Spray paint and flashing lights.

This week hasn't been a good week for me or my  Jeep. I went to visit a friend in the Sliver Valley here in Northern Idaho. She is one of my best friends and I love heading over to visit her. What I don't like is that she and her parents live in a dying valley. By dying I mean that most of the mines are in ruins and unsafe, have shut down due to accidents, and most people have moved away from what was once full of booming mining towns. (Someday, in the fall when it's pretty, I will take pictures.)

What's left are elderly, those that work for the highway, a few miners, and their families. However, the Sliver Valley has also become haven for druggies. There's a lot meth. Also there's not a lot of the kids to do so most of them are out having sex in middle and high school. Oh and did I mention the inbreeding? Oh yes, there is a lot of that going on and I've heard that from people who used to live there and people who used to work there. Did I also mention that there used to be a pretty heavy KKK movement in that valley. There are still some remnants left. I generally try to stay away from most people I run into down there because I typically get a weird vibe off them. They are very tight-nit and you definitely get the feeling that they don't like strangers. Not to mention that the valley itself is far to quite and eerie. There's been a lot of tragedy and death there.

But on to my point and why I am so upset with the people there sans my friend and her parents. Some shit head kid or kids didn't have enough intelligence to find something better to do and decided that spray painting cars and buildings would be fun. Mt friend's parents truck, my jeep, a neighbor's RV, the health building across the street, ad the Stop sign were all hit. Oh and to prove their lack of intelligence, who ever did the tagging, sprayed 'go' on the Stop sign. Wow, really? You couldn't come up with something other than 'go'. Nothing clever?

The Police had already come out and taken pictures before I'd gotten up for the day, not that I hold out much hope since the police aren't very effective down there. My friend's Mom pretty much refused to let me help her take the spray paint off my car. I guess she had something to help remove it. Most of it is gone and you have to get up close to see the tiny hints of it. I need to come up with something to thank her for taking care of it for me.

Now today, on the way to the library, I got pulled over. I was just about to the library on a road I don't often take but I'd gone to get coffee. Of course I'd forgotten that the speed limit changes half way from the coffee shop to the library. I was doing 36 MPH in a 25 MPH zone (I thought it was a 35 MPH zone). So, I got a ticket, or rather I have two options, both of which are expensive. I can either go to the police station and sign up for a driving course that will take 3-4 hours and the traffic violation won't how up on my driving record. Or, I can skip the driving course and just pay the ticket and have it go on my record. Since this is my first ticket (minus a 'fix it' ticket for my tail lights a few years ago), I am very interested in the class. Also the class is 75 bucks vs the 90 for the ticket. Still, I am really upset that I even got a speeding ticket. I am usually much more attentive.