I Hope It's Not Another Rough Start To The Week

So far today, this week has started off better than last week. Last week I should have known that there would be issues since my wife was starting a seven week long course. Every time something like this changes our schedules we have communication issues. By now I should realize it in advance and take care of it before it has a chance to happen. But no, that would make too much sense. My wife had talked about trying to get out of her class early so that she could take care of our son when it was time for me to go to work. Still, I should have clarified everything.

I ended up waiting as long as I possibly could before concluding that my wife intended to meet me at my job and pick up our son. Therefore I rushed off to work in an effort not to be late. To do that I had to speed, something that is not exactly out of character for me however once I arrived in the parking garage she was nowhere to be found. The only thing I could do is drive back home and see if she had gone there, but once I arrived I found the garage empty (of her car at least).

It was time to call work and explain why I wasn't there and luckily my manager was off on vacation and since I'm a supervisor I knew I'd be okay. Perks of the job. However I really needed to drop my son somewhere, preferably a safe place so now I rushed over to the Peruvian family that usually watches him. The husband was home and said that no, my wife had not made any arrangements for them to watch him but he'd be happy to. As I left I decided to make one last visit to our house just in case my wife had made it home and was wondering where our son was.


The path I take goes by a park but before you get there you have a hill to go down and as I flew down it I realized that I was going much too fast. Unfortunately just as this dawned on me I saw the police car sitting to the side. Whether he saw me or was drawn by my bright red brake lights I'll never know but sure enough he pulled out and lit me up. He used the standard question of if I knew why he had pulled me over and I answered honestly that my speed had gotten away form at the bottom of the hill. Then he collected my drivers license and asked for my insurance info. I had my old card but not the updated one and he wanted to make sure that I did have insurance, which I do.

Then came the next standard question of if I knew how fast I had been going. I'm sure I could have thrown a number out that would have been reasonably close but instead I just shook my head and said "I really don't know" with the full expectation of him informing me just how fast I had been driving. Instead he just told me to sit tight and went back to his car. After a few minutes I watched him (in my side mirror) get out of his car and observed that he only had my license in his hand. This was indeed my lucky day that he had not written me a ticket for speeding. He gave me back my license and told me to watch my speed and get my updated insurance card and keep it in my truck.

When he pulled me over I came to the conclusion that I could not control anything on this day so just take it easy and drive somewhat close to the speed limit. What would happen would happen. It was only after pulling out that I realized that he hadn't had his radar on so he really did not know how fast I had been going when he asked me. Right then and there I became positive that if I had guessed at how fast I had been going he would have written me a ticket for that speed since in essence I would have "confessed" to doing so. Instead my ignorance actually ended up helping me this time.

At a much lower speed I continued on to our house where once again I determined that my wife was nowhere to be found and then drove on to work. One hour later than my appointed time I clocked in safe and sound. My wife called later and I relayed what had happened to me. Of course it was my fault, she had told me to take him to the babysitter (she hadn't) and that one of their daughters had even been at our house on Saturday and they had discussed it all. I didn't bother to try and tell her that I'm sure they did, in Spanish, which I speak very little of. It's not worth trying to prove my point because no matter what decision I make it will turn out wrong, at least the way she spins it.

Hopefully the next time we have a change in the schedule I'll remember this and other past incidents and will actually talk to her (or listen depending on your point of view) and make sure we're in complete agreement about what is supposed to happen. Not likely of course but I can dream.


Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.