motorists in california are extremely generous to pedestrians in cross walks, and yesterday on my way home from work that deference paid off for the motorist. they were zipping up to an intersection and looked to be planning on rolling right through when they saw me approaching the cross walk and then came to an abrupt stop.

they couldn’t see to their left what was clear in front of me, a police car waiting for someone to ignore the stop sign.

after i crossed i joked with the officer that i though i just saved that guy a ticket and he responded

“i won’t have long to wait for the next one”

before he even completed his sentence another car rolled through the intersection without coming to a complete stop. because the officer had been talking with me he mostly missed it but then made a gesture implying “see what i mean”.

i joked around with the officer a while longer and left the conversation feeling better than before.

i’ve had more than my share of interaction with police officers both on the positive, and less positive side of things. when i’ve called them out, or met with them at community events i’ve always enjoyed them and felt good about the services they provide.

on the other side of the table, say one of the many times i’ve been stopped by an officer to discuss some questionable aspect of my driving style i have never thought “what a great guy”.

i’ll admit to potentially being in error on a few of these occasions. but unfortunately my sample size has been large so i can tell you that i have tried every approach imaginable short of crying and i have on all but one instance encountered a total jerk (i got a citation on that one instance too so that is not what influenced me).

so i hope the officer who undoubtedly stopped the next car after i walked away from the intersection brought out his children’s tour of the police car attitude while he was passing out the ticket.

ethan has discovered that natalie and i dated other people before we met each other. he was asking if any of my previous girlfriends were like his mom and i noted that each was quite different.

as i considered my response i realized there were two similarities between the women i have dated. small chests and big teeth.

now i’m curious to discover what evolutionary criteria selects on those two characteristics…

for all our travels and the interesting places we have taken the kids, logan says she is most excited about our next adventure because the hotel continental breakfast may have colored cheerios…

we’ve been seeing a lot of these warnings at trail heads where we’ve been hiking in california.

If you encounter a mountain lion do not run; instead, face the animal, make noise and try to appear as large as possible.

If attacked, fight back.

while the warning is funny on many levels, it goes on to say that small children, like the ones accompanying us, are one of the mountain lions favorite targets. natalie, a mother lion in her own right, has been particularly conscious of the warnings.

so, i had to look at her twice when my wife came home after a run in the woods remarking of this crazy dog she heard bark. she surprised me again when she made the first realistic sound effect i have ever heard her make (she sangs “bang” imitating the sound of a gun).

i can only conclude from this exchange that mountain lions are a real threat when your children may be at risk, but if it comes to interfering with your morning run, they are sick and tortured dogs.

i swear this is the last thing i’ll say on the lebron issue, but this is too good not to pass along…

In addition, Fathead.com, an online retailer owned by Cavalier’s owner Dan Gilbert dropped the price of its LeBron Fathead wall decals from $99.99 to $17.41, which happens to be the same year Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold was born.