Eric James Stone

While driving toward home, I passed through the city of Nephi. I noticed a cop car off to the side of the road, and instinctively slowed down a bit, even though I was only doing about 80.

As I got closer, I was suddenly struck by the fear that I had missed a sign that reduced the speed limit to 65 instead of 75, and so I slowed to 72 by the time I passed the cop, hoping that would be enough.

I watched with increasing dread as the cop pulled onto the freeway, sped up enough to start catching up to me, and then turned on his flashing lights.

I pulled over, and the cop pulled in behind me, got out of his car, and came up to my window.

“License and registration?”

I handed them over, and he went back to his car.

Eventually he returned, and handed them back to me. “Are you aware that you’re supposed to slow down and move into the far lane when passing an emergency vehicle that is stopped on the shoulder?”

Never in my life do I recall having heard of such a law, and so I told him I was unaware of that law.

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” OK, he didn’t say that, but that phrase came to my mind.

What he did say was that it was posted on signs along the freeway, and that in another 20 miles or so I’d see one of the signs.

The cop then proceeded to tell me that my not moving over to the next lane and not slowing down (although I had slowed, apparently it was not enough that he noticed) was considered “failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.” He explained that the law was there to protect emergency personnel and their vehicles. “In fact,” he said, “the way I got this job is that the officer I replaced was killed by someone running into him when he was stopped on the side of the road.”

And then he let me go. No ticket, just a lecture about safety.

Sure enough, about twenty miles down the road, there was a sign which explained the law. (It’s not a very easy-to-read sign, because it’s fairly long and passing it at 75mph you don’t have a lot of time to read.) I just thought I’d pass along this info to others who, like me, might be completely unaware of such a law.

And, in case you’re interested, the History of the Utah Highway Patrol has a page about the trooper who was killed while stopped at the side of the road. This probably explains why the cops around Nephi are particularly sensitive about this issue.

Fortunately, that was the last complication in my journey, and I made it home safe and sound.

While driving to St. George, I listened to the end of the BYU-Wyoming football game.

I pretty much wish I hadn’t bothered.

In St. George, I had dinner with someone The Parents wanted me to meet. She was very nice, and we had a good conversation. Potential there? We’ll see.

After dinner, I continued my drive home. I’d hoped to make it all the way, but eventually I felt I was getting too drowsy and decided not to push it. So I rented a motel room and slept.

Heather and I met up in the morning and went to the breakfast buffet at the MGM Grand. We had a great time chatting about our respective jobs, old acquaintances from Baylor Law School, etc.

Heather and I met (at least as I remember it) because we sat next to each other in Civil Procedure, which was the first class of our first year of law school. We quickly discovered that we both liked Star Trek, and since I didn’t have a TV at the time, she was gracious enough to allow me to watch ST:TNG at her place.

So that is how Heather and I became friends, despite her being one of the most politically liberal people I know. (We disagreed on just about every political issue, except for some free trade issues.)

So, where do two Star Trek fans go in Las Vegas? Where else but Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton?

I’d been to ST:TE before a few times, but this was Heather’s first time. And second. And third.

It’s a blast. I’d give you details about it, except that Captain Picard instructed us not to tell anyone what happened. Just take my word for it that, if you like Star Trek and you’re ever in Vegas, go to ST:TE.

They closed off the attraction for a while between 12:00 and 1:00pm, though. Why, you ask? Because the bridge of the Enterprise was being used for a real-life wedding.

I like Star Trek a lot (some would say too much), but I think maybe that’s going a little too far. But it obviously happens frequently enough, because ST:TE has a ready-made sign about the attraction being closed for a wedding.

Besides ST:TE and eating at Quark’s Bar, we also went to the Mirage and saw one of the white tigers (presumably not the one that nearly killed Roy), and wandered a bit on the Strip.

Oh, and yes, one of the employees at ST:TE actually did say that she had her “phaser set on fun.” (Heather groaned at that because she hates puns, but I love them.)

My trip to Vegas to see my friend Heather had a few wrinkles, but was worthwhile.

On the way down Friday night, I realized that I had forgotten to check the pressure in the front driver’s-side tire, which has a slow leak. So I stopped at the next gas station. Sure enough, the tire was noticeably low. (Which is rather annoying, considering I bought the car brand new in March, and only have about 11,000 miles on it, and the tires are supposed to be good for 30,000.)

Deciding that it might be best to seal the leak, I bought a can of tire-fixer stuff. (The didn’t have Fix-A-Flat, which I’d used successfully before, but they had something similar.)

This particular product had a plastic tube with a connector to screw onto the tire stem. I followed the directions and screwed it on, then pressed the button to inflate the tire with the special blend of herbs and spices (or whatever it is they put in those cans) to seal the leak.

Instead of going into the tire, though, the stuff just fizzled out around the place where the tube connected to the connector. (Very sticky stuff, which took me five minutes of scrubbing to mostly get off my hands.) Apparently the can I had purchased was defective.

Abandoning the attempt to seal the leak, I just inflated the tire and got back on the road.

I made it to Las Vegas without further incident.

A few glitches with the new server put my site down for a while, but I think they’ve been fixed. I’ve got a new IP address, so it may take a while for that change to propagate.

But I now have access to much more CGI power, which will let me play around with several things I’ve been wanting to try.

When Professor X says he’s going to see an old friend, he means Magneto.

When I say that, I do not mean Magneto, since he and I have never been all that friendly. (Plus, he’s a fictional character, and — call me prejudiced if you will — I count very few fictional characters among my friends.) In this case, it means a friend from law school. Since I won’t have internet access while on the road, that means I probably won’t blog until I get back.

Until then, be sure to vote in my sports poll in the right-hand column.

I’m turning off comments until I get transferred over to the new server, so I don’t lose any data.

OK, I have Movable Type working on the new server, for the most part. Still some things I need to fix, though.

In the next couple of days I’m going to be moving this blog (and the rest of my personal sites) to a new server.
Read the rest of this entry »

Down more than twenty points, with defeat staring them in the face, Marc Bulger and Torry Holt combined for five touchdowns to bring victory for their team.

Now, most of you who actually watched Monday Night Football are scratching your heads and saying, “There wasn’t a comeback — the Rams blew out the Falcons 36-0.”

Well, I was talking about my fantasy football team, the Klingon Warriors. Going into tonight’s game, the Warriors were losing, 36.3 to 61.5, to my cousin Jeff’s team, Southwest 737. I needed Bulger, Holt, and Adam Archuleta to score 25.21 points more than Isaac Bruce in order to win.

Bruce got 4.85.

Bulger, Holt, and Archuleta combined for 49.29 — almost 13 points more than the other seven players on my team combined — to boost the Klingon Warriors from the second-lowest score of the week to the second-highest.

Meanwhile, in real football, my Dallas Cowboys won again this weekend, leaving the BYU Cougars as the only dull spot in my football universe.