Off By One

So, I’ve returned, both to the province and to writing things on this much-ignored online scratchpad. All for you, I swear! If only people would talk back

Anyway, the week has been pretty eventful. Beau and I took off tuesday for a six-day disc golf tour of southern British Columbia. This is something we’ve had planned for a fair while, with a general plan of heading to Pender Island, a course which Beau really enjoyed when he still lived on Vancouver Island.

We managed, variously, to see more speed traps than I have seen in all of my travels in BC combined before now, get caught in one, play about 120 holes of golf, including some of the roughest terrain I’ve ever played on (this was Pender) and some of the most enjoyable (Fallow Ridge, which is a private course with chalets, a club house, and freakin’ hanging robots!).

On the way, we hung out with Simon, saw Benny Benassi at the Plush nightclub, which happens to be the same location as the Rage, where Beau and I saw KMFDM some nine years ago, an epic experience in and of itself.

Did the Hell’s Gate tram, which helped to wash away some horrible memories for Beau, which I will not go into here, mainly because he doesn’t read this and therefore could not rebut

It’s good to be home.

Well, that was bullshit.

All in all, a great new year’s eve - a glass of port, a lot of talking with Char, Mel, and Simon, and a leisurely drive home.

Or not.

More like a drive home interrupted by the first cop i’ve ever encountered who actually fit the “i intend to give you a ticket for something ” stereotype. In addition to the two things that he ended up citing me for, he threatened A) a DUI charge, B) a citation for having my license plate covered by snow a full three hours after the first snowfall in weeks, C) speeding (for going a hair under 50 km/h, but having the misfortune to hit some black ice that almost (but not quite - i stopped in time) caused me to slide through a four-way stop.

Then, he nailed me for not wearing a broken seatbelt and for failing to have up to date insurance. The latter charge i can’t dispute, regrettably - i have the insurance paper, although i’m not sure where it is, but i didn’t have it with me, and apparently that’s worth $172. The seatbelt thing, well, Char will say i should have been using the middle belt, and so did he, but when i do the shoulder belt sits across my neck somewhat, which makes me uncomfortable. So i choose not to use it. So, my choice here was, “Well, wear it, or i’ll have your truck towed,” which was, to say the least, a wonderful capper to my first experience with EPS from this end of the stick.

In general i have a high opinion of cops, they do a shitty job and receive little appreciation for it. But christ. There have got to be better things he could have been doing.