Breakin' the law...

Seems my internal police radar has been a bit on the fritz lately. After going 6 years without so much as a hint of a parking ticket on my driving record, I've been pulled over and ticketed twice in the last 6 months for - ahem - "traveling at excessive rates of speed." Some might call this bad luck. Others might call it reaping what I've sewn after years of practicing "shortened drive times." Well, since I don't believe in luck and I live in a metropolitan city where anything less than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit is practicly begging for someone to commit road rage against you, I call it a shame.

Did I deserve the tickets? Depends on your perspective... mine tells me no. "C'mon, you were going 73 in a 40!" you say. True, but I was on my way to serve at church on a Sunday morning, and doesn't that negate any incidental infraction I may have committed? I know what your thinking. "Okay, fair enough, but what about the 2nd ticket for 82 in a 60?" Touché. I wasn't going to church when that one occured. BUT... I did just drive 3 hours from College Station to Dallas where the speed limit was 70 the whole way, and it wasn't until I just crossed inside the Dallas county line where apparently the speed limit changes to 60 (even though you're still on a highway in the middle of nowhere) when I was zapped by radar from a deputy who couldn't have been parked more than 100 feet inside said county line. That's just wrong in my book, and it should be in yours, too. To add insult to, well, insult, the officer that pulled me over warned me that there were 5 more of our city's finest just up the road pulling people over left and right, but - and I quote - "As long as you keep it at about 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, you should be fine."

Maybe she meant, "...you should be fined."