Flashing Lights

In my 15+ years of driving I have never been pulled over by a cop. I have always wondered what it would be like. Would I be nervous? Would I cry? Would I try and explain myself? Then it happened. I got pulled over. Just like that. And it was sort of anti-climatic.

I wasn't nervous, just curious really to see why I was getting pulled over. I knew I hadn't been speeding. I didn't cry. I did try to explain myself a little bit and stopped myself because I realized that the cop was smiling. He'd heard all this before from the hundreds of people he'd pulled over. Either that or he was trying not to laugh as I yanked and tugged at my driver's license that refused to budged. "Can I help you with that?" the officer asked. "Be my guest." I replied. It was my turn to smile as not even he could get it out. "That thing is really wedged in there." He remarked. At least it made me look less idiotic.

"The reason I pulled you over," said the officer, "is because your passenger side headlight is out." "Oh, " I said. "Well that's good because I didn't think I was speeding." Ok, so now I'm starting to look idiotic again--good that my head light is out?! He smiled and said, "No, no you weren't speeding, just the headlight is out." I found that to be rather odd since I had just left a friend's house and my headlights were both on. I know because I had to go back inside for my purse and my car was running. So in the 5 minutes it took to get from her house to the point of getting pulled over, the headlight blew out and there happened to be a cop there to spot it. And of course, he's writing me a ticket for it. "Well," I thought, fully irritated, "I can't seem to catch a break."

But actually, I did. I just wouldn't know it until later. The officer said I had 10 days to get the light fixed and return to the police station. If I did, the ticket would be taken away and I could resume my ticket free claims. The next day I dropped all my plans and took the car to the Honda dealership. I was determined to be ticket free.

When I pulled in I explained what I needed and he said sure. Then he looked at my car and said, "What you really need are 4 new tires. Yours are really bad." "Really bad?" I asked. "Yes, really bad." I sat in the waiting room with my kids and soon got the report. I needed new break pads and 4 new tires. Apparently my tread gage was 2/32 and I was down to 2 mm on my pads. Yikes. Then he gave me the estimate. Double yikes with eye balls popping out of their sockets. $650 for tires, $145 for break pads, $25 for headlight, $30 for oil change. That's a lot more to pay than the $25 repair I thought I was getting.

After debating with my husband we decided to do the break pads, head light, and oil change. We'd try to wait until March to get new tires. The Honda man was very polite and helpful. He even knocked off $4 from the oil change and $15 for the breaks. He did tell me in his nicest serious voice that I should in no way take my car to Wisconsin on those tires.

Well I did take my car to the police station on those tires. We made it and the car didn't see like its wheels were about to fall off. I relaxed. I showed the police man my light was fixed and he took my ticket. Life had returned to normal.

Then on Saturday I got in the car to take Claire to practice when I noticed a chunk of one of my tires was gone. The tire was still inflated but somehow I knew, really knew, the tires couldn't wait. So I dropped Claire off, returned home, and started researching. Finally I found Gary at Firestone who said I could get 4 tires plus labor for $415. I drove down and met Gary. An elderly gentleman wearing science experiment type glasses, Gary gave me the run down on tires. He showed me different ones and what they did. I still didn't really understand but I was grateful for him trying to explain it to me.

He asked to see my tires. I happily took him outside and showed him. "These tires are really bad!" Gary exclaimed. "Why this tire is cracking! You shouldn't be driving on these tires. You really need new tires." "That's why I'm here." I replied sheepishly. I felt like I was being scolded for not getting new tires sooner. Of course I should have inspected them, I just never thought about it. Gary and I walked back in the store and we got the process rolling. I walked over to Schnucks and grocery shopped while they put on my new tires.

When I came back they were just finishing and Gary said, "You're gonna be glad for those new tires. They're callin' for snow on Sunday." I laughed and said, "Yeah, but not as much snow as they might have in Wisconsin when I go." Gary was surprised and asked, "Oh you did not want to go to Wisconsin on those other tires. They were waiting to go and you have no traction at all." I felt scolded again and wanted to say, "I wasn't going to." but of course that's exactly what I had been planning to do. Had my light not gone out and the cop hadn't pulled me over, I would never have thought about my tires being an issue. I cringe a bit to think of the "what-could-have-happened-scenarios."

I realized that despite the hassle of coughing up the money, I indeed had caught a break. Better to fork over hundreds of dollars than to be in a wreck. So the next time I see some flashing lights in my rear view mirror I'm not going to be irritated, I'm going to simply wonder what blessing those swirling colors have in store for me.