Rodent Regatta

A ranking of high schools was discovered by Steven Vore. Searching the list I discovered that my high school alma mater is #353 on the list.

Use the search feature and notice how well Bellevue, WA schools placed. Interesting.

So, the ticket I got yesterday was bothering me so badly that I decided to try to deal with it today. Through the ink smudges and water stains on the ticket I found and called the number I was told to call. Here’s how that went at 8:35a.m. this morning:

• Them: Memphis (unintelligible)...please hol’
• Me: (wait 15 minutes and hang up)

Now it’s time to go to one of the four precinct offices mentioned on the ticket. They are open from 8:00a.m. until 4:30p.m. five days a week according to the back of the ticket. According to the handwritten sign inside the precinct, you can pay tickets any time between 8:00a.m. and 6:00p.m.

At 2:20p.m. the counter where you pay tickets has a ”we’re away sign that says they’ll return at 3:00p.m.” The person who was away was sitting behind a different counter approximately five feet from the one I was supposed to use. She said she’d ”return” at 3:00p.m.

Stay tuned for an update after my third attempt to deal with this!

• * * UPDATE * * * 4:50p.m. Friday afternoon: $39.00 was the fine. No way that $39.00 covered the officer’s time at my car, followed by the ticket processing time, followed by the clerk’s time at the police precinct followed by the cost of processing the receipt of funds. Hey, but sound economics is not what The Law is all about, is it?

Let me say I respect law enforcement. I also disrespect bureaucracy, those that foster it and those that exist within it without attempting to fix it.

I didn’t have my seatbelt fastened. It’s fine that I get a ticket for breaking a law. I don’t think the law should exist, but that’s not for the me and the policeman to decide. What I resent is being told there is a fine, when in reality, the punishment for my offense is a fine accompanied by a significant runaround courtesy of the Memphis Police Department.

I’m searching the U.S. Constitution looking for where it says I need to be protected from myself. I’m happy to fund an Abrams or a Bradley or two. I’m thrilled when we can track down Al Qaeda and rid the world of a menace.

Where does it say that I can’t be stupid? If I elect to ride alone in an automobile without my seatbelt fastened, where’s the harm? Why does the government need credit for saving my life?

Ok, yeah, I got a ticket. Eight police cars at a 4-way stop. At least 12 policemen walking in the middle of the street. Now I understand part of the reason for the corruption in Memphis and Shelby County. Faced with choices about ticketing lone drivers for not having on a seatbelt or cleaning up government abuses, our officials have made it clear where they stand.

I was wrong. I should have had my belt on. This country doesn’t need a law that says I should be ticketed when I don’t. Some laws are asinine.

Jackson, TN was hit by a tornado again last night.

Storms delayed school openings in the Nashville area.

Kansas and Missouri were thought to be the hardest hit until this morning when the death toll in Madison County began to climb.

Memphis got almost 4 inches of rainfall last Friday. Annually, the city gets about 50 inches or so of rainfall. However, Memphis typically gets that rainfall from several very large rains spanning several days throughout the year.

Contrast that with Seattle, WA which gets annual rainfall of around 36 inches. However, that rainfall accumulates from many days of a seaside drizzle and mist that takes much longer to accumulate. That’s the reason everyone thinks Seattle is so rainy.

All it takes is a single day with 3 or more inches of rainfall and you begin to understand how the statistics can be misleading.