Speeding

I will freely admit it…I was caught speeding. Sort of. Ok…definitely.

This past Tuesday, my brother and I celebrated my birthday. We didn’t celebrate on my actual birthday, which is today, Thursday, February 14^th, because it is difficult to get into restaurants because of the holiday. Wednesday wouldn’t have worked for us because it was Ash Wednesday and I went to church. Tomorrow (Friday) wouldn’t work because a friend is having a dinner party for me. So that left Tuesday.

We went to a new Mexican restaurant which was really quite good. It wasn’t a chain restaurant but rather a little hole-in-the wall place in Sanford that served what, to me at least, tasted like the genuine thing.

After dinner, we went back to my brother’s house to watch a movie. We watched “Serenity” which is the last of the “Firefly” series that was on TV years ago.

It was rather late when I headed home and I was a little concerned about black ice since there had been a great deal of melting during the day and the temperature had dropped. Lucky for me, I was behind someone who, for quite a ways, was more worried about it than me and was driving 25 mph. Of course this was the speed limit in town but most people, especially at that time of night, tend not to go that slow. Which might be why we (myself, the slow guy in front of me and the pickup behind me) passed a cop with his radar gun by the side of the road watching for speeders. But there was no need to pull us over. No, sir! We were definitely obeying the law.

After a while, the old worried guy turned off and I sped up a little. Which I could at that point since the speed limit was now 35 mph. The pickup passed me and sped up even more but to each his own. If he wanted to risk speeding on black ice, that was his business.

Farther along, as I went into the country, the speed limit went up to 45 mph and then 50 mph. I tried to stay a little under the speed limit since I was still concerned about black ice.

As I was driving through a more populated area of the road, the speed limit dropped to 35 mph again. I knew that after a mile or so, it went back up to 50 mph and tried to keep an eye out for that sign.

I was tired and listening to loud music and after a while thought I might have passed the 50 mph sign. So I sped up. Not much, I thought, but over 35 mph.

Then I saw it. A car by the side of the road with his brake lights on. As I approached, I slowed down a little in case he was pulling out. Well, he may not have been planning on that but he eventually did. Because it was a police car…one of the ones without the lights on top. SHIT!!!!!!

I slowed down some more as I passed him but then I saw him pull out and turn his lights on. SHIT!!! SHIT!!!! SHIT!!!!

I pulled over to the side of the road and he pulled in behind me and turned on his HUGE spotlight (at least from my point of view it was huge). I turned off the radio and waited in my car with my hands on the steering wheel. I know better than to lean over and get things out of my glove box or put my hands in my coat pocket. Things like that make cops nervous and I certainly wouldn’t want to be a victim of an accidental shooting.

After a few, very long, minutes, the policeman exited his vehicle (sounds official, doesn’t it?) and approached my car. He stood behind my left shoulder and shone a flashlight in my face.

“Ma’am, do you know how fast you were going?”

“Well”, I said, “since I am worried about black ice, I was trying to go under the speed limit and I think I was going around 40 since the speed limit is 50.” Still not sure if I missed that 50 mph sign but, with the cop standing there, I had a feeling I didn’t.

“The speed limit is 35 and I clocked you going 48”, the cop replied.

“I know it was 35 back there but I thought it was up to 50 by now”

“No”, he said, “it turned to 35 back there at _____ and it is 35 all the way into town”

I missed the name of the road he said where the speed had dropped but I know he was wrong about the second part. I know the speed limit went back up to 50 mph and then dropped to 40 mph and finally 35 mph well passed where the next town started. But since he had the power to cost me a lot of money, not to mention he was armed, I decided not to argue with him.

He then asked me for my driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. As I leaned over to get the registration and proof of insurance from my glove box, I said, like I was talking to myself but loud enough for him to hear me:

“I really can’t afford this…I am unemployed and I don’t have any money”.

Not angry or in an antagonistic way but more in a “woe is me” kind of voice. Kind of panicking and worried voice.

He looked at my proof of insurance while I dug my license out of my wallet and then he handed it back to me and said he would be right back. He took my license and registration and headed to his car.

I sat there and prayed. And prayed. And PRAYED. Don’t remember the exact words but I was praying that it would just be a warning and not a ticket. Prayed so very, very hard!

After several agonizing minutes, the policeman came back to my car and said:

“Here is your paperwork. I have put a warning in the system. Please be more careful”.

I thanked him and said I would. I then placed my license, registration and the other piece of paper on the passenger seat, waited for him to get back in his car, and then very carefully pulled away.

THANK GOD!!!! A speeding ticket in Maine is close to $200 and I do not have that kind of money.

As I drove the rest of the way home, I stayed at 35 mph. Even as I passed the next speed limit sign that said 50 mph. Even as a semi came up behind me, clearly wanting to go faster. Even when I passed another speed limit sign that said 50 mph. Even when I passed the next sign that said 40 mph. I stayed at 35 mph all the way home.

Of course now I am wicked paranoid about getting caught speeding again. I am being extra vigilant and staying at the speed limit at all times. And when I pass a cop parked by the side of the road, I slow down even further and try not to have a panic attack as my heart pounds.

Once I am gainfully employed again, I can risk going faster. But only after I feel like I am financially able to handle a couple of hundred dollars for a speeding ticket. Until then, don’t get behind me because it will be annoying!!