Of border crossings, PET scans and homeland security

[al from Canada]

Last week Linda had a PET scan in Hamilton, Ont. (still awaiting results) and later that afternoon we left on a businesss trip to Fort Wayne, IN. After we stopped at the customs station in Buffalo, the customs officer was walking around the car with some kind of monitor, similar to a TV zapper. He asked us if we had some kind of medical test. Linda and I were looking at eachother wondering..."how the hell did he know?"

So we were sent off to the area where suspicious aliens go be further interrogated. We pulled up the the main customs building and Linda was asked to go with 2 agents and I was asked to park the car in a garage, where I thought they were going to pull it apart. Now, those of you who have seen or met me in person can understand why this would happen to us but Linda looks like the personification of innocence. After I left the car I see Linda (laughing)with 2 customs agents pointing these sensors at her except they were standing 8 feet away from her. As I walked through the main office, I see more agents scurrying around wondering what's tripping all of their monitoring equipment.

A long story short, my radioactive wife set-off the alarms before we even stopped the car. As well, we were warned that the radioactivity wouldn't be totally out of her system for about a month, not the 6 hours we were told.

All of the customs officers were more than polite and I am relieved to know that homeland security does really work! We were also told that returning to Canada customs we wouldn't have this problem. I'm sure glad we're neighbours!

Have a great day, Al