8th Time's a Charm

I got pulled over today.  This is the 8th time in my life I got pulled over.  This one went just like the others, I found the sweet spot of my theory on how to get out of any kind of discipline and ended up with just a verbal warning.

Let me explain.

About 6 months ago, a headlight went out on the Corolla.  We replaced it within the week and moved on.  Yesterday, the other headlight went out.  We hadn't replaced it yet.

On my way home from Applebee's tonight, I got pulled over for having a headlight out as well as not signalling a turn.  I played my checklist of physical things to do through my head, turn on the flashers, roll down the window, change the radio station and turn it down, turn on an inside light and turn off the car, leaving both hands clearly visible on the wheel.

He approached, told me I had a headlight out and hadn't signaled my turn and asked for my driver's license and proof of insurance.

At this moment, I started the verbal checklist.  Don't lie, know you did something wrong but don't admit to doing it intentionally, while showing you were still fully in control of the car.

"Yeah, my wife yells at me for that all the time.  Can you settle something for me?  I always tell her that if I don't cross a traffic line that it isn't necessary to use your blinker.  When the road curves we curve with it.  If i'm using the solid right line as my guide of where the road is going, instead of the dashed center line, I actually didn't switch lanes and no signal is necessary.  Is that legal or illegal?"

This was all said sarcastically and comically enough to know he is helping me with a case against Jenny's "courtesy nagging" and he took it as such and smiled.   He asked me where I lived and where I was coming from.  I told him Applebee's and he asked me if I had anything to drink while I was there.

"Two cherry cokes" I responded.

"Anything else?"

"Not there, but earlier in the day I had a water, a Mountain Dew and a Reindeer."

"What's a Reindeer?"

"It is a steamed milk drink from Caribou."

At this point he was laughing at me, a great sign before he has even headed back to his car to run my license.

He returned with my license and said:

"You have a pretty busy weekend right?"

I paused.

"'Cause I could make you come and show us that the headlight is fixed within 72 hours, but if you have a busy weekend, I will just trust you to get it taken care of soon."

(Jenny and I had literally talked about getting that taken care of in the Applebee's parking lot on the way in, don't yell at me dad.)

He then told me to have a nice night and that he didn't feel the need to give me even the written warning to get it taken care of.

8 for 8.