power-chair mama

I took out my old power-chair the other day to take a nice spring test drive. Wow, what a feeling. the wind blowing in my hair, traveling along at a good, steady clip.. Imagine my surprise when these cars are all backed up behind me honking and cat calling out their windows at me. Seems my good, steady clip was not quite fast enough for the vehicles behind me. They did not think I should be traveling down the road in traffic. What the....???? 





My feeling is, I am a licensed driver....so what if my license expired when I began losing my vision when the cataracts began to grow over these poor old eyes....oh...wait...that didn't happen to me,,,,that was an old friend of mine. Oh yeah, I remember now, I do still have my license.



So...I'm driving along when suddenly I see tiny flashes of colored lights out of the sides of my eyes. Suddenly sirens begin to screech their warning call warning me to pull my vehicle over. 





So, I being the dutiful citizen that I am...extend my left arm outward, with the lower portion pointed upward indicating a right hand turn, so that I can pull over to the side of the road. (I have intended to put turn signals and lights on my chair, but have not yet accomplished that goal. So, I must rely on the old fashion form of hand signals, from my bicycle days when I was a child. 





I glance over my shoulder and see the officer has also pulled over and is walking up behind me, with his hand on the butt of his gun. GOOD GOD, I think to myself....is he going to shoot me for driving in traffic in my powerchair? You should know I have had my chair souped up so it is all that it can be...but 15 mph is about top end for it and me. Almost simultaneously as I glance over my shoulder to see the approaching officer a long, long line of cars begin to wind their way around us gathering momentum as they went. Out of the window of each and every car, I saw arms extended....some with fists tightly balled together, shaking convulsively in my direction....others with hands and middle fingers extended aggressively.What the heck? Are they saluting the American flag attached to the back corner of my chair, I asked myself? 



NOPE...the drivers are just plain mad cus I slowed traffic from it's normal flow, and interfered briefly in the steady flow of traffic.



As I said, the officer continues his approach and instructs me to stay in my vehicle and to give him my license. I reach for the glove box, (a little box on the back of my chair that I keep my gloves in) to retrieve said license. The officer growls and orders me to keep my hands on the wheel....oops, on the joy stick on the arms of the chair. 







How the heck am I suppose to give you my license then, I asked him. He grudgingly allows me to reach one handed behind me to retrieve my errant permission to operate a motor vehicle. Good heavens, the man must think I am a contortionist...to keep one hand on the joy stick and reach behind me for my license. 







Once obtained, I obligingly hand the license over. Then, he wants my insurance???? Insurance???? I ask. I do not have my wheel chair insured except for in the case of theft. And that being part and parcel of my homeowners insurance. 



 

Operating a motor vehicle without insurance is against the law, the officer informed me sternly.



I mentally searched my limited resources...how to satisfy his request and present the required proof. 



When it dawned on me....that the required proof was easily within my grasp. 







  All I had to do.... 







was toot my little horn on my power chair.... 







And have my kids bring it from the house....as I was no farther down the road, then the end of my driveway.....



Whadda ya expect from a power-chair mama, anyway????