You know how there's never a cop around when you need one? When some idiot makes an illegal U-turn or hits the gas to make it through a changing light, or just one too many cars slide through the left-hand turn lane after the light turns red or someone is clearly doing anything but paying attention to their driving as they barrel down the road at 60 MPH, constantly wandering onto the verge, then making sharp course corrections, in the middle of heavy traffic?

That's not always the case. There was a cop around when some drivers needed one this morning.

The third car that turned left from the side street when the traffic light was yellow-no-it's-red before they hit the intersection? There just happened to be a cop sitting there, the first guy in the left-hand turn lane on the main street. I guess he was annoyed that he had to wait or something, because he made a U-turn and nabbed the last left-turner.

As someone who has frequently been annoyed by having half a dozen cars ram through an intersection in front of me, in defiance of the traffic light telling them firmly to Stop? I was delighted.

As someone who was on their way to work after an early morning doctor's appointment and frustrated because I'd been hitting every, single light just as it turned yellow? I regret my impatience.

Yes, I am now the proud possessor of a hundred-dollar traffic ticket and two points on my license.

In retrospect, it would have been simpler to wait for the light.

It's not like I have some hard-and-fast time when I have to be at the office.

Of course, had I done that, I wouldn't have been given the knowledge that I've been driving without insurance since September. And what that's all about, I don't know. My insurance doesn't renew in September. It renews in December. How can it have expired in September?*

Fortunately, this morning's police officer was cheerful and not inclined to lock me up (yes, they do put you in jail for driving without insurance or even proof of insurance in Colorado), so I got a lecture and the ticket and sent on my way.

I drove home (very carefully), got my insurance information, drove myself (very carefully) to the light rail station, and took mass transit the rest of the way in. I called my insurance agent to ask him whattheheck is up, but I reached VM, so I have to wait for a callback.

Also? As I'm sitting there, waiting for the Nicest Possible Policeman to give me a ticket much less serious than I deserved? I'm thinking that my car looks like the car of a criminal type who should not be let off lightly. So now I'm determined to have that cracked windshield replaced and also the missing hubcap.

* I mean, how is it possible? I am an adult. Of sorts. There are some things I am casual about and some things I am not casual about, and my auto insurance comes under the totally not category.