There were times in my youth when I drove like a maniac and got the tickets I deserved for it. Because I was driving a hot-rodded Japanese car at the time, I also often got grief even when I didn't deserve it. I grew a bit jaded about law enforcement, specifically the few traffic cops that hassle folks regardless of whether or not they're doing anything illegal.
Recently, I've noticed more and more that there's a flip side to the experience. It's now been many years since I've had a ticket for anything, I rarely speed, and if anything, I'm pushing the car (a Hybrid Civic, the gas-electric kind, not the transplanted B16 kind) to see how many miles per gallon I can get rather than how many many miles per hour I can get.
Tonight, I got pulled over while making an illegal right turn from the left lane of a two lane street. It was in the middle of nowhere, I was at a full stop at a red light, and there was one car behind me. I had ended up in the wrong lane due to bad lighting of sign indicating the street where my my wife's new mac mini was waiting at FedEx. It was bad luck that the cop happened to be pulling up just at the moment that I realized I should be in the right lane and decided to execute what I judged to be a safe lane change.
So, we talked a bit about what I did. I told him where I was headed. He pointed out that a lot of people get in accidents doing what I just did. I acknowledged that was true. He went to his cruiser, presumably checked out my record, came back and let me off with what he called an "advisory". I don't know if this means he made a mark in my record, but essentially, he let me go with a warning. This is the second or third time in a row (over the course of a few years) now that I've had this kind of experience.
I think I'm getting past my jadedness.
