Busted!

So I'm going to get my license taken away. The irony: I've never even had a ticket...EVER!

Here's the background. It was Wednesday afternoon and the kids had not been getting along for a couple of hours. Desperate to get them out of the house, I woke up Henry from his nap (something I never do) and headed out the door to meet some friends at a park.

It was a park I had never been to and unfortunately it took me on a road I had only driven a couple of times. When we were about 5 minutes into our drive the kids started arguing again. At this point I lost my cool and started lecturing them. I think my exact words were, "I can't believe I am taking you to the park when you are back there fighting. Maybe I should just turn around right now!" The good thing was that they actually quieted down. The bad news: I stopped paying attention to the speed limit and how fast I was driving.

Fast forward 10 days

I opened a letter and, of course, could only guess what it said because it was in French. I had to wait for Pete to confirm that, yes, I had been speeding that day and I needed to go to the police station. Not good. I guess I should mention they have cameras here that take your picture when you are speeding. Then they mail you a ticket that says how fast you were going and how much your fine is. The fact that this notice was asking me to report to a police station did not bode well.

So on Saturday the whole family hopped into the car and headed to the police station. Through my translator Pete, we discovered that I was going 57 and the speed limit was 50. Unfortunately I was going mph instead of kmph. So I was 42 over the posted limit! In Switzerland, if you are driving more than 25 over you will automatically get your license suspended for 1-3 months.....and if that isn't bad enough there is a fine. Possibly to the tune of 2000 Swiss francs. Yes, you read correctly. 2000.

So the nice policeman took down my information(including my children's names and birthdates, how much Pete makes a year, and other information that I think is totally irrelevant to my speeding) and will be sending my report to a judge who will decide my fate and mail me the ruling. He may have pity on me because I am a "stupid" American who has only lived here for 5 months and obviously doesn't know the difference between miles and kilometers. He may soften his heart because I have never had a ticket before....here or in the US. Who knows? All I can do is wait.

Before I end this ridiculously long post, I need to plead my case since I am not given the opportunity to do that here. That fateful day I was not driving as recklessly as it may seem. In Switzerland, when you drive through a town the speed limit is 50. When you leave the town, the speed limit changes to 80. When I finished getting mad at the kids I was about 1/2 mile outside of the last town I had just driven through. I came to the top of a fairly steep hill and assumed that while distracted with the kids I must have already passed the 80 speed limit sign. So I proceeded down only to discover the sign at the bottom of the hill. Had the speed limit been what I thought it was, I would have only been going 12 km over....or 7 miles over! Not to mention I never even had my foot on the gas going down the hill. I was actually braking to keep from going faster.

So last Saturday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. There were a lot of tears on my part and a lot of comforting words on Pete's part. To quote Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, "Worse? How could things get any worse? We're at the threshold of hell." My sentiments exactly.