It's All About Timing

Four timing-is-everything scenes from this week:

1. Dan somehow became conversationally engaged with some officers of the law the other evening, while all were dining out for fast food. The topic of the post-hurricane curfews on Sunday evening came up, and they acknowledged that yes, they had stopped some people, and even made some arrests. They said the most amazing thing they had to do was shut down businesses that didn't really need to be operating. In fact, they shut down a Dunkin' Donuts — but not until after they'd ordered their donuts and coffee.
    
2. One Citgo/7-11 on the way home has all the pumps still taped off with yellow Caution tape. Another had severe canopy damage, so the pumps are also roped off. The third and closest to home also is not selling gas... but only because they chose this week to rip out and replace the tanks and pumps.
    
3. This morning, people were honoring the four-way stop where our stoplight used to be. It created what appeared to be a miles-long backup on the highway. (On a normal morning, I'd say that maybe 30-50 cars make it through southbound for every 2-3 that come out of our neighborhood; the 4-way stop made it less of a 30-50:2-3 ratio and more of a 2:1 ratio.) Just 12 hours later, the signals have been replaced and were fully functional.
    
4. I spent part of the afternoon trying to write the perfect email to send to our county commissioners, complaining about how the county website never lists when we're under a boil-water advisory. Guess what got added to the list this afternoon just as I finished — but, fortunately, before I hit "send."