption. i knew i wasn't going to go to jail for whatever it was i had done, so in a weird way, Officer C's wild eyes and red face were beginning to strike me as entertaining. <g3>
as the cop gets to my rolled down window, he yells at me, "that was the dumbest thing i have seen anybody do all day! where the hell did you go to school?"
and then, instead of trying to explain away my little vehicular faux pas, i determined to provide the officer with a full and detailed list of every school i had ever attended, and what age i was when i was there, beginning with nursery school and kindergarten in bristol, pa, and on up through two elementary schools, james buchanan and whatever the other one was, but i gave him names and towns and states, then on to junior high, then two high schools, a community college.... and finally he asked me to, "please stop". i did. his voice was much quieter now. calm almost. he said, "go on your way, you're holding up the line", and i did just that.
:)
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