The Streets of Bakersfield

Remember that ticket I told you about? The one I got for “failure to come to a full and complete stop” at the Garces circle? Yeah, turned out to be one of the most expensive tickets I’ve ever had. One hundred and seventy bucks. Ouch. And then because I wanted to avoid the pain of going downtown to deal with it, I paid over the phone, which meant I had to pay an additional processing fee. And then there was some other fee I had to pay to have the privilege of attending traffic school. Total amount paid - $220. (There goes my Christmas money.) It really drives me crazy because I go through that stupid circle at least a couple of times a day and I see people do the same thing I did over and over again. It’s a freakin’ circle!

On a separate but related issue, I recently discovered that people in this town drive really crazy in the early morning hours. I mean really crazy. As in, I saw a man nearly get run over this morning. I was driving past BHS on H Street near the intersection of Californian Ave. A cab was hauling ass in the lane next to me. As we got near the intersection I saw a man crossing the street wearing dark clothing. I don’t think the cab saw him because he didn’t even touch is brakes. Luckily the man looked up in time to see he was about to be run over so the literally leapt to the curb and out of the way. He barely made it. I stayed behind the cab as he continued to barrel down H Street, swearing from one lane to another. I can only hope he was on his way home and not on his way to pick someone up.

I see dark clothing walking around or jogging in the early morning. They are literally taking their lives in their own hands. People driving around at 5:30 or 6 o’clock in the morning are usually on their way to work, and evidently in hurry to get there. I drive pretty fast myself and I have a sporty little car, but I am constantly being pasted by enormous trucks gunning it from one red light to the next. Idiots. I don’t know how they afford the gas.

So let this be a warning to you; if you plan on going jogging around Bakersfield in the early morning hours, I recommend you wear one of these.