Oops?

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from the State of Kansas. That's not terribly unusual, since I work for the State of Kansas, however, this letter made me a little nervous. Through the little address window, I could see the beginning of the letter. What I could see was something to the effect of "Our records show that you" and on the next line, something about "violations."

Uh-oh.

I must defend myself here before going on and say that I am not a bad driver. I just like to drive fast. I have decided to blame this on my German heritage. Germans build fast cars and like to drive fast. That's why there's the Autobahn. I'm not sure how my Irish heritage plays into this, but I'm sure it's their fault too. Not mine.

The gist of the letter was that their records showed I had three moving violations, and should I get a fourth within the same 12 month period, my driver's license would be suspended for 30 days. A fifth, and it would be 90 days. A sixth, and let's try a year's suspension. Ouch.

I got a ticket last December. The officer claimed I was going 43mph in a 30. I may have been going a little over 30, but I'm 99.999% sure that it wasn't anywhere near 43. On that particular road at that particular time of day, it's rare for traffic to move above a crawl. I just paid the ticket, thinking I probably deserved it for all the other times I've sped and didn't get caught.

This spring, I got pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign. I had three problems with this. One, I'm pretty positive I did stop. Two, this stop sign was completely pointless at the time because you could only turn right... the road to the left was closed because they had torn out the bridge, and there is no road going straight. Three, the car right in front of me barely slowed down when they went around the corner and they didn't get pulled over. Only me. Actually, I had four problems with that one... Number four being that I didn't have my current proof of insurance (the one I had with me had expired a few weeks earlier and I hadn't put the new one in my car yet), which meant I had to appear in court a few weeks ago and show that I had insurance.

The third ticket was about a month ago, and I must admit, I'm guilty. I was speeding. Speed limits in Lawrence can change drastically from block to block with no apparent reason, and I was in one such place. I was driving down the road, saw a sign and realized that the speed limit was only 30mph and I was going about 40... because the speed limit had been 40 just a couple blocks before. I had just taken my foot off the gas, looked over and saw a police car about to turn onto the road in the same direction I was going... and sure enough, he pulled me over. He was pretty nice. He said I was going 43, but he only gave me a ticket for 40, which meant the fine was about $30 less. I wish he had been nice enough not to give me a ticket at all, but... whatever.

So... now I have to be really, really, really careful not to get another ticket for a long, long time. Or ever.

In happier news, it's finally Friday, we have a three day weekend, and... WE GET OUR REFIGERATOR TOMORROW MORNING! (It's pathetic that I'm so excited about that, isn't it?)