Security.

Living in the U.S. has provided me with a sense of security. When you consider what happens in other areas of the world, we may not always feel safe, but in most instances we are. The incident with the Russian spies is a good example of what U.S. authorities have in their hip pocket. Sure, these 11 individuals lived in America, and spied for their government, but in the end, they were caught. Now we have the Russian Prime Minister Putin angry about what’s happened, yet admitting that they were in fact spies for his country, and best of all hoping this doesn’t hurt U.S./Russian relations. Okey. Dokey.

For the past week, as I rode the evening train home, I could not help but notice 2 men who walked past where I sat. When you ride the same train pretty much every day, you notice people, and they notice you. It’s a feeling of security---not that they are going to help you if there is real danger, but more of a fact of knowing you are on the right train. At least that’s how it works for me.

What made these two men stand out? They had guns. Yep, guns--- and their shirts said, “security.” I really thought they were looking for some bad guys, but as it turns out they were looking for some bad guys and gals who may have had too much fun at the “Taste of Chicago.” How do I know? I asked them.

I feel safer when I see security on board a train, plane or bus. Not like I am expecting anything to happen, but you never know. I am not too worried about my safety, I am just intrigued if there are any less than desirables really on the train? I am sure there are, but have never really seen a real incident. (Check that, as I sit here waiting for the train to leave the station, one of the conductors got into a shouting match with a passenger. Why? Because he “flipped” the seat around so he could have more room. So there you have it…and incident!)

But this is minimal…

When we crossed over into a Mexican border town last year, I learned a lot about security. The soldiers had machine guns, real ones, and they let it be known if you thought you were going to be funny, or do anything to disrupt normality, you were going to have a very bad day. As comforting as this might feel, I could not wait to get out of there. Of course I took pictures-- from a distance---but we just don’t see this on American soil. I felt a lot better when we were back in the good ol' USA.

The photo above was taken at our local zoo a few weeks ago. As the entertainers on stage did their thing, you can see security was tight. The boy in the picture did not move---okay he did dance---but he made sure no one, and I mean no one, was going to do anything funny. Luckily we were in good shape, but in the end, no matter how good of a job he did making sure no one interrupted, Mother Nature proved she can always win out. There was a downpour in the middle of the performance.

Thanks for stopping by.