We wait without patience

Wait for what? Our flight out to bad ol' CDG in Paris. We read, putter around stuffing more stuff into the 4 borderline-too-heavy bags (50lb limit each) and the carry-ons. What DO we bring with us to France after all this time you MUST be wondering, if you are NOT wondering that then you don't know something...we have been doing this exact thing since we bought the cottage in Lignieres in January of 2002. Yes, it's been 7 long and fruitful years. Each time we went and that included the first few when we went 3 months at a time we took "stuff" with us, lots of stuff.
Stuff:
Books, a rare hardback but lots of books for our reading habits.
Jeans, working about the house and yard creates a need for utility clothing.
Kitchen equipment we cannot do without.
Computer parts
Electrical transformers, don't ask.
Certain spices for faking Mexican cuisine
Underwear, French do not have XXL anything!
Misc. clothing for weather conditions we may never experience.
Other clothing

That's the stuff. There are lots of other things that we'll find crammed into the bags that I didn't even know we wanted or needed, medicines for example. Tums for the tummy, 2 bottles of 500 tabs each. It's an array alright. It's ready to go. So are the cats.
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On a dark note, you know we had 4 policemen killed in Oakland, CA last weekend. A parolee decided he didn't want to go back to prison so easily so shot the two cops that stopped him, stood over them and finished the job with bullets to the head in each. Then he holed up in his sister's abode armed with an AK-47 waiting for the next police action near him and he shot two dead through the door. Yes, he too was killed. Awful reading every day in the SF Chronicle. The "community" he came from was that of poor blacks, a rotten neighborhood of druggies, gangs and hostility of all sorts. No place I'd even want to find myself in the daylight even. A pocket of doom in the middle of Oakland's city limits. Thinking about this brought to mind those days of yore when policemen actually WALKED the precincts and were friendly faces to chat with over coffee now and then. Now, they are helmeted SWAT Teams that break into buildings and seek out societies problem citizenry with military precision. Have we gained anything? I think not.
They needed more than helmets and handguns and chest protectors to do battle with this guy.
They needed NEGOTIATION, they needed COMMUNICATION, they needed CALM, they needed SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT. They needed a whole litany of training (and NOT ON-THE-JOB in a sudden spray of 9mm gunfire!) before they tackled this very angry and very excited parolee. Where, oh where, does the police deparment hide it's training manual and it's humanity? Yes, I'm what you would call a bleeding-heart LIBERAL on most matters but this mess speaks of a great lack of foresight, training and leadership. Who told these police officers to rush in in their SWAT uniforms and 9mm pistols to take on this man and his AK-47? Who? Will the perp please stand up? I don't see anyone standing Mr. Mayor of Oakland, do you? I see families crying, friends sighing, newspapers being read, TV shows explaining but I don't see anyone saying "I told those men to go in", do you? No, I don't think you saw that either. Where IS the leadership to explain all these bodies and the mistakes they made that led up to this, including the ones made by the parole board that turned this hopeless man loose on an unsuspecting society.