road rage meets road redemption

The other day i got a speeding ticket. pretty big one unfortunately. but you know what? our justice/traffic system is surprisingly gracious, and for that reason, i'm smiling today.

scenario: Friday night. i'm heading out to Niks place in Newmarket to hang out for the evening. It's been a long day at work, of course. over the past few weeks, leading up to this friday, my state of mind has been, sadly, deflating. An increasing level of frustration and, to put it bluntly, a bad attitude, has been growing on me. As i'm turning left onto the service road that will feed into Eglinton West, i fall in line behind the slowest driver in Toronto. It's too much, and i lose it a bit. Naturally, being all-knowing, and the educator that i am, i decide to show her how she should be driving. the best way, as you well know, to accomplish this, is to pull out beside the person immediately following a stop sign, and pass them with reckless abandon. at which point, of course, they see how fast you're driving, immediately recognize that they were in the wrong for driving much more safely, and in control, and therefore apologize in their hearts and ask forgiveness. which, naturally, you withold in your own heart so as to ensure that the lesson is lasting, and they never truly forget this moment of tough, yet loving, chastisement.

anyway, the second i cleared her front bumper and pulled into her lane in front of her, the cop pulled into my lane behind me. with his lights on.

i was doing 88 in a 60. burn. 130 bucks and 3 points.

granted, it was a turning point, mentally. it provided that moment in which i looked at the past few weeks and realized that i was losing sight, and things were becoming pretty sour and cynical in my head. it was a great stopper, and provided the opportunity for a mental 180.

so, taking my licks is not something i am above, if i'm in the wrong. and clearly, i was. so it was to my pleasant and unexpected delight that today's courthouse proceedings took place.

the cop had told me to get a court date. which sounded odd to me. i wasn't in any position to defend myself. but he said, nevertheless, that if i got a court date and he was there, he'd knock of the points, and if he wasn't there, the points would be automatically knocked off. so i thought it worth a try, as points are like cotton candy to insurance brokers.

so today i went to the courthouse in markham to plead guilty with an explanation. i walked into this little room (after getting a number and waiting a bit) and sat down in front of this lady. she held out her hand without looking at me, presumably asking for my ticket. i gave it to her. she looked at it and said.. '88 in a 60? that's 3 points. i'll knock it down to 15 over, no points, deal?' to which i said, 'cool!' to which she said, 'follow me.'

into another room, and some other guy, along with this girl. she says, 'jon here wants his ticket down to 15 over.' new guy says, '15 over in a 60. how do you plead?' i said, 'guilty'. he said, 'pay within 15 days.'

so, points were cut off, and my fine was chopped from $135 to $50. how great is that!

does everybody know that you can do this? and the best part, is that it all took about 20 minutes, so i didn't even miss work to do it.

god bless canada.
J