Traffic Ticket

I'm an unsafe driver. I speed, follow too close, use my cell phone, program my GPS, and otherwise multi task when I should pay attention to driving. This, combined with covering 30,000 miles a year on average, means many meetings with Officer Friendly. If the ticket is righteous I don't fight it too hard and never, ever argue with Officer Friendly. Courts are for arguing.

What rankles is a flat out wrong ticket like I got last week at 11:10 p.m. for running a stop sign. One, I did stop and two, the officer's view of the area behind the stop sign was blocked by a bus stop, trees, bushes and a banner welcoming the troops home. All he could see was my headlights after I entered the street.

Game on! Think Alice's Restaurant. I've taken several pictures and printed maps. Now I'm drawing arrows and writing notes. Court is 1/23/09 so will plead "Not Guilty". If I can't convince the City Attorney to drop it will get to play Perry Mason.

Forced Humility Sucks

Taking a class or two can humble you. First, an eight hour marathon CCW class (concealed carry weapon), i.e. wild eyed crazy gun nut

class to those in our population that need to ban anything that makes them uncomfortable when doing so thrills them by exercising their assumed moral superiority and smelling a whiff of danger. This was a Profire USA effort than annoyed me buy exposing my ignorance of several points I had assumed mastery for years . Good people; Profire-worth the money.

Last night was a driver ed traffic school whatever. The choice of a fine and points or paying to attend a class was a no brainer. As a 50 year license holder and career traffic scofflaw the challenge was to stay awake. The instructor, a retired police chief, was very annoying. He made the class interesting and taught me several things I didn't know. In doing so he ruined a perfectly good snit.