Double Jeopardy

Wednesday. Dundas St. & Hwy. 427.
I was waiting in a double line-up of cars being stopped at a R.I.D.E. checkpoint. The Police were checking 6 cars at a time. I thought about how this was another time when it's best to have delayed running the IV in the car. This was a good time to not have a bag of medication hanging from the mirror. (Another is at the Canada-U.S. border). When it was my turn, the officer leaned into the car and asked when the last time was that I had some alcohol. There was a microsecond pause as some wise-ass answers ran through my mind. "I don't drink," I responded. "Have you had anything to drink today?" the officer asked. A nanosecond passed. I was biting my tongue. He wasn't making this easy for me. "No."

Thursday. Home after the morning drop-off.
I brought the pole/pump downstairs, prepared the solution and connected. I had just opened the newspaper when the door bell rang.

Answering the door is complicated when I'm running the IV. It is difficult to steer upon carpet. There's one step down from the hall to the door. And then there's the dog. Buddy wasn't behaving in his 'I-know-who-this-is-at-the-door'-way. I considered ignoring the doorbell. It is frustrating to go through the work to get to the door to discover it's a rep who wants to discuss fixed-rate energy price plans. Plus, I was probably going to fall asleep if I just stayed still. And that wouldn't be so bad, either.

The police officer on the porch rang the bell again. Having seen him through the window, I was glad I had at least come to check it out. I opened the door. "I'm looking for ..." he paused and flipped some papers over to find the name, "Andrew," he finished.
He looked up from the documents then and saw that I was leaning against the door to keep it open, had one leg across the bottom one-third of the opening so the dog wouldn't bolt out to chase the squirrel that was coming down the tree, and was using my other hand to pull the IV pole closer. (I had misjudged the distance between my Hickman connection and the machine and was about 3 inches too far away from the pump.) I was off-balance.

"Are you OK?" he asked.
I invited him to come inside.

Buddy made a menacing sound toward the squirrel then did his 'Did you come to play with me? Do you have any treats? Look at the tricks I do with these shoes.' routine.

Like anyone is reading this paragraph! I know you skipped ahead to find out why the police were here.

It's OK. Andrew's being called as a witness in a case that will be tried in the spring. The police officer was delivering the subpoena. But the Constable didn't get right to the point with me, so I didn't think it'd be fair for you not to experience it the same way.
Take your own reaction as you read about the police looking for Andrew, multiply it by googol, and that was what those 7 minutes were like for me.

Here's to a police-free day tomorrow!

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