Saturday, December 13, 2008

Live Nativity and a (possible) Drunk Driver

Monday is Wayne's birthday, so when he called up earlier this week telling me they were heading to Waxahachie today to see the live Nativity several church groups in the area put on there I volunteered us to go down and meet them there. Jerry thought it was a pretty hokey idea, but agreed to come because it is his dad's birthday.
We met them at the church it was set up behind and proceeded to wander through the tiny Town of Bethlehem that had been erected. I thought it was very well done. The actors all did their "busy work" relatively believably, they had the kids interact with the characters as often as possible, even with a huge crush of people the scene around The Stable was relatively reverent. With a few less people it would have been more enjoyable, but that's not really something they can control. So I took it for what it was. A free (donations gladly accepted!) presentation of the town Jesus was born in.

Jerry said something that had my hopes raised then dashed, "I have this list of fun things I'd like to do," (long pause, in which I thought, "REALLY?!?!? ME TOO! We should compare and start doing them!") THIS is not on it." He really doesn't have a list. Bugger.
As we were driving away, he re-enforced his opinion, "He (meaning his dad) couldn't have really thought that was a good time." From me ... loooong pause.
Him, startled, "You did?"
So I told him, yeah - other than the huge crowd of people, I enjoyed it for what it was. Thought it was presented well and didn't regret the hour drive down there. *silence*
Then as we were driving home we got behind a woman who was doing a lot of "wandering" and "weaving". This made both Jerry and I nervous, so we decided to follow her for a while, then called 911 when she nearly ran into a Suburban. I reported what we were witnessing, the car description, licence plate ID, the womans general description (between Jerry and I, were kick butt witnesses), explained our location, my trucks description and gave my name. The operator asked us if we'd mind following the car for a bit. We had nothing to better to do. So we followed. 820, 30, Henderson, Jacksboro ... All the while, giving cross streets, reporting her erratic driving (ooooh, she just hit a curb ... driving 35 in a 50 ... straddling the white line ... ) and WAITING for a cruiser to come along. At one point the operator said, "I have no idea what is taking them so long, pretty soon she's going to be out of our jurisdiction" Oh great. So we've just dilly dallied behind this chick for ... how long and it may be for naught? Oh no? You'll just transfer us to another operator. Oh, fan-frickin-tastic. The cruiser finally pulled up beside us, gave me the inquiring eye, I gave her the finger (not THAT finger!), he gave me "the nod" and we pulled off to get back on track.
Interesting side note - once you've called 911 on a Sprint Instinctit goes into "Emergency" mode and will not mute or hang up. The only one who can sever the connection is the operator. On one hand I really appreciate that feature if you're actually, really in a jam. But what happens if you're kid accidentally dials it? Hmmm.

2 comments:

mom said...

you should get the good citizen of the year award. I'm not sure too many people would stick with the drunk for that long, of course if you werer plugged in and couldn't get away I guess ya sort of had to. Question is knowing what ya know "would ya do it again to possibly save someone from a DD?"

Heather Ales said...

go you for being so responsible!!

Ad good to know on the instinct. We both have them.