A teaching moment

I was taking Sweet Daughter to daycare yesterday morning when I passed one our local boys in blue trying to catch speeders in a residential area. Well, boys in brown, actually. From the Sheriff’s office. I passed him, he swung around, lit me up, and SD said “Uh OH!!” (Apparently, she’s seen one too many episode of COPS as is evidenced by the time we drove past a shirtless, mullet-sporting guy in an older pick-up and she randomly asked “Mama – is that man going to jail?” We haven’t watched COPS since that day. But I digress.)

I said “Honey – it’s okay. He’s just pulling me over to tell me my headlight is out. Remember we noticed that coming home on Saturday?” I figured it was a really good teaching moment to reinforce that the police are (generally) good guys and they help people in trouble. I got the usual questions (license, registration, where are you going). I complied with paperwork and answered “To drop my daughter at daycare, and then go to work.” Apparently everything checked out – I was dressed for the office, SD had her backpack, and stuffed animal, and even with my NRA sticker and this on the back of the car

I was not deemed to be a threat to society and I was sent on my way with a “Make sure you get that fixed so you don’t hit a deer and get hurt!” Yay, no paperwork!

“See honey? He just wanted us to make sure we knew our headlight was out! He wanted us to be safe.” Teaching moment complete. Or so I thought.

When I got to the office I glanced in the back of the truck. I hadn’t finished unloading it after “Pirate Fest” on Saturday. Luckily, this is what the officer saw.

That's some sort of leather belt thing, a red jacket, some paper bags, a pair of buckle shoes, a decorative stick of some sort and some tie downs, right?

This is what he might have seen had the cruel finger of fate decided to flip me off and stuff wasn't covered.

Oh look! Brown paper bags, a pair of buckle shoes, a coat with a decidedly miltary feel to it, a fairly long sword and boarding axe???

Not that there is anything wrong with this … I’m sure it just would have made the morning more interesting than I really wanted it to be. And  I learned to look in the back of my car before I leave the house.