I see the big numbers and assume they are kilometers per hour and I never think twice until it is too late. In the last four months I lived in Al-Ain I managed somehow to rack up nine speeding tickets. On Thursday, and in forty minutes, I saw the flash five times. It was like a paparazzi nightmare and I cursed the cameras, I cursed the car, 100kp/h is only 60 mph, why is the car shaking, what a piece of crap maybe a gear is out of alignment. Something is wrong, and until I stop in traffic look closer at the speedometer and then do I see the error of my miserable ways.
I am flawed. I chalk it up to age, senility, the first time in five years I've driven, mistakes are expensive here. Tomorrow I return the 2011 Nissan Tiida and I'll tell the Indian-Omani my crime. I feel sick, I have felt sick for three days. And on top of this, today it's a sauna. Is 110 hot enough without a car? I need a car but I cannot afford any more stupidity. Stupidity is expensive. Has it been a teachable moment? I taught conditionals today and asked my students to think of as many answers to the sentence:
If you drive too fast:
police will stop you.
you will pay.
you will die.
you will arrive somewhere faster.
you may have an accident.
you might be thirsty.
That's right, I might be thirsty, especially if I'm hanging out the window.
I did remain under the posted signs for the remainder of the trip to Muscat and I hope I didn't get anymore tickets. It's strange but I really didn't want to do this and I wonder now if this was the reason for that negative attitude which blinded me from what I needed to see- another set of numbers on the speedometer. Why didn't I look for forty minutes? I told Patrick of my blunder and he laughed: Just like in Texas, huh? I think in the states police would have been all over me. And how much is a speeding ticket? Under a $1000?
I'm leaving the office a little earlier than usual today, I'll look for the utilities building to pay a bill that came to me only a week after I paid the last one. I'm assuming the last statement, which was paid at a bank that didn't send the paperwork over in time for it to be credited to my account. And then it's to Lulu's, for real cheddar, the only place in town that carries it, and a few other items not found elsewhere. And it'll be back to the grotto. Thanks be to God for air conditioning.
I am flawed. I chalk it up to age, senility, the first time in five years I've driven, mistakes are expensive here. Tomorrow I return the 2011 Nissan Tiida and I'll tell the Indian-Omani my crime. I feel sick, I have felt sick for three days. And on top of this, today it's a sauna. Is 110 hot enough without a car? I need a car but I cannot afford any more stupidity. Stupidity is expensive. Has it been a teachable moment? I taught conditionals today and asked my students to think of as many answers to the sentence:
If you drive too fast:
police will stop you.
you will pay.
you will die.
you will arrive somewhere faster.
you may have an accident.
you might be thirsty.
That's right, I might be thirsty, especially if I'm hanging out the window.
I did remain under the posted signs for the remainder of the trip to Muscat and I hope I didn't get anymore tickets. It's strange but I really didn't want to do this and I wonder now if this was the reason for that negative attitude which blinded me from what I needed to see- another set of numbers on the speedometer. Why didn't I look for forty minutes? I told Patrick of my blunder and he laughed: Just like in Texas, huh? I think in the states police would have been all over me. And how much is a speeding ticket? Under a $1000?
I'm leaving the office a little earlier than usual today, I'll look for the utilities building to pay a bill that came to me only a week after I paid the last one. I'm assuming the last statement, which was paid at a bank that didn't send the paperwork over in time for it to be credited to my account. And then it's to Lulu's, for real cheddar, the only place in town that carries it, and a few other items not found elsewhere. And it'll be back to the grotto. Thanks be to God for air conditioning.
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