What Now

I drove back from the gym this morning at a few minutes past 6 a.m. I saw a car driving down my street behind me and kind of halfway wondered if they were following me (it was a completely random thought because I hadn't noticed a car behind me before.) Just as I was about to turn into my driveway, flashing lights came on! I was confused, because I knew I wasn't speeding and I couldn't remember running over anyone. I pulled into my driveway to get out of the way and the cop pulled in behind me. I opened the door and just started to get out when a voice barked (yes, barked) at me "GET BACK INTO THE CAR!"

I got back into the car.

My mind was racing because I couldn't figure out why I had been stopped! Did I cut someone off, or did I run a red light? I didn't know! The cop came over and shined a flashlight into my face and said "What's your hurry?" Apparently I had been speeding in a school zone. An inactive school zone, BTW. He also told me I had a "glaring tail light" and told me that the place where the cover was broken made it look like my reverse lights were on and that he could give me a ticket for that. He asked for my license, and walked back to his car. I had no idea I had been speeding and told him so, but I was already resigned to my fate of having to scrape up the money to pay a ticket. I sat in my car, in my own driveway, and watched police lights flick over my neighbors houses. I also saw a porch light flick on and off again, and I can only guess that they were wondering what dangerous criminal was living next door. The cop brought back my license and told me to slow down next time and he also told me where I could buy some tape to fix the broken shell of my tail light. To quote Indiana Jones "No Ticket." Whew. That is the very first time I've been pulled over and NOT gotten a ticket.

I was so thrown off by the whole thing that I forgot to open the garage door so I could get in the house and had trouble locking my car door. I don't like authority to be suddenly thrust upon me like that. I'm going to step lightly for the rest of today because I think I used up my daily allotted luck not getting that ticket.