Drama on the highway

Okay, so I think I figured it out. I figured out a way to make an entry index page, with a list of entries, but as far as I can tell, there's no way to make "next" and "previous" links automatically (if anyone has done that or seen it anywhere, feel free to correct me). The list page isn't automatic, but it's fairly easy to create. I also managed to get rid of the obnoxious blue background image that was showing up when you viewed the site in Bloglines, but frankly, I have no idea what I did. Don't you love it when that happens? It's great to have fixed the current problem, but not knowing what did it makes it difficult to correct if it happens again . . .

If anyone has any difficulty subscribing, please let me know, because I've made some changes and I'm not totally sure that it's working right for new subscribers. Just me being obsessive, probably.

On another note, if anyone is interested in ordering from Adagio Tea, let me know and I'll email you a $5.00 off certificate.

I was driving along to work this morning, listening to The Hogfather, drinking a Diet Coke that I'd picked up at McDonald's on the way, minding my own business, obeying the speed limit, when I noticed a police car in the lane next to me. I slowed down a little, as you do, and drove on.

Then he flipped his lights on, and I saw another police car a few cars back do the same thing, and I started slowing down. I didn't think it had anything to do with me, but I always get out of the way when emergency vehicles are trying to get past, even though I've noticed that a lot of people don't do that anymore. I assumed that they were just wanting traffic to clear for them so they could go on through to some emergency, but it turned out that the emergency was right in front of me.

I pulled over as far left as I could get (I was in the lefthand lane, next to the barrier) and stopped, and the two police cars rushed past me and squealed to a stop in front of the van that was traveling ahead of me, boxing him in. Two more police cars squealed up, all the doors popped open, and eight policemen jumped out with assault rifles trained on the van.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. The police cars were ranged across all four lanes of the highway. They were about two car lengths in front of me, close enough that I was a little worried about what would happen if they started shooting.

A couple of minutes later, a couple of arms appeared out the driver's side window of the van. I couldn't hear any shouting, but I had the windows up. Pretty soon, the van door opened and a guy got out, his arms in the air. By this time, I've gotten the cell phone out of my purse and called Bob, and was excitedly reporting the events as they happened. The guy started backing up, his hands in the air -- I've got to assume that the police were telling him to back up, that they didn't want him to turn around. He backed up and backed up until they told him to stop, then they made him lie down in the middle of the highway and they handcuffed him.

Up until this point, most of them had their rifles trained on the guy, but a couple of them kept theirs on the van. Once they had him under control, they all focused on the van again, and this time a woman got out the passenger side door, hands in the air. They got her handcuffed, too, then checked out the van, which was apparently now empty. They got both people into police cars, moved the cars off to the side of the road, then one of the policemen got in the van and moved it off the road.

I wasn't sure whether to start driving or not -- I kind of expected one of the policemen to turn and motion the traffic on, but they totally ignored everything except what they were doing. They were very focused, which was good, I guess. Everyone, including me, eventually just kind of started driving slowly on, and no one stopped us. I called the office and told them that I was going to be a little late.

That's the most excitement I've had in the morning in awhile.

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