Random Thoughts on the Drive In 

President Bush is in Wisconsin today, doing a bus tour of the state. He stayed in Milwaukee last night, then he's taking a campaign bus to Waukesha, then up to Fond du Lac , then up to Green Bay with possible stops in between. Since I live just outside of Milwaukee, and work just outside of Waukesha, I was a little worried about taking the freeway into work because they would do rolling blockades of the freeway as the President went by. Luckily I was getting to work before the President was on his way, but I still saw some interesting things to comment on.

First of all, when I got on the freeway, there was a sheriff's car waiting adjacent to the on ramp, looking ready to close it down when the time was right. That's how I knew I beat the President. Then on my way into Waukesha, at every split in the freeway where emergency vehicles are allowed to turn around, there was either a sheriff's car, or a state patrol car. What was hilarious was the fact that people kept slowing down whenever they saw one. Folks, get a clue! They're not ticketing. They're waiting to close down the freeway for the motorcade. And even if they were ticketing, the speed limit out there is 65. You don't need to go 45 when you see a cop, 70 will do just fine.

Then a little later I passed by a van with a flat tire, and a state patrol cop working his ass off for this woman to get the tire changed for her. I've never seen an officer work so hard and fast to change a tire for a soccer mom in my life. No flat tires allowed when the President is coming after all. That makes sense, get her on her way so that we don't have to worry if she's a psychopath with a gun using a flat tire as an excuse to get close. Not that a gun would do any good, those vehicles are like tanks. Besides, I think a mini-van full of explosives would be easy to pick out, even for a local cop.

On a non-presidential note, I drove extremely close to a beat up junker pickup truck. I know, what's so special about that? It's just that I realized that I was totally blowing away a coworker's theory that people went to enormous lengths to stay clear of them. This coworker drives an old pickup truck, and was telling us all sorts of stories recently about how people don't want to go near him, mostly because they think that he's got nothing to lose in an accident, while they do. Well, this morning I was right next to this old truck, and he was even having difficulty holding his lane. There goes that theory. Maybe my coworker is just a bad driver, and doesn't know it. Maybe I'm just an a-typical driver without fear. Maybe I'm just really stupid. Maybe I should just put an end to this post.