I don't do things by halves

thesuninherhead

I'm not normally one to wallow in self-pity, but I managed to have the most craptastic day yesterday (and by the time it was over, none of you were awake to debrief). My kitty was rather mysteriously sick, I spent most of the day ferrying between CT's and ultrasounds, and to top it all off, I managed to get my first speeding ticket- a $200 ticket from an unmarked police car at the bottom of a hill. I was doing 19kms over (11.8 miles) as I came down the hill, resulting in this car throwing on their lights and pulling me over. Happy days!

How has your wednesday treated you?

Bonus points if you can tell me about your own traffic fines to make me feel better about having wasted $200.

laurenclaire1386

Sun, all of that does suck the proverbial big one. Sorry to hear it How's your kitty?

I was driving FI's car a couple weeks ago, and his registration (little tag on the licence plate) is expired, and so is the inspection sticker. They were $97 apiece, so I'm right there with ya on dumb traffic tickets.

MeaghanandMichael

Aww Sun, how is kitty doing now?

One times I was stopped at a light and a cruiser pulled up behind me. As soon as the light turned green the cruiser pulled me over. I had NO idea what I did. Turns out the little sticker on my plate was out of date and they decided to run it. Now, my car is a lease and we were told by the leasing company that they are responsible for keeping the registration up to date. I then got towed because you can not drive unregistered. We did battle with the lease company and got the money back for the ticket I got but was still out a couple hundred for the tow. It sucked major balls.

aMrsin09

Lets see, during our honeymoon H managed to get pulled over for doing 90km in that little space you guys have that goes from 100 down to 80 right before a light.  The officer asked, "did you know you were doing 90 for 15.8 meters...or some such.  To add to the fun, we were in his deceased moms car.  Officer asked, "does she know you have it?"  erm...then DHs drivers license has his Exmouth address, yo know, the address that he hasn't lived at for over 10 years.  I was silently praying that H would just stop talking becuase it kept getting worse every time he opened his mouth.

All of that resulted in a $300 fine.

How is kitty doing?  Any results from your tests?

hayleymajayley

I was leaving my work one day and pulled off of our little dead end street onto the main road. I was REALLY excited because I was going to pick up FI (right after we started dating) for a suprise I had planned for him. I was getting up to speed and wasn't paying attention... sped up a little TOO much, and got pulled over doing 10 over.... not even 2 minutes after I'd left my work. At least the nice man lowered the ticket so it said I was only doing 5 over. Still was about $200 I think though.

lyndausvi

Sorry sun...

the only ticket I have gotten was for talking on my cell phone.  I was nice to the cop,   The thing only costs $25, not enough for me to fight about.  I really think she was annoyed that I was not fighting the ticket.  I even had out my information without asking.  She started an arguement over how my physical address was wrong.  Umm, no it was not, but she insisted that that address does not exists.  Oddly I'm one of the few people on island that actually has the same physical and mailing address on island. But whatever.

I truly think she thought she was going to bust a continental still using a stateside license while owning a VI car (it's a big deal to the cops down here).   Instead I didn't complain and accepted the ticket. 

thesuninherhead

Well, the tests apparently indicated he's quite well- nothing remarkable or anything that could point to the cause. He seems much better this morning, though; he's on antibiotics (he's SO easy to pill- true to his name, he just eats the pills when you give them to him) so that might be helping. His fever came and went during the day yesterday when he was at the vets (they got it down in the afternoon when we first brought him in, he was ok overnight there but then in the middle of the day his fever returned. They got it back down before he was returned to us apparently, although he was obviously feverish when we got him home). He seems well now- his nose is back to the normal white colour it generally is (rather than bright pink and hot) and he's eating etc as per normal. Fingers crossed it stays this way and whatever it was is gone.

Glad I'm not the only one with stupid traffic fines. I was so stumped. The officer breath tested me and asked if I'd had anything to drink; I replied, 'not yet', and he was like, 'well, I guess you'll be going home to have something after this?'. At least they had a sense of humour.

thesuninherhead

Lol Lynda, over here talking on a mobile is a $300 fine. Twenty five dollars is nothing! You were pretty lucky, even if she did want to argue with you about your address!

lyndausvi

Yay.. $25 is nothing.  I think it doubles the more offenses you have.

