Book 'em, Danno

Happy Fourth, thanks to Omi for the outfit

Some of my more astute readers (I’m looking at you Annie) may remember that several weeks ago I wrote about Jarom getting a warning for driving too fast through a 25 mph zone. The site of that near-ticket is a speed trap that often has a policeman and is on the way to Jarom’s job. In an effort to not get speeding tickets without having to actually obey ridiculous speed limits that are far lower than they should be, Jarom changed the route that he takes to work every day. It seems that the police have caught wind of this, because yesterday they changed the location of their speed trap to his new route. The speed trap is set in a small 25 mph zone of Valley Road, which is a 45 mph road everywhere else.

This event has prompted a few deep thoughts. I must first tell you that the ticket was avoided. As Jarom was about to enter the slow speed zone, an oncoming SUV began flashing its brights, a well understood signal for “annoying police speed trap ahead.” So he was careful to keep the needle below 30, saving himself a great deal of frustration and anger. Unfortunately, he could only watch in his rear view mirror as the next car to come through was stopped and (presumabry) cited. The lady in the SUV did not know Jarom. If she chose not to warn him, her day would have undoubtedly remained unchanged, but Jarom’s would have been much worse. And this got me thinking about the little things that anyone can do to be nice to other people. Often times they are small, easy things like flashing your lights, and most of the time there will be no thank you or reward at the end, other than feeling good because you did something nice. But those actions can have a profound effect on the people who receive them. So on behalf of Jarom, and speed-limit-ignorers everywhere, I thank you SUV-lady.

The next thought that came from this is how incredibly irritating police are. Which is a real shame, because police should be a positive image in people’s minds. Unless you are a drug dealer, a thief, or some other unscrupulous profession, your perception of cops should be a positive one. They should be there to make sure that your life goes smoother. They do a lot of good things for society, and fill a dangerous job that needs to be done. But they don’t do themselves any favors by setting up ridiculous speed traps. If you are a generally law-abiding citizen, your only interaction with the police is when you get pulled over for driving a few miles per hour too fast on the road or failing to come to a complete stop at an empty intersection, situations that are neither reckless nor dangerous. Cops could be/ should be/ maybe are really good people who deserve our thanks and respect, but nobody is going to like you if they only see you doling out hefty fines for harmless violations that shouldn’t even be illegal.

But you guys don’t really care about that junk. Mostly you want to hear about how Jenna is keeping Alixa and Jarom up at night, causing them to do roughly 5 loads of laundry per day as she spits up on all of her clothes, and how baffled Jarom is by the sheer volume of soiled diapers that such a small thing is able to produce. She is actually a pretty good baby, and most nights sleeps for 5-7 hours at a time. She hit her first growth spurt this week, which meant feedings nearly every hour for a few days. She is beginning to display a variety of facial expressions, including an assortment of smiles. Unfortunately, she is still figuring out how to work her muscles, so she usually looks semi-retarded. Lix has the unenviable task of trying to get a picture of her smiling cutely, but hasn’t really succeeded yet. Lix did take her on her first trip this week, an excursion to Longwood Gardens with our friend Amanda, and has begun to go on walks with her, which is a good step for both baby and mom. I’ll have some pictures of that up soon.

A good example of the retardation above, and then a little cuter below

Grandma likes to compare Jenna to a baby bald eagle. What do you think?

Sleeping comfortably?

Sometimes she likes to support the team while she sleeps. Yea!