Up ahead of me about a quarter-mile, a cop walked out from the sidewalk into the second lane of north-bound traffic and waved the car in front of me into a parking lot. It's 9:50 in the morning and there's not much traffic on this stretch of Palisade Ave. where the speed limit is 25 but cars routinely drive 35-40. I wondered what was going on, if there was some event further on up the road causing this officer in his lime-green reflective vest to divert traffic to another road.

Then I realized what it was and hit my brakes. In his right hand, pointed to the ground, was a radar gun. As I dropped to 30 mph and passed the scene, the cop who had walked out onto the road and another officer had their cars parked at the front of a parking lot; toward the back sat three other cruisers. It was a speed trap.

"Ingenious," I thought, only because I didn't get stopped.

It's a great way to make some of the money necessary to run the police force, and considering that it is a road known for cars ignoring the posted speed limits, it's going to produce results. Had I been stopped, I'd be typing a different tome, but because I wasn't, I applaud the work of the men in blue. It's not out to punish people but to enforce safety. A few years ago, when I was hit with a parking ticket because of Little Silver's lousy parking rules at the train station (you must have a permit to park before 9:30 a.m., unless you can get in the tiny lot with its 20 spaces which are always full anyway), I expressed my displeasure to the town, suggesting that they put cops out downtown to enforce the yield to pedestrians law, which would net $70 with each offense instead of the $20 they were getting from me for my unattended car which wasn't even in motion. Seriously, if they just put one cop out on Prospect Ave. in LS to watch how many cars fail to yield to a pedestrian patiently standing in the crosswalk, he'd probably be able to net his week's salary in a day.

So I applaud the local police for enforcing the speed limit this morning. Let's just hope they're not there when I head home tonight.

I'm feeling better today, not as tired as yesterday (go back one). I don't know if it's because I stayed up later on purpose to avoid oversleeping or what, but I don't feel so sluggish.

It could be the workload. Yesterday, I literally did 10 minutes of actual work, whereas today I've been focused on work-related things for a good 95 percent of the time I've been here. It'll be even better if it doesn't keep me here late, but I don't know if that will be the case. We're still a long way from knowing if that will be the case.

I'm going to take a walk over to Casey's office now. I need gum; I ran out this morning.