I get pulled over at 4:50 am by the cops

When you get older sometimes your mind isn't as good as it once was. Sadly my girlfriends mother has been acting a bit strange lately. No sleep, up all the time, stating she can see people that don't exist, hears strange noises, claims the blankets are wet (they aren't), etc. So after 3 solid months of this we cracked because of no sleep. We took her into emergency and asked the doctors to run tests. So far they believe it's stress and also maybe early stage Alzheimers disease. I feel pretty bad because she doesn't know she's doing this half the time. It can be stressful for everyone because if she can't sleep then you won't sleep.


So one night this week after going to the hospital I was driving home, it was close to 4:50 in the morning. Going up Bayer's road in Halifax, the speed limit is 50 km/hour. I think I was going a bit quick - maybe 60 km/hour. Not too fast. The road is artificially low for speed limits anyway. It should really be 80 km/hour all the way up that street.

So anyway behind me a cop car lights up and I pull over. I knew it. He came up to the car and asked me if I was drinking. I said "No officer...I'm stone cold sober". He believed me (I was) and asked if I knew I was speeding. I admitted it and apologized. Honestly, I'm not going to argue with someone at 4:50 in the morning. All I wanted to do was go to bed that night. He let me off with a warning. Usually speeding tickets start at $175 so I made off easy.

I still believe the sole purpose of speeding tickets is to fund the police organization. In Calgary it's known that police officers all have ticket quotas of the month. If you don't make your quota, you'll never get promoted. So my advice when getting pulled over by a police officer? Don't be rude, be nice, and take a chill pill. If you give him/her attitude it will only encourage that person to write you an expensive ticket.

Speaking of odd. A friend of mine got pulled over by the RCMP recently. He was speeding and doing burnouts in his jeep. I have no idea how he got off with a warning. But I'll say this: Instead of a ticket, the officer actually gave him his card and asked him if ever he went out fishing or wanted to have a beer, to call him. I really believe this guy was trying to pick up my colleague ! Awkward moment !!