Well well well, welcome as we watch words wander wearily to Wednesday, where...wings won't...wonder... to Wisconsin...with...wascally wabbits. I should've stopped that alliteration long before it ever began. Happy Wednesday, my friends. I hope that I find you all in good moods, because as I start typing the post, I have no idea yet what it will be about. That's always a hoot, now isn't it?
So far, my hey-look-it's-a-theme-of-the-week has been driving, much like last week's. I sure hope that hasn't bored you too much, because I've got some more in that genre ready to spew out. Let me warn you up front: these stories are not as entertaining, but hey folks, they can't all be, right? How's that for lowering expectations?
Here's the first one: I was driving back to my place in Santa Barbara after meeting a friend for dinner downtown when and - poof! - a cop with his lights on appeared behind me. I had no idea what the proposed infraction was, but I calmly pulled over to the shoulder. "Good evening," the officer said. "Good evening, officer," I replied, because that's the polite thing to do. "I noticed that you veered a little out of your lane a while back there," he said, apparently done with the pleasantries. I told him the absolute truth: "Yes sir, my car's been pulling to the left a lot recently, and I have an appointment with Toyota tomorrow to have them take a look at it." "Ok, good," he replied. "Just make sure you get that taken care of." He looked like he was about to leave before remembering that he had to ask me something else: "Have you been drinking at all tonight?" "No, sir," I told him. "Ok, drive carefully." See? Not very interesting. Just another case of me calmly explaining my situation to an officer and having him send me on my way.
While this next story isn't fabulous either, it did piss me off, so at least we've got that going for us. I was sitting in mild traffic, going about 20mph in Santa Barbara (which is a rarity, since the freeways were normally pretty wide open). Poof! The law enforcement fairy appeared. The officer pulled up next to me, and through my window, I smiled and nodded. A second later, he was back behind my car and turning his siren on. As I dutifully was pulling over, these thoughts went through my head: "I wasn't speeding, I wasn't veering, I didn't even change lanes. My registration is current, I didn't have loud music on...maybe I just match the description of someone who did something bad. Or maybe he didn't like my smile and nod."
The officer walked - nay, sauntered - over to my car and asked me, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "Honestly, officer, I have no idea. I was just wondering that, in fact." I know that sounds rife with smartassery, but I assure you it was sincere and sounded as much. He nodded, and I read it as one of those "man-I'm-good" nods. "Your windows are too tinted," he said, in a manner much like how Sherlock Holmes would reveal which person in the room was the killer. This was a shock to me, and I politely told him as much. "Really? I just got this car from my brother recently when he got a new one, and he never had any problem with that. Why would companies tint things illegally?" I was asking myself more than him, but he answered: "If you'll pay them, they'll make it as dark as you want and let you sort out the fines. This is just a little bit over the limit." I nodded, and it was more of a "touché" nod than anything else.
He wrote me up a fix-it ticket and said to, ya know, fix it, then have an officer sign the back to prove it was taken care of, and then go to the courthouse to pay the fine. As I drove away, I replayed the entire scene in my head and then got a little angry. "Really? You didn't have anything better to do than pull me over in traffic because my windows were a little bit darker than they're supposed to be?" Then I remembered my smiling and nodding at him through my window, and that just pissed me off more. A law is a law, but I did feel a little silly at the courthouse, waiting in line to pay when the people in front of me were there for much more serious offenses.
Since then, I've seen countless cars with windows way darker than mine were. What do these people do when they see police officers? I guess they either have to roll down their windows or just hope that the officers have more pressing needs than pulling them over for that. It just seems silly to me to modify one's car illegally - noticeably illegally - and then have a likely chance of needing to un-modify it. I guess I'm not that risky.
On that note, I shall leave you all on this Wednesday and trust that you'll make it over the hump just fine. I'll see you here tomorrow, and remember to email ptklein@gmail.com with anything that you think might fancy my tickle. You know what I mean. Have a good First of Ramadan, Rosh Hashana, and eveything else September 12th is to you.
2 comments:
One of my trucks was pulled over at an inpections site. It was determined that it didn't have the proper I.D.# stenciled on the door. Instead of a fix it ticket or a warning (everything else about the truck was o.k.)they impounded the vehicle. It was fully loaded with material and the 3 employees on their way to a job had to be picked up.
$1,100 later and with the correct number on the door, we were allowed to use the truck again.
In this case is was fined and daddy.
Andrew & 3 friends were leaving on a trip to San Francisco. My parting words were "Don't speed! you are asking for a ticket with that car and those tinted windows" He left at 8am and the time on the ticket was 9am. Not even to Bakersfield. He still does not listen.
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