There is nothing quite so crippling than not having your personal transportation in the greater Phoenix area. It is so spread out that walking anywhere is out of the question, cab rides are astronomical as everywhere you need to go is at least 20 miles away, and the public transportation system is a myth.
My car was impounded for 30 days right after the incident. How in the blue fuck was I going to get to work? Fortunately, one of my good friends, we’ll call Danny, came to my rescue. He toted me to work and back for a few days, and to my shrink appointments. Then I got to know what is called the Valley Metro. I live in Scottsdale, where, oddly enough, busses run. After all, Mrs. Drysdale’s maid needs a way to get to work.
I mapped out the bus route from my apartment to work and it looked simple enough. I work in retail and therefore the hours are all over the place. My schedule is rarely the same day to day. The bus service is still very limited and the busses only come every 30 minutes, unlike cities with real public transport where they are along every 10 minutes. My nearest bus stop to catch the bus was about ¼ mile from my apartment. Not too bad. But the schedules either would put me at work wildly early, or 10 minutes late. Just going to work became an ordeal. Plus, I didn’t really want to let on at work what I was going through, out of embarrassment. I confided in a couple of people, the guy who did the schedules, we’ll call Ned, and one other, we’ll call Brett. Ned was very understanding and was merciful with the schedule, as getting to work was easy, getting home not so much as the busses stopped pretty early. So if I closed at say, 10pm, I would not get home till close to midnight. Then the closest the bus would come to my place was about a mile away. So I would have to hoof it at night across freeways and through dark parking lots to get home. I was almost hit by cars driven by stupid people a half dozen times. Here I was with the impounded car and these ass-clowns driving like maniacs chatting on phones or texting or just being brain-dead out and about free to drive wherever they wanted.
Don't get me started on the bus drivers. They are stupid, or mean, or both, or can't drive. I would pull the stop cord and they would whoosh past my stop! I'd stand up and ask them to please stop then they would yell at me that I should have pulled the cord. Or, once I was waiting at the stop as I was supposed to and the bus just whipped past me without stopping. I needed a special complaint line all my own to call in, which I did frequently to log complaints about their stupid incompetant drivers. Valley Metro is as bad as they are because they have no competition. They don't have to try harder, they are all there is and you really have no choice. No wonder there are so many drivers out there driving on suspended licenses, you really are forced into it. As for me, I held out and dealt with it. I did not want to temp fate and drive risking more jail time and fines.
That went on for 30 days. As soon as I got my car out of impound ($480) I got a notice from the intellectual gladiators at the MVD that my license was hereby suspended for no less than 90 days! Great. But, I can understand that. Mine was a vehicular violation and there should be consequences involving your car or license. I can accept this as it does make sense to have your driving privileges curtailed for a period of time as a punishment. The ignition interlock on a first offense, and for a YEAR!? That is harassment.
This first notice from the MVD stated I had to have alcohol treatment, so I looked up a center near work and signed up. As fate would have it, I met the receptionist for the treatment center at a bus stop one evening on the way home from work. I rather enjoyed the classes. I had to go for 36 hours, and I must say, it was great. It wasn’t punishment for me, it was a great way to socialize and learn things. I learned how to work the system to my favor, hear other people’s horror stories and get a better idea on what was in store. I signed up as soon as I got the notice, but a lot of the people in there had already been through everything, court, jail, ignition interlock and they saved the classes for last. I was glad I started them before anything else, or I would have been in the hurt locker of ignorance.
The classes were three hour blocks, and you could go whenever your schedule permitted. I knocked out the whole thing in about three weeks. I attended two Saturday sessions that were all day and they took care of a lot of the hours. I heard so many stories, some to be believed, some not so much. Like I heard about how the police can arrest you for a DUI even if you aren’t in your car, but near it with the keys handy. For instance, you’re washing your car in your driveway on a hot Saturday afternoon, blowing the froth off a cold one as you work (having a beer). The keys are in the ignition of the car. Technically, you can get a DUI for intent. The same if you are taking a taxi home from a bar and you pop into your car to get a jacket or something before getting into the cab. You can be arrested for intent. Now, I never actually met anyone who got their DUI from something like that, so I am inclined to believe that cops can’t be bothered trawling residential neighborhoods on sunny weekend days looking for people washing their car with a beer buzz on. The circumstances I heard were that, no the guy wasn’t driving his car; he was passed out in it after driving it up on to a curb at 2am. The people who were in there on what is called public intoxication weren’t arrested while teetering outside the bar quietly awaiting their taxi, they were passed out on the street, or picked a fight with the cop who asked them what they were up to that evening. So the stories about getting a DUI while you were at home watching a ball game and having a cocktail with your car keys sitting on the counter, the cops bursting in arresting you for intent out of the blue? I don’t so much believe. The defendants were always up to truly illegal mischief. I know I was.
Next - Sentencing
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