I had a nice bout of insomnia last night, which made it nice that I didn't have any flights today. I was awake past 4 a.m., then up at 6 to get Kaylee up for school, which I barely remember, and then I went back to sleep for about 3 hours or so. So I'm running on a bit of fumes, but...not doing too bad for that, really.
After lunch I needed to run an errand--I needed to pay my speeding ticket deferment program fees. I pulled out my letter and my ticket, as I knew coming up shortly here it was due, and went to the bank to get the cash. As I was reading my letter, it said they were closed from 12-1 for lunch every day, and then they said they closed at 3. Well...okay. It was now 2 pm and I was in a hurry. :) When I got to the courthouse, I made sure I wasn't "carrying" anything I shouldn't take into the courthouse, and then walked in, deposited my purse through a scanner, took off my belt (grr), and passed the metal detector. I was waiting for my purse, when the lady stopped it and kept staring at it, and then called over another security officer who stood off to the side. She said "Do you have a knife in your purse?" I said, somewhat confused, "No, ma'am." Then I figured out what she was looking at, and I said "Oh, that's my Snoopy tool. A Dzus tool. You use it on airplanes. It's not a weapon, it's not sharp. I can show you." I slowly reached for my purse, and they weren't too happy about that, so I stopped and said she could reach in and take it out herself if she wished. She didn't want to do that either, so they had me take it out, which I did, and held it up, pointed out that it had smooth rounded edges and posed no threat. Next they wanted to know "what the heck do you do with that?" So I spent a few minutes explaining a dzus tool to the security folks while I put my belt back on. And I didn't get arrested or nothin'. :)
I went up to the pre-trial office, signed in, and it was different than the last time I was in the diversion program. Last time I sat down with a fellow in an office who asked me about my offense, asked me about my past, talked to me a bit, and then signed off on it. This time a lady came out, took my letter,
typed up a form, made me sign it, took me down to the Clerk's office where they took my money, gave me a receipt, and sent me on my way. It's quite a business they have going. Another lady came in to do the same thing while I was there. My letter said you had to be there 5 days before your trial date to qualify. I was there only 2 days before, but they didn't care, because they still get the money. What a racket. But now the hard part begins. I can't get a ticket for a year, or I get nailed for two and the money I just paid is forfeit, basically. I try to be good but I'm just no good at it.
Tonight I had a CAF meeting at Sheridan Airport, so I drove down for that, while Steve took Kaylee to a parent meeting for her Global DI thingy. The group of parents has to raise about $6000. You can't just pay for your own kid, either, it's a group thing, so if we put in money, for example, and the rest of the families come up short, then the remainder of the balance due is divided up amongst the parents and they have to pay an equal amount. Well, that's a bad plan. Let's say we put in $400 towards the $800 per kid they want us to raise. Then let's say other families only each put in $100 and get other people to sponsor for the rest, but we're all still $3000 short. Now every family will have to pay out an additional $350. That would mean we put in $750 and they just put in $450 towards the group. What incentive do we or any of them have to put in much money at all if the remainder is going to be divided up and required again? Anyway, so we're going to have to fundraise, and fast, because this is coming up the end of next month. Bleh.
The CAF meeting went fine. There was a retired Colonel there who flew F-86s (and everything else) who is going to be a speaker at the Warbird Expo coming up in June. He was interested by me, started asking me a lot of questions about myself. After realizing he'd seen me do a pass at Glenndale once in the T-6, he asked me if I was a member of the Quiet Birdmen. A couple of the guys got quiet, so I just smiled and said "No", and he piped up with "Oh wait, do they let women be in the QB's?" I said "No, not as members, although I believe they have exceptions for female airshow performers who are invited." That started off a conversation that was actually pretty interesting about women in the military, how it impacted the guys already in, etc... Glad I went, anyway, it was a relatively interesting evening.
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