So I’m driving home from work, the late shift tonight, after having gone to the stupidmarket to pick up some last minute necessities (organic scallions, mayo on sale, Vermont cheddar, cat food and treats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Blue Point Hoptical Illusion, and diet soda), and I’m about four minutes from home, when I see, through the thickest fog, flashing blue-and-red lights up ahead. There are the kleig-style lights also, overhead, and a H.E.L.P. truck with its yellow flashers running. Eight police cars in total, halting traffic on both sides of 9a, Staties and locals alike. I roll down my window for the grey-uniformed trooper and ask what’s going on. “DWI check, ma’am. Have you had anything to drink tonight?” “No,” I tell him with a tired smile, “just got off work.” He tells me to go ahead to the next officer up ahead. Same questions, this time from a County police officer. Same answer. Next comes the local blue uniform, same questions, posed a bit differently. Same answers here, and he tells me to “go on home, now.” I think it’s a bit early in the evening for a DWI check, but hey, people like to party hearty up here in the sticks, and 11:20 is as good a time as any.
Pulling up to my house, there are no less than five Peekskill Police cars up and down my street, careening around corners, meeting each other in the middle, chatting, then pulling away. I park and start to unload my five bags of groceries and a fresh-faced young officer drives up and asks if I’ve just pulled up. Yes, I tell him. “You didn’t hear any gunshots, did you?” GUNSHOTS?!? “No, I kind of had my radio up.” I quickly unload my trunk, panicking as the cop drives away, knowing that G is sleeping upstairs already. I look both ways, squinting into the misty black, then bolt for the house, trying not to bang my way up the stairs. Both arms are laden with plastic bags as I fumble my key into the deadbolt and slip into the house. I gingerly drop the bags in the hallway, then stretch to kill the porch light, avoiding the sharking cats at my feet. Gunshots. In my neighborhood.
And now for something completely different. Hello Kitty is going to be in the parade tomorrow! G’s set up MythTV to record it in case we get up late.
—–
On this day: I feel positively great! 2005

Bipolarlawyercook said,
November 22, 2007 @ 1:59 am
Scary. Thankful you are home safe with your human and furry companions.