Seriously, 20 cops in uniform and me waiting for the #66 at Chicago and Larrabee.

You have to take my word for it, I know. There was really no way to get a photo, though. I mean, how do you ask 20 cops to pose for a random photo?

I couldn’t just stand idly by and not acknowledge that I’m waiting for a bus with 20 cops. I turned to a cluster of five and suggested, “I certainly do feel safe right now.”

One of them responded, “Gimmie your wallet!”

We all laughed.

Bus arrived 10 minutes or so later and stopped right in front of me. I squeezed on first. The bus was too crowded for 20 cops, so they decided to walk.

As the bus drove away, a teenager—why wasn’t he in school?—looked at this swarm of cops and whispered to himself, “What happened?”

Nothing, kid. Nothing happened.

The photo below was taken last Saturday. It sums up just about everything that makes me happy right now. In fact, it so perfectly captures what makes my life worth living, I now consider this photo quantitatively and qualitatively to be the greatest photo of me ever taken.

1. I’m holding my son.
2. My son is dressed like a Star Wars character that existed in the original trilogy and isn’t an Ewok.
3. I don’t look nearly as gray, bald and old as I actually am.
4. My wife is taking the photo.
5. My wife is using an Apple product to take the photo. (As much as I try to slough it off, I truly am a fanboy.)
6. It’s the weekend of Halloween, which takes on such a different and completely awesome vibe when you have a kid.
7. I’m in a sausage shop.

There’s an election tomorrow that threatens to undo a lot of great work done in the past two years, I’m concerned daily that my career path is nearing a complete derailment, and the realities of the economy give my wife and me a lot of worry. But I take one look at this photo and I know that none of that really matters, does it?