Staying respectable

The first fall colors are showing up in the north.

Nothing much yet--just a sudden flash or red or yellow in a sea of greens, every few miles--but it's there.

Nice to see. Not as pleasant to contemplate, in certain moods. Winter is beautiful, but if you have to live through it...

I was stopped by a state trooper in the predawn hours. Just a random check of my paperwork--Commercial Driver's License, truck registration, Bills of Lading, and so on. He gave me a warning about some lights that were out on my trailer--but only a warning. All in all, it could have been worse.

Ten or eleven hours later I delivered my load, more than five hundred miles from where I woke up. (I may have stopped at a couple of rest areas on the way. I'm not sure.) While the gentleman out in the warehouse was exercising his forklift, I was chatting with his supervisor in the receiving office. I mentioned the routine license check, and he grinned.

"Random, huh?" he said.

Seems they have a state police post just down the road, and he sees LOTS of routine traffic stops. And a large number of them end with someone spread-eagled on the fender while the troopers pull bags of white powder out of odd places in the car.

He had a friend in the State Police, and once he asked his friend how they decide which routine stop deserves more attention. I won't bore you (and educate drugrunners) with the details he mentioned, but it gave me a greater appreciation for the 'AMERICA'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS" books I picked up over the years.

I suppose it makes sense. Breaking the law to turn a quick buck may not require stupidity, but it probably does attract the lazy--including the ones who don't want to work their brains too hard. The criminal equivalent of those people who don't mind helping someone in Nigeria launder his money for a commission.

Not me. Honest, smart, and poor, that's what I am.

Pulled out of the warehouse, ran a few miles down the road, and got the running lights fixed. Just a fuse, it turned out.

Glad of that. I can't afford a fine. And for all I know, they look for truckers too lazy to keep their trucks up, the way they look for cars driven by people too lazy to look like legit travelers. Having my trailer roof peeled back by people looking for foreign substances might slow me down a bit...