under the (radar) gun

So, I'm crusing down route 8, minding my own business and trying to get home - when, all of the sudden, everyone in front of me hits their brakes. So, I hit my brakes too - wondering for the billionth time what's going on up ahead. Accident? Idiot? Cosmic glitch in space/time?

Nope. It's a cop standing nex to his car, aiming his radar gun into traffic like a papparatzi tracking Jennifer Aniston. He's hunting speeders, so everyone slams on the brakes so as not to be a speeder. And nearly causes an accident.

Now, I've heard about this big push to get rid of the "speeding cushion" to "help save lives". Well, I've got news for you. It doesn't matter how fast you're going - the real danger is from idiots on the road that don't pay attention. Maybe they're talking on cell phones or yelling at their kids or putting on makeup - they're still under the general catagory of idiots and they're still a menace on the road.

So, everyone slows down to the speed limit for awhile - then once we're all past him, everyone speeds back up to about 5-7 miles over the speed limit.

Is this really the best use of this officer's time? Aren't there bigger problems out there that he could have helped with - or prevented?

Seemed like a waste to me - but hey, what do I know? I'm just one of the majority of people out there that think they are better than average drivers. :)

In other news...been working my posterior off with a file for work. The freaking thing is 9.7 mb and I'm trying to get it down to 2 or 3 mb. I've flattened the images, ripped out the fonts, and tried every compression option I can find. The best I've been able to do is 9.5 mb. I think I'm going to have to call in the experts - or maybe just delete a few sections. Think anyone would notice if I skipped pages 20-160?

I guess that's it for now...time to get back to work...