This morning I once again drove through the terrifying hills of Seattle to take KT to work at the aquarium. (The whole time desperately wishing that I had never read this!) When we arrived at the aquarium, I pulled over along the side of the street to let her pop out as I usually do. At that ghastly time of morning, there really isn’t much traffic so blocking half a lane isn’t really a problem. If anyone ever does happen to come up behind me, they always just pull around me. This morning though, I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a that a car had chosen to wait directly behind me. My second glance revealed that this wasn’t just any car, it was a police car.
I urged KT to get out the car more quickly as I glanced around frantically looking for a “no stopping” sign or anything like that as I tried to figure out why he would just be waiting there behind me. When KT was safely inside the building, I drove off …with my new buddy right behind me. About a half a block later the dreaded flashing lights showed up in my rear view mirror. Once again, I pulled over as far as I could in an effort to not block what traffic there was.
The officer slowly walked up to my window and just glared at me as I offered him my license and insurance papers. Then as I looked back at him in bafflement, he started figuring something in his head and using his fingers counted up to four. (Yep, I scored the smart cop!) Then he finally announced to me that it had been four months.
Huh? I stared at him more intently trying to decide if I knew him from somewhere…what on earth could he have been talking about. In a very disgusted tone of voice, he spat out that it had been four months since my tabs had expired. A feeling a relief flooded over me. Not only did I finally know why I had been stopped, I knew how to fix it. I rummage in between the front seats and pulled out the envelope that I had placed there over four months ago. I opened it up and showed him my brand new license plates. (In WA plates have to be replaced ever seven years…yep, not only do I drive a MomMobile, it’s old.) I admitted to him that I had placed them in the car and then had forgotten all about them. (Well, except for all those times that I had scooted them out of the way)
I was amazed at how the officer’s manner immediately warmed up when he realized that I wasn’t exactly the common criminal he first thought I was. He kindly advised me to put the new plates on just as soon as I could so that I wouldn’t get stopped again. (I almost think he would have done it for me if either one of us had a screwdriver on us).
Now I know that if I ever plan on robbing a 7-11 to make sure that I have current tabs on my getaway car…that way they’ll go easy on me….
Today I’m thankful for…having placed those current plates in the car…even if it was months ago!
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