Narly People

I had a teacher in college that referred to 'hard to get along with' people as narly. I thought this was a good word and described those kind of people well. Well, a couple weeks ago Robb came in contact with a narly police officer. Yeah, I know, not someone you want to be narly! Anyway, Robb was pulled over in town for running a red light. We had just picked up the suburban in town after having new tires put on it so the kids and I were following him with the pickup. I watched Robb go through the light, which was yellow the entire way through. (If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I probably would not have even questioned it because I know that he has a tendency to be a little unattentive on the road at times :) Anyway, the officer pulled him over, walked up to his window and shined his flashlight in Robb's rear view mirror which in turn shined right in his eyes. Robb flipped the mirror up and rolled down his window. In a very crabby voice he heard, "I'm Officer Schmitz, license and registration." Robb said "Ah what are you pulling me over for?" "Traffic light violation" was his quick, sergeant like response. Well, by that time I had gotten out of the pickup to give him his billfold that was still in the truck. I opened the passenger door and asked him what he was getting pulled over for, as I was sure he must have been going a little too fast or something. "Apparently I ran a red light" Robb said and I could tell he was a little frustrated. I explained to the officer that I was right behind him and watched him go through the light and it didn't change to red until he was completely through it. The narly officer said "It was red for a good second and a half!" I said "well, I'm an honest person and I know what I saw." I then got back into the truck while Robb went back to the patrol car. By this time I was steaming because I knew what had really happened and even if he had run the light, what gave him the right to be so narly? While in the patrol car Robb decided to make a little small talk with the narly guy thinking he must have just had a bad day. As he was writing up the $116 ticket Robb said, "just last night I was at the police station with our volunteer fire department learning about the 911 system" Silence....... the narly Mr. Schmitz didn't even look up. Okay, so much for trying to be descent! Well, the next day, after stewing for a while, Robb called and talked to the Assistant Police Chief about the incident. Robb explained that he didn't care about the ticket as much as he cared about being treated with such disrespect. The Assistant Police Chief said they would review the tape and get back to him. The next day he called back to say that the narly officer Schmitz had not broken any rules but definitely could have been more personable and they would address the situation with him. I was still unsatisfied with the ticket so I encouraged Robb to call someone from the utilities department to find out if the lights on both sides of the intersection change at exactly the same time, because the officer was on the other side of the road and thought that might be a possibility. Well, no such luck. They claim that they have been tested thoroughly and change at exactly the same time. Since the only case we had was our word against his we payed the fine. I would love to hear your stories about other narly people. How do you handle the narly?