The only thing you get pulled over for her is talking on your cell phone, driving without a seatbelt, driving with expired tags and parking in a handicap.   It's hard to get a speeding ticket here (most times you are only driving 35 mph or less).  Even traffic accidents do not always warrent a ticket.   Honestly I think it's because it's too much trouble to do the paper work.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

When I was young and stupid (and had street parking only) I stopped paying my parking tickets. I had about 6. My car got a boot on it, I had to pay about $800 in past fines, and then it got taken off.

In California the talking or texting fine is also supposedly $20. What's the point?

Best part of my day: I got my taxes done and my refund is about three times what I thought it would be.

Worst part of my day: Didn't wake up early enough to excercise this morning, and because I was doing my taxes I forgot to eat lunch.

aMrsin09

Not sure how it is in the VIs but in the states they tell you when your court date is right on the ticket in case you want to fight it.  When H got his ticket I was looking for the court date.  Nope. It wasn't  there.  You have to apply for a court date and then they eventually get around to telling you when it is.  H says it could be 6 months to a year if you want to fight the ticket.

sarah0725

Sorry to hear you had a bad day, Sun...

I've had my share of stupid car situations. The only ticket I ever got was a speeding ticket for going 80 in a 65 in upstate New York when I was driving home after seeing my FI. That was something like a $200 ticket, and it really sucked.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Oh, I also called the cable company to see why my bill went up by $12/month and ended up ordering Showtime... for another $7/month. Good or bad? You decide!

lyndausvi

sometimes they have a date, sometimes not.. Sometimes you will try and pay weeks after the offense and the ticket has not even been entered into the system yet.  Yeah, it'a mess (although I'm told it's being automated).   If you do not pay the fine they get you when you register.  Most people I know just wait till then. It's not worth your time otherwise.

thesuninherhead

Well the ticket I got yesterday says I have 28 days to respond. If I decide to fight it, I fill in that part of the ticket and send it in, and then they'll assign a court date. Most people don't fight it. I was considering going to court and begging a judge, given I have an otherwise perfect traffic record and well, yesterday was a rather stressful day for me! Hello tests to detect possible minor stroke type episode (I know that's not what it was, but the doctor wants to rule that out, thus the tests) and sick kitty!

sarabellam

Well, let's see. Rheumatologist appointment this morning. Corticosteroid injection into my shoulder joint, prescription for a pain killer, and probably a dozen x-rays later, I'm on to the second appointment of the day, with the attorney concerning my HOA suing me for covenant violations. He thinks their case is shaky at best, but I'm going to go ahead and make plans to "fix" the violation, even though the structure in question has been in place since early 2000 with not a word out of the HOA.

On to the orthodontist for my daughter. Yep, she's ready for braces. That will be $4850, and that doesn't count what I will have to pay for the oral surgeon and anesthesiologist to pull 3 baby teeth and band the canines that are way up in her palate.

And a nice guy in a pickup truck flashed his lights at me just as I was coming into town, so I was going 2 MPH below the speed limit when I passed the cop sitting on the side of the road with his radar gun.

JessAndTrav

When I was in college, I got pulled over for going 78mph in a 65mph zone. It was in a small town between Houston and my college town, and the fines there are pretty crazy.

I paid $91 to tell THE CLERK that I was going to do defensive driving, which is $40. Then I got really, really busy with work and never had the time to do DD, thus I had to pay the fine. It was about $130.

So. Much. Money.

mocha beans

Sorry bout your crappy day Sun :-(

My speeding story, is pretty short.  Had a supremely bad weekend when I was a freshman in college involving being jerked around emotionally by a guy from high school that I was friends with still.  Got two speeding tickets, one on Saturday night and one on Sunday afternoon, both for almost 20 over the limit.  Almost $400 for someone who had no income at the time, and was getting an "allowance" from dad to pay for college expenses.  Yeah, that was fun explaining why I needed $400...