What keeps you up at night?

[Chip]

i understand the question, lately i worry about driving these days since the proliferation of Red Light and Speed cameras, in so many different speed zones and times.

another culprit is oversleeping into the daytime.

[Griffin]

I am doing the same thing johnnyreb, its not trig it's the one before, but my math is shit because all of my math and science teachers growing up were coaches who didn't know anything about math or science. They got the job for their coaching ability.

[QueensVet (OP)]

Haha I actually did the same, I failed stat twice after like 6 years no math. Get a tutor, the college can provide for free, but that was my major fall. I went in knowing I suck at math, knowing I need tutoring, but never made that walk to the math lab smh.

[candy]

Math, not my strongest subject.  Just finished homeschooling my kid today and he graduates on 6/22.
Whew, what an adventure that was. I don't know how parents do it with more than one kid.

Good luck with your math class Jonnyreb. Are you still in SoCal?

@Griffin, I really don't even want to contact my sister at all if I don't have to. My family isn't too supportive of one another and after my dad died, it only got worse. They are like vampires, suck the life right out of you. I hate the gossip and my mom can't keep anything to herself.
I am learning that I am just happier not having any contact with them at all.  I have my kids and my s/o. They are like my 3 amigos.

@QueensVet, writing is a great outlet. Not sure how much support and counseling the VA offers, but I have heard they could be doing more. Guess there isn't enough funding?

[DeadCat]

i understand the question, lately i worry about driving these days since the proliferation of Red Light and Speed cameras, in so many different speed zones and times.

another culprit is oversleeping into the daytime.

I used to love to drive. I'd take road trips at the drop of a hat.I had a 1972 Buick Centurion convertible that I drove cross-country more than once. It was always a gas, and a chick magnet. Now I go through checklist: have I had any drugs, prescribed or not that ould get me in trouble in the last couple of days? Is my car completely up to date on pperwork and empty of anything reotely incriminating, would it pass a state sticker inspection? It's just no fun anymore.

This all began (for me) coming out of Las Vegas. I had been up all night packing and left the minute I ws done. Not long after crosing the Arizona border because I drifted over the lane line (on a highway, not into ncoming traffic). Now that very old biddy has a cell phone they can't wait to call 911 to report everyone else's mistakes and after a while there was  cop car waiting to follow ME and eventually pull over.

I had done a couple bumps of coacine while packing but had finished it all long before driving, took my buprenorphine and a Xanax. I wasn't tired when I started but a few hours in the desert, on striaght flat, boring roads I was getting very sleepy. At this point I had NO IDEA that any trace amounts of prescritption drugs can incriminate you for A DUI as long as it shows metabolites of it being proocessed by your sister or the substance itself, which can last days after its being active.


Before I knew it I was getting a blood test, cops had a tow yard take my car from to a tow yard and I was dropped of at a hotel not officilly charged, just  in case I was just tired since the test would take months and they couldn't hold me for months waiting for a test that may show I was actually clean. 7 or 8 months later I got a letter saying I had tested positive for cocaine and alprazolam and I was being charged with DUI (and something else related) and I needed to be in court in Arizona in 2 weeks.

At that point I was in Mnnesota and was not going to AZ to face a trial while being unable to drive while the case was pending. Ultimately I pled guilty to a simple DUI which was break because a drug DUI in AZ meand rehab in lockup I think. Although, it meant a 10 day sentence with 24 hours mandatory in lockup. a $1700 cine, $200 for a shitty public defender, 1 year with an in-car intocalock, a class or two, increased insurance and amandatory 6 month supension IF I took the classes, 9 months to a year if i didn't. Then MN made me pay $800 and retake a harder written test to get my MN DL back.

After that incident, everything changed for me when driving. I started getting pulled over all the time and questioned. I was charged again for DUI for traces of presribed lorazapam but basically beat that and again in Massachusetts with no drug test and got it dismissed in court but the DMV there treated it as a guilty finding because it wasnd a not guilty, it was just dismissed after a probation period.It didn't duspend my MN license but to get my riht to drive back in MA I wil have to have an Intoxaock for 2 years or I cant drive there.

I think the difference now is the cops can either type in your car's plate number and the owner's entire record popss upand being cops they assumy you MUST be up to something. Add to that th camaras that read your plates and feed them into the computer and the cops now has veryone they pass and tail has their rap sheed spit out immediately. Plus I think they are now being trained to "hunt" ordinary people who unwittingly make mistakes and then making them criminals.

So yeah driving has changed. You get that one offense and it snowballs into bing stopped all the time and all of a sudden the cops are trying to find away to arrest you. Soon it won't just be when you are driving. They will have hand held camaras with facial recognition software doing the same thing to pedestrians.

If you are 40 or more you grew up ina different country. If you are younger you probably never really knew waht it was like to be private and free. There is NOTHING anymore to stop us from becoming a full-on police state.