"Your license and registration, please?"

Yeah, it happened today, a year into my daily mega-commute,* I was caught speeding.

And it was not on the highway. :(

As a matter of fact, I was about half a mile from home. Sigh...

I left the house late. Generally the latest acceptable time to leave is 9:30 am, that way I can get there at least 20 minutes before my 11 am class, but this morning I left at 9:40. And I was caught at 9:42...

What happened was that right before I did a left turn into our town's main street (a minor highway that stretches all the way from PA to GA) I had to impatiently wait for this Cadillac in front of me who was turning left, but who was oh, soooooo slooooow! So when I turned I immediately stepped on the gas to get a head start on my 1h10min commute. Just as I accelerated a city cop drove past me in the other direction and I immediately knew!

He began flashing his lights, turned around and I knew he was coming for me, so I slowed down and pulled over. (HUGE sigh... & that horrible sinking feeling).

He told me I was going 59 in a 35 zone... I frankly don't know if I was going that fast, but who am I to argue with a cop's radar?

I explained that I was late for me job in town relatively far away and that I had left the house late preparing my breakfast (and I pointed out to my buttered bread and bowl of grapes by my side).

As I waited I texted K, but I didn't need to have texted him because he'd actually PASSED me on his way to work! :( I ate some grapes, and got online to email my students before I got moving again. I wrote the most unprofessional email in the world. 3 lines:

I left the house late and the police stopped me around the corner.
I may be a few minutes late, please wait for me in class.
You can continue working where we stopped yesterday.

I was 5 minutes late to class -- not that bad!

When the cop, who patrols our street daily so I know him, came back, he told me he wasn't giving me a reckless driving ticket, only a speeding one (phew!). Then he asked about my record (squeaky clean, thanks to going to court twice before) and when I told him he again (like the previous two cops) said I should go to court (Nov. 4, 10 am -- gotta find someone to teach  my classes) because he'd say that I was cordial and stopped immediately.

So, yeah. I will once more get away, phew! The second, and last time was much more disagreeable, on the day of our move from Pennsylvania. I had just driven nearly 5 hours and I was unaware that the speed limit on our new street was 25. I also accelerated slightly when I saw our new rental place (with the truck parked in front) and BAM! was caught by the most disagreeable lady cop in this whole entire state (she is notorious in this whole area, people avoid driving through that town if they can!). She was pretty nice in court, though, especially considering that I really had just moved and didn't know the road or limit!

The worse part was facing my cute, fresh-faced students. "Professor, you weren't speeding, were you?" They said, pretending to be shocked. ;-)

*Not daily in the Spring, though I still commuted everyday, but two of them to the closer university.