A little bit more pregnant and Charles' run-in w/ the law

Here I am at 21 weeks, three weeks ago, hmm maybe I should take another picture that is actually current

For Valentine's Day Charles made me a bling board! I love having my jewelry all organized!  Yea, now it won't get broken all the time

Now it's Long-winded Charles talking...

Last Saturday, I was pulling into my cul-de-sac and saw two cop cars slowly circling around by Karl's house.  I wondered what they were looking for.  I drove to the end of the cul-de-sac where they were and pulled into Karl's driveway.  One of them decided to turn into Karl's driveway, got out of his car and started to come up to me.  I kind of got excited...you know, hoping he might ask me to keep my eye out for America's Most Wanted or even just wondering if I had seen any suspicious characters walking around lately.  Instead, what I got was a very unpleasant surprise.  


He said that he did NOT like the way I pulled into the driveway.  I was shocked.  I have a car that rides pretty low and Karl has a driveway with a fairly large bump that you can't take fast if you cherish your chasse.  In addition, his driveway is at MORE than a right angle to the road.  You have to do a lot of turning to get into my parking space.  I must have looked like an idiot as I was dumbfounded by his comment and the aforementioned barrage of thoughts contrary to the possibility of the accusation.  Oh well.  Instead of arguing said, "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to be reckless."  Well, this cop only had his foot in the stirrup for getting on his high horse.  He said, "Do you see all of these little kids playing around here?"  I looked around and saw two older boys playing basketball at the other end of the street and I think one little girl was also playing down at that end.  Not an impressive showing for his use of the words "all of”.  "If one of them had been playing right here, you would have flattened them!” he screamed.  "Ok," I said in partial disbelief that he was getting so riled up over it and partially because the possibility does indeed exist that I could hit a child if you were to take a red-hot poker to my eyes.  "NO!” he said.  "It's NOT ok!"  "Now, I want you to come to a complete stop before you enter into your driveway from now on," he commanded.  I was blown away.  "A complete stop?” I asked incredulously.  "A complete stop," he reaffirmed.  


I don't remember if I said I would, which would have been a lie, or if I just stood there silent, but then he asked me what I was doing because I was half in and half out of my car.  I told him in a I-hope-you-know-I've-lost-all-respect-for-you tone of voice that I was putting my computer into its case which I had been doing before he approached me.  The way he asked, you might have thought he was paranoid that I was loading my shotgun...or maybe a bong.  After all, you can never be too careful as a cop when you're dealing with hoodlums with BYU stickers on their rear windshield.  He waddled off and I would bet you that he looked up my license plate to make sure I didn't have any warrants out for my arrest or that it wasn't a stolen car.  He would have found, to his chagrin, a flawless record.  


I mulled the whole story over in my mind trying to make sure I acted reasonably and appropriately given what just happened and I woke Annette up from her nap and we scoured the internet only to find that there is no law that you must stop as you enter a driveway.  There IS a law that you have to stop before you cross the sidewalk when exiting a driveway, but not entering.  Can you imagine the havoc that would ensue if everyone who lived on a busy road had to stop before entering their driveway?  Anyway, I wrote a little email to the AFPD telling them about my experience and let them know that their cops need to be a little more amicable.  I'm totally down with friendly driving advice from a cop and I'm okay with him delivering his advice in a serious but friendly way as long as he’s not making up laws just for Charles T Martin Jr. to follow.  I'm trying to give this poor man the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe his kid was killed by a crazy driver.  Maybe he just got demoted.  Maybe he had a rodent climb up his pant leg that morning. Maybe...any ideas?