One of those days... was today

Every time I go to the post office to check my mailbox I take the back roads to get home, mainly to avoid rush hour traffic on Route 101A. Also because there are some residential neighborhoods in that section of Nashua that have absolutely gorgeous houses, which I love to oogle at and wish that I could afford to buy one. Some day, perhaps.

More to the point. One of these neighborhoods that I traverse frequently has an intersection with a four way stop sign. There is never any significant traffic here, so I usually do one of those rolling stop and tap the breaks kind of thing through the intersection. I always think to myself that one of these days I'm going to get pulled over by the police for not stopping properly. Well, today was that day. As soon as I went through the intersection in the customary manner, I hear the siren and see the blue lights of an unmarked police car pull up behind me. Oh, great, I'm thinking. Just what I need.

The officer comes to my window and asks me if I knew why he stopped me. I told him I did and I gave him the reason. He then asked me where I was going. So I told him. He then told me that they had been monitoring that intersection for the last four days and everyone they pulled over failed to stop at that intersection and that most people, as I do, use that neighborhood as a cut through. He also told me that the residents have complained about people like me not stopping properly. I gave him my license and registration and so he could go back to his car and write me up. Five or so minutes later he hands me a ticket for $100.00!!! Ouch! Like I just have extra Benjamins lying around. Very painful to the budget conscious.

I must have gone through that intersection hundreds of times improperly over the last 9+ years. So I've gotta look at it like a $1.00 fine for the last hundred times I've driven through there illegally. But I tell you, I'd rather be pulled over 100 times and fined $1.00 each time than once at $100.00!

If there is a bright spot to the whole thing - I have 30 days in which to mail my fine. And I'll be using most of them. Believe you me.

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On another unrelated note: Our main customer at work is coming for a visit at the end of the month and the owner of my company wants to make a good impression for them. I was talking to my boss about the visit and he told me how badly the landscaping has bcome. I had to agree with him.

So I left with him the next week one of my brother's business cards. Actually I left the owner with one, my boss with one and the HR manager with one. My brother owns a landscaping company called Capital Lawn Works. So last Thursday he came out and met with my boss' assistant (she wears so many hats that I don't know what her actual job title is) to give an estimate for the proposed work. Friday the estimate was accepted by the owner, and for the last two days my brother and his crew have been meticulously cleaning up the property. Wow!! Let me tell you - everyone paid me compliments for the job he and his guys did. And I know that the front office people told him they did a great job too. I told them from the beginning that he would do a good job and I was right.
They're even considering hiring him for the winter to plow the parking lot during snowstorms.

Now I have to talk my brother into throwing a bit of commission my way for getting him the work.... We'll see how that goes....