But yesterday in the mail, that all changed. Yes, just outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a camera caught me in Jazzman's car, doing 70 in a 55! At least that's what they SAY I was doing. This was on the 18th of December at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and since I don't remember exactly what I was doing almost two weeks ago, other than driving to Iowa, I have no idea if it's true that I was going 70 in a 55. I mean seriously, it's their word against mine. O.K., O.K., they have a photo of my car, taken by the camera in one of those "Target Traffic Areas," but there is no photo of the speedometer, no radar picture, it's just their lousy camera against me.
There have been times, in the past, when I thought all the hoopla about those cameras in cities was just silliness. I mean, just go the speed limit, make sure you are stopped at the stop light, and do what you're supposed to do, then if the camera catches you, it's all good. Well, I might have changed my mind on this matter. You see, it's all well and good to issue a ticket, especially one that will cost me 75 smackeroonies, without having to face the person to whom the ticket is being issued. This is just the chicken's way out...wimpy police officers would not ticket me if they had to stop me, look into my very tired face, see that I'd been driving for 10 hours, and was just SO excited to see my son, whom I had not seen for three whole months! No seriously good cop would ever think of ticketing a grandmother, on her way to see the wonderful granddaughter who she hasn't seen for 6 months. And, there is absolutely no way a highway patrol person would shine his (or her) flashlight into my car and say, "You know you were speeding ma'am?" Because they could see the contrition on my face, and know that it would be silly to issue a ticket to me, because I'd already learned my lesson.
BUT.....when you're dealing with a camera, that sends a picture to a computer, who then looks up the license plate of the car, and send a ticket to your home, well that's just not fair! The camera and computer do not see the tiredness in my face, or see my contrition, they just objectively see me going 70 in a 55. Who want objectiveness in the public traffic arena? Certainly not me!
You see, for all of my life, every time I've been stopped, the contrite feeling, the panic of feeling as if I might get hauled off to jail, the tired look, and the tears have given each police person pause, and resulted in a warning or a kind word, sometimes even a hug, just to make me feel better. I count on that, and hoped to do so for another 10 years or so, when the aging thing would kick in and people would let me off because I reminded them of their grandmother.
I've gone through lots of different feelings, sadness at losing my perfect record (even though this will not go on my record, it will go on Jazzman's because it was his car), anger at not knowing for over a week that I was caught speeding and wondering if I'll get more of those E-tickets from the return trip through Cedar Rapids, and unhappiness over spending $75 to right this wrong, when I just returned from vacation and don't have the extra cash to spend.
Oh progress....Jazzman said that it's very expensive for a police officer to make a traffic stop, and this is a way to save money. I wondered aloud why we don't just forget about police officers and do all our traffic stops this way. I told him there were lots of other people speeding too, which made it much harder to not speed myself. I explained that I only speed a little bit, and only on long trips, so that should make things even out, and I should not be ticket worthy. I raged at the system, at the silliness of it all, and at the cost.
But, in the end, the truth is, I was speeding, I got caught, and it's going to cost me....and I'm just not happy about that!
