Assorted Bits

Today was a good day. Today was a bad day. Kinda like when you go to one of those auctions with the mystery items up for bid… sometimes you get diamond rings, sometimes you get ringworm. It’s all good.

Tonight, for the first time ever, I played hockey. It was extremely tiring, but LOTS of fun. I’m playing roller hockey in preparation for Ice Hockey in the fall. I didn’t manage to score (story of my life) but I did get some assists (also the story of my life). I used muscles tonight that I didn’t know I had, and I’m sure they’ll complain about it tomorrow. Nevertheless, it was fun and I’ll be doing it again next week. What’s really surprising to me is that I didn’t TOTALLY suck. I need practice, sure, but I’m not too bad. Wooho!

Now you’ve heard the good news, as is custom, bad news is tagging along like some girl’s little sister on your first date. For this story we have to jump into the Way-Back-Machine and return to February ‘01 when I was pulled over in a town called SpeedTrap, AL. (That’s not it’s real name, but it oughta be) In the span of a quarter mile the speedlimit went from 55 to 35. This is no excuse. I came around a corner doing 42ish and was pulled over. The cop gave me a ticket for 47 in a 35. Judging by his comments about my car tag, he wasn’t a big fan of the University of Alabama. Neither of those are excuses. (It should be noted that it was 2am, I was the only fool on the road and I was coming back from visiting some girl).

Fast Forward to last summer — Pete is driving down a road where motorists frequently travel 60… the speedlimit is 45 (I think). I was speeding… with four other cars. I got pulled over. I got a ticket. The other four cars neither slowed down nor looked back — but they got away. Bastards. I applied for traffic school but the notice came back after I had left for school.

Today I received a letter from the Secretary of State’s office. It seems that they make it a practice of suspending the driver’s license of anyone who, before they turn 21, acquires two tickets in 24 months. It also seems that I did, in fact, get two tickets within the span of 24 months before I turned 21. You logicians out there have already figured out that this means that I’ve had my license suspended. It is affective on June 19 and lasts for three months. This could be a fairly big problem. I’m going to attempt to go back to driving school for last summer’s offense, that should take care of it.

I’m not mad. I’m not sulking. I’m not really worried about it… here’s why: I frequently exceed the speed limit. Usually not by more than 5mph, but occasionally (especially in cities) I go faster than that. It’s my opinion that, if you speed, you’re assuming the inherent risk of getting a ticket. I took that risk, and now I’ve got to pay the consequences. Now, don’t think for even a minute that I’m just going to roll over and not drive for three months… but if that’s what it comes down to, I’ll do so with minimal complaining. It’s my fault that I got the tickets, my fault that I didn’t pay closer attention to the suspension rules, and so, my fault that my license is getting suspended. Oh well, shit happens… occasionally it happens to me. This is one of those times.

So… anyone wanna drive me around for three months?

For those of you keeping tabs on the Digital Camera discussion, I think I’ve decided on the Canon PowerShot A40… anyone have comments (positive or negative) about this model? If someone wants to buy me a camera, I’ve got my eye on this one.