Doctor's appointment. Left work just after three to go up the road to Kaiser. Sidewalks around the high school were crawling with kids. Evidently school started.
Three lane boulevard. Right hand lane was crowded with parents picking up their darlings for the four-block air-conditioned ride home. Middle lane was virtually blocked by some gaping soccer mom crawling along for a way in. I took the left lane and went around. I didn't want to be late.
Motorcycle cop aimed a gun at my head. I watched him as I drove past. He watched me. Started up and came around behind and lit up the lights. I pulled over.
He was extremely polite. Asked me if I knew why, etc. Turns out when there are children around, the speed limit at a school drops to twenty five. Well, duh, everyone knows that, except me, because I just wanted to go around the traffic and get to the doctor. I forgot all about that and didn't see the flashing yellow lights.
I said last time I was pulled over was 1983.
He went away awhile and came back to tell me I seemed like an honest guy, and obviously was not a driving risk, so even though he caught me going forty-one he wrote it up for forty. Sixteen over, not good. Fifteen over, judge has option of allowing me traffic school. Traffic school, record's clean, insurance doesn't go up.
Of course I'll have to pay for all that. But better the City of Folsom get it in one chunk than AAA over the next however long.
I think the remark about 1983 impressed him. It was true: Dixon, CA, in a neighborhood that didn't exist when I lived there a few years before, ran a stop sign hidden by overhanging branches. Now, damn. Got to restart the clock.
I didn't mention my father. He still drives. Last time he got a ticket: 1946.
I'll be watching my speed for awhile, and that's the point, really. But still. Stupid stupid stupid.
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10 comments:
But... how could school possibly have started already?
Ugh that sucks! And ditto Teacake.
Yesterday I spaced out, crawled halfway into an intersection on a green light, then realized traffic was stopped and I couldn't get through. Light turned yellow then red. I was only half-in, big wide intersection, no honking, no problem, only the huge sign saying "KEEP CLEAR." Then I look up. Red light cameras! Freak out. Does this count? I don't think so, right? RIGHT?
Hopefully won't be joining you in traffic school. You can do it online now, I think. Cool about your dad.
Ditto Paula and Teacake plus dAAAmn.
That's what I thought: School already? It's only the tenth!
I was too distracted by that, by mobs of skittering adolescents, and by the gray van rudely going under twenty-five to notice the flashing lights and the sign telling me the speed limit was now twenty-five.
Think he liked the cut of your jib, whateverthehell a jib is ;)
I got pulled over in a dirt vanilla suburb at 2:00 in the afternoon driving a Mom-like Honda Accord 4-door. Cop said I was going 45 in a 35. He failed to mention the speed limit changed from 45 on the road I came from to 35 at the BOTTOM of the hill where he was waiting.
Told him I hadn't had a ticket in 17 years.
Fucker gave me one.
He didn’t like my jib. 'Course it was covered up. But sadly, I've only charmed myself out of a ticket once or twice.
I mean, I'd date one to get out of a ticket.
I only ever got one moving violation -- made a right turn on red when I was 16.
My best friend got a $180 "Hasty Visitor Fee" driving my car and speeding through Ohio. As we drove away from my parents' house in Pittsburgh that morning, my dad had said, "DON'T SPEED IN OHIO!" He was right.
I also got towed by the City of New York, and it cost me something like $300 to free it from the impound. I got rid of the car soon after, if I recall. Who needs a car in New York anyway?
Where's it illegal to make a right turn on red? Except when posted? I can see that one taking my natural distrust of cops over the edge.
Shame on you for trying to run down those innocent school children.
School children now, you cry? There's no more summer harvesting to do. Summer vacation is really an anacronism. More and more, it is eroding around the country. Shame, but there it is.
If there's a sign that says, in big letters, "No Turn On Red," well, that means you can't turn right on red! Every day when I take my ciggie break I watch the cop across the street just wave people over who are doing it. Must be one of those "ticket quota" corners.
Lotsa Jersey plates getting pulled over, which pleases me.
Supersuck! At least you caught a small break. Last time I was pulled over was in 2004 I think. It feels like a bad idea just to say that out loud.
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