Seriously, brother. No more of that for you!
KIK *which is a right handed, left-shifted by one key space, "LOL"
I ride in the Great Pacific Northwest and not in California. That's illegal here. But if you were driving a car there and you were on a multi lane road (not freeway, of course) you could do something else that is very strange
(to my way of driving, which is the right way, the polite way) and you could pull into the first lane and park it for the time it takes for the second lane to clear. Your left hand turning is very different there than here. And that means that when you're just driving straight ahead? And your in the rightmost "slow" lane? You have to watch way ahead for idiots parked with the front end of their cars occupying your lane. They are just making a legal left turn. It is your fault if you T-BONE them.
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Jason, I like your blue pool pic. Thanks!
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But the story that I'm reminded of now, as I think about California driving, is how I was there driving down Sepulveda Boulevard and singing, "Ventura Highway, in the sunshine where the days are longer..." to myself when I looked in my rearview.
U
T-O
H! Five-oh! There, behind me and riding close was a cop. And I know that traffic is bad, but does he have to follow so close? So I thought, okay, I'll get him off my tail and I signaled and took the next right turn. U
T-O
H! He stayed on my tail.
I wasn't doing 'nuthin so I thought, "Hmmm... I guess that didn't work," so I wanted to get back onto Sepulvada and I took the next right turn to get back on path. When I signaled my intent to get back onto Sepulvada (the third right) the cops put on their lights and pulled me over.
I've never been pulled over California style before. The cop that was in the drivers seat approached and as he approached the passenger cop got out and took an angled position with his shoulders squared toward me. His hand was on his weapon holster in the ready position. The other cop continued to approach as I rolled down my window to speak to him. He looked in my back seat and called, out, "WEAPON".
At that point I was in total confusion about what I had done and I wondered, "I wonder what I might have done?"
The other cop unholsered his weapon and drew down on me in a Star Position. I froze, hands at 10:00 and 2:00 on the wheel, in clear sight. The close cop told me to get out of the car. I got out of the car. He told me to put my hands on the hood of the car. I put my hands on the hood of the car. He approached, told me to spread my legs. I spread my legs and as I did, he assisted with a kick-drag maneuver to make me put all my weight onto my hands to support myself. I was frisked.
After I had been controlled to their satisfaction, and after they had examined my drivers license and registration and proof of insurance they asked about the weapon in my back seat. I still didn't understand until they grew tired of me and asked directly,
"SIR! Why are you carrying a billy-club in your rear seat?!? I looked up rather sheepishly and explained that I was from The Great Pacific Northwest, then I explained that too and said with greater clarification,
"I am from Washington State," as if that answered their question. But they already knew this. My out-of-state-plates did not escape their attention.
and they were like,
"So...."
so I continued,
"You officers might not have ever seen an umbrella before but that, my friend, is NOT a billy club." Only then did they stand down.