Allan,
My condolences on your bad luck Allan. As they say: "There, but for the
grace of God, go I." All of us who know you, know what a "nice cooperative
guy" you are. Unfortunately, unless your a lot better lookin' than you are,
it doesn't usually help much. The last time I was cooperative I got taken
away in handcuffs. This happened quite a few years ago, but changed my
attitude about "cooperating". A group of us had rented a limo and had been
carousing for most of the evening, consuming a considerable amount of
alcohol in the early going, but I had stopped drinking for quite a while in
anticipation of driving home. So, driving the Tiger of course, I was on
Jimmy Durante Blvd. by the Del Mar Racetrack and got pulled over by a woman
Sheriff who was accompanied by a young rookie she was showing the ropes. Of
course she ran me through the usual gamut of coordination tests which,
according to her, I failed. So, on go the handcuffs, tossed in the back of
the patrol car, and off to the Vista jail. On I-5 north along comes a guy
who really was drunk so, of course, we have to pull him over too. This
means we are now parked in the emergency lane of I-5 waiting for the CHP to
show up. And now I have company in the back seat and this guy is really
drunk. After some discussion about whether it's more dangerous to have your
lights on or not, they decide to turn off the lights on our car, the theory
being that a drunk is more likely to rear-end you if you have your lights
on. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating my predicament feeling something like a
goat staked out to attract a mountain lion must feel. After a while, quite
a while, the CHP shows up and we're off again to the Vista jail. Of course,
this is all a new experience for me and I don't know quite what to expect.
After sitting around awhile, they finally get around to giving me a breath
test, which I chose as the quickest and least objectionable of the choices
they gave me. After the test I hear them say that it only shows 0.03%, so
they make me do it again. Again, it comes up 0.03%. Hey, I'm thinking,
maybe now I can get out of here. WRONG! I guess with a DUI they can hold
you no matter how low the alcohol level. So, Oboy! I get to spend the rest
of the night locked up with the rest of the group of characters they had
taken in that evening. Kind of an interesting experience, but obviously,
not one I'd care to repeat. Oh yes, the DUI was voluntarily dismissed so I
didn't even have to go to court.
On a related note, I've been thinking maybe we should try and get Tigers
over here to the Carlsbad Raceway for a little drag race action. Drag
racing isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it's convenient and maybe we could
have some fun if a few of the locals, like Mike, Don, Dick, etc. could
make it. What yah think?
Well, TTFN,
Bob
At 10:27 AM 7/17/99 -0700, Allan Connell wrote:
>Fellow Tigger Phanatics,
>
>Found an interesting article on Classic Car Insurance in this mornings San
>Diego Union Tribune, typically a worthless rag, but this is surprisingly
>informative piece. Considering the ongoing questions and debate over
>classic car insurance, I thought it might benefit the list. The URL is as
>follows:
>http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/sat/auto/news_1d17classics.html
>
>The nice thing about this article written by Dan Burger is that he took the
>time to seek out and interview a number of the classic car insurance
>specialty companies such as J.C. Taylor, American Classics and Hagerty
>Classic.
>
>Considering that I was stupid enough to get a "display of speed" ticket last
>night from an off-duty police Lieutenant here in El Cajon, I may have to
>move my insurance to one of these companies. I had to fight State Farm for
>years to finally get a classic car rate on the Tiger, now no doubt they will
>raise my rates. The outcome? I won and lost at the same time. I beat the
>"Rice Rocket" Honda soundly, and slowed when I reached the speed limit. The
>Lieutenant said he was only sorry that he did not get the plate of the gray
>Honda, who continued to accelerate. Me too. He also said he was sorry he
>had to give a ticket to such a . Me too. Who knows.
>He did a lot of whispering to the traffic cop who showed-up to write the
>actual ticket. Maybe I will be lucky and neither will show up in court.
>Maybe I have learned my lesson not to take the bait. I hope so. It was
>pretty damned stupid. Me with all my gray hair, great example Eh?
>
>Ya'll be safe out there and keep the display of speed to auto crossing and
>the drag strip. You never know when that slow late model Chevy Corsica
>contains an off duty cop. In thinking about it, you also never know when
>something unexpected might happen to ruin everyone's day, like a kid on a
>bicycle running out in front of your "display of speed" from a hidden alley.
>Sends shivers up and down my spine. Maybe I have been lucky and taught a
>lesson that will only cost me some monetary loss. I hope so.
>
>Regards,
>
>Allan
>
>BTW, to those of us in California, how many points is this likely to cost
>me??
>
>
Robert L. Palmer
UCSD, Dept. of AMES
619-822-1037 (o)
760-599-9927 (h)
rpalmer@ucsd.edu
rpalmer@cts.com
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