Our day in Court

Living in the mountains we burn our wood burning stove all winter long. Mike likes to get his permit every year and get out in the woods with his chainsaw bringing in the wood to keep us warm. Men and power tools (i.e.chainsaws) is adrenaline pumping good clean fun! Until...Mike recently got in trouble with the forest service for chopping down a dead tree - a federal offense. He had thought the law stated "dead or down" trees but it was dead AND down trees. So off to court we go. Thankfully the court was lenient and Mike received a $75 fine and court fees of $35. A total of $110. Ahhh! We both breathed a sigh of relief on that one!

After we left the courthouse we happily headed to our car where I noticed something sticking under the windshield...and you guessed it, a ticket! We were parked in a handicap space and my handicap placard had expired 3 days before! The ticket was for $360! Good grief! We headed over to the office that had issued the ticket and pleaded our case. I thought it was good through the end of October! An honest mistake on my part so we wanted to try and see if we could get a lesser sentence. We will find out in 2 to 3 weeks what the verdict is.

I told my sisters, Mike and I try our best to stay on the right side of the law but here we were in one day dealing with two offenses. Who were we Bonnie and Clyde? My sister, Marcia said, and I quote: So let me get this straight....you are envisioning that Bonnie and Clyde would have gotten OLD enough to even want to cut down a DEAD tree and then get CAUGHT chopping down said dead tree and that Bonnie would have WANTED to go to the courthouse with senior Clyde where she gets CAUGHT with an expired HANDICAPPED sticker in the getaway car...

Well put it that way I guess we are still good law abiding citizens who are enjoying the warmth of a nice wood fire while our 'getaway car' is safely parked in the driveway in full view (minus the handicap placard of course!).