Thursday, March 29, 2012

Spellling Counts.

I got pulled over the other day.

Not exactly headline news, but kinda funny when you hear the whole story.

In my 30+ years of driving, I've been pulled over several times before.

Twice at gunpoint.

The first time was when I was driving cab. The cruisers boxed me in and an Officer came up from behind and extracted my none-too-happy passenger. When I told them he hadn't paid the six dollar fare yet, they pulled ten bucks out of his shirt and gave it to me. Cool! Cops, guns, and a four dollar tip!

The second take down happened when I was driving to work one dark winter morning.

I was waiting at a light not far from home, driving a dark blue Sunbird, when a cruiser pulled across my nose, lights flashing. The Cop hopped out, pointed his weapon at me and ordered me to put my hands on the dash. He asked me some questions about who I was and where I was going at this time of the morning. When I convinced him I was not up to no good, he explained that someone driving a car fitting that description was involved in a hold up a few blocks away not long before. There were three identical Sunbird's within two blocks of my home at that time.

M.D.B. had been a Police Communicator for quite some time at this point, and I understood that sometimes mix ups happen.

I was pulled over one other time for driving a car that 'matches the description'.

I was driving a 1974 AMC Javelin, dark green with primer on the rear 1/4's, a white roof and yellow doors. I believe it was the only car ever to match that description. Yet I didn't get a ticket.

Yesterday was kinda different.

Traffic was stop and go, up to 2nd gear maximum. I saw the cruiser behind me, but I had no concerns. The van in front of me drifted to the left, and I followed suit, trying to see the tail lights of the car 2 or 3 in front of me. Something I've learned about early braking. When the cruiser activated it's lights and motioned me to pull over, I thought I might have a light out or something similar. No way I could have been speeding.

When the Officer came up to the door, the story started to unfold.

"I noticed you were weaving back there. Had anything to drink today?"

"Um, nope. I'm just on my way home from work." Then I explained about early braking.

He asked where I worked and I told him. Then he asked what I did.

"I'm a Surveyor."

"Oh, that's what that says."

The frame around my license plate reads, "Surveyors know all the angles."

"What's with the part about knowing all the angels? Are you associated with the Hell's Angel's?"

"Um, that's angles. Like degrees, minutes and seconds. That's what I do, measure angles."

He ran my license anyway, and once he was satisfied that I was not drunk, nor a member of an outlaw biker gang, or a combination of both, he let me go with the following warning, "You should fix that. People in Law Enforcement might get the wrong idea."

First time in almost 13 years anyone has.

DJW
A professionally made sign I've seen lately urges you to 'Buy your supply's"
Does no one know how to speel any more?
...or use the F7 key?