Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Cops and robbers.

It seems there was some excitement yesterday morning at the bank across the parking lot from the local Community Learning Center where I teach for my college on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Only a couple of hundred yards from where I was droning on and on enthusiastically sparking interest about parallel structure, the proper placement of the comma, and the little-realized fact that a plain ol' plural noun doesn't get to have an apostrophe (SO STOP PUTTING THEM THERE, AMERICA!!!!!) a man put on a ski mask, pulled out a gun, and robbed the bank. And, he got away. He still hasn't been found. A guy wearing a bright orange sweatshirt, a ski mask, carrying a bag of loot, disappeared into thin air.

There are two elementary schools across the street from the CLC and this bank. If this hadn't been Spring Break week for them, the buildings would have been locked down and the neighborhood thrown into a panic. My mother and MIL (as well as a real-life and blog-friend!) all live in the addition across the street from the CLC. I hope they are all keeping their houses locked up tight.

Apparently the parking lot was full of police cars of all shapes and sizes that morning. Apparently, the bank was a beehive of activity, action, and panic that morning. Apparently, the thief took off like a bat out of hell, and disappeared into the morning Burger King traffic of this town.

All that action, all of which I could have seen from my huge picture window, which has no curtains or blinds, and which looks directly out across that parking lot and into the face of the bank.

That's right. I could have seen it all. If I had been paying attention.

I didn't learn about the robbery until noon, when the students were gone and LaSH, (the boss), and I went out for lunch.

"Did you hear all the sirens?

No.

"Did you see all the cop cars?"

No.

"When did you find out about the robbery?"

Just now.

"Your big window looks right smack at the bank and the parking lot."

I know. Sigh.

I blame it on my educational enthusiam; trying to make grammar interesting has kept me from noticing lots of things. Among them, a bank robbery pulled off by a guy in a bright orange sweatshirt, a ski mask, and waving a gun, all two hundred yards from my face.

It makes me feel a little bit better to know that my students didn't notice the robbery either, being as how they too were enraptured by rogue apostrophes and structures that were not parallel.

I'm sure that the mass spelling of 'comma' as 'coma' was merely a coincidence. I just KNOW they were interested.