Earlier today as I stood in front of our house and explained to my son that throwing plastic cups on the ground in front of the neighbors house (or anywhere else) is something that I consider unacceptable I was interrupted by a Pinellas County Utilities employee. When I say interrupted I mean he got out of the car and pretty much shouted, “John blah blah blah” as if he was one of my closest friends, it caught me off guard for a second.
The guy was really pretty nice aside from screaming my first name like we were best buds, that was until he informed me that the water police had come by and written a fine for my house and three other houses right around me. The citation claims that we were watering our lawns on the non-designated water day which is outside the guidelines of the current water restriction that we are still under, I say still because it’s been like 100 years now I think.
Anyway before I get down to my citation I want to chime in with some quick breaking news about Tiger Woods (you know that golf guy), the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has slapped Tiger Woods with a Careless Driving ticket. Those of you out of touch with any form of news might not be aware that Tiger Woods recently drove his SUV in to a Telephone pole for some late night fun, the news claims his wife was kicking his ass, all based on speculation that the golf master has been nailing more than just 18 holes on a golf course.
O.k, now that everyone is caught up on who’s hitting what and nailing who let’s get back to the topic at hand.
As I mentioned earlier I received a citation for watering our grass on the wrong day, the fine comes to $188 which certainly isn’t the end of the world. The crazy thing about the entire situation is that Tiger Woods Careless Driving Ticket amounts to a whopping $164, certainly a crippling amount for the club swinger, especially before the holidays.
Now it’s time for you to chime in, whats your thoughts on a careless driving ticket being less expensive than a ticket for watering your lawn on the wrong day, leave a comment and let me know what you think.
P.s. I initially didn’t even think we had the sprinkler system on, after looking at it I remembered that the sprinkler guy was just out to replace two heads that got ran over at the end of the driveway. Wonder if I should send him the bill for not putting the original program back or shutting it off….. haha.
P.s. P.s… The system was set to water on Tuesday night instead of our permitted watering day, Friday. The time frame we were watering in was correct.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Figures they’d give you a larger fine for water then for damaging property. Did you know it’s against the law to collect rain water? They act as if its theirs(state). Water is something we all need and use. Not everybody runs into things with their car. The issue is money and how many people they can hit. That’s what I think
Didn’t NWA write a song about this ? Fuck Da Water police.
What a crock of Shis-it. Who let them in the gate anyway, the neighbors that don’t wave? It’s crazy that you can get a watering ticket with no warning.
I guess thats called job security, write a bunch of fines and your job is safe.
Make today a Watered down Super Safari Day.
Law is what is enacted by the Legislature or Parliament. It may be rational or irrational. It all depends on the needs of a particular time. If water is a scarcity, the law may provide for a larger fine. Therefore, it is not necessary that law should always be rational. But, what you’ve mentioned in definitely interesting. Intention of “mens rea” also plays an important part in law. Using water against restrictions imposed by law may be treated as “intentional” (it is presumed to be intentional, even if it was in ignorance of law, since ignorance of law is no excuse), while in traffic accidents it is generally believed that there is no “intention” and that it is mere “accidental”. Perhaps this may also explain a larger fine for using water on the wrong day.
.-= Ashok´s last blog ..Download 35 free themes for Windows 7 from Microsoft =-.
Oh by the way,
Tiger should not get a ticket for wreck-less driving. He was able to get out of the driveway and half way down the street before he wrecked. Lets see any of you do that while somebody is beating in the windows of your car. Not only can the man golf but he’s one hell of a driver.
I hear that ROUSH driving is looking into being a sponsor for him next year.
Twitter: ShotOfCoffee
I’m all about conserving water and what not, but that seems like a really high price for the first infraction. Wouldn’t a warning be a good start so that a property owner knows they have a problem and can fix it?
.-= Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee´s last blog ..Daily Shot Of Coffee November Roundup =-.
Twitter: jmclary
Just goes to prove that if you are rich and famous enough, you can pretty much get away with anything.
.-= Jim Clary@article marketing´s last blog ..5 Common Mistakes You Shouldn’t Commit If You Want To Come Up With a User-friendly Website =-.
Twitter: nhaninteractive
unfortunately there are no rules nor any policies pertaining to watering of lawns here in the PH but for careless driving yes there is, but not that strict like in your country… there are times that you can bribe the traffic enforcer…. and that Su***! Our government cant do anything about it… And guess what if your are a celebrity or a government official… I am not sure if they will ever be caught…. unless theres a news media looking into it…
.-= sernan´s last blog ..Microsoft Declaring War with Google? =-.
Twitter: blogsterblogsire.com
That’s nothing. We had a guy once who almost killed another bloke by shooting him while he was delivering papers. Didn’t kill him but ended up blinding him, and what did he get? A suspended sentence with a bond under $200.
Seems to me that Tiger Wood’s fine should have been higher than yours. All in all, fines suck big time.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Wassup’s With The November’s Statistics =-.
Twitter: musicjudge
I think that’s damned ridiculous.. Not only were you watering for the correct length of time (thus not using more water than your allotted amount) but your sprinkler system going off on the wrong day is hardly going to endanger any lives.
On top of that, as you alluded to, a fine of $164 isn’t even going to be noticed by someone as affluent as Tiger Woods! It’s harldy worth the effort of nailing him with the fine, aside from the badf publicity in it for him. Pathetic.
It’s kinda like in South Africa.. A few years ago (before they corrected the problem) the fine for not having a TV lisence (yes, we have to have lisences to own TVs even if we don’t watch them) was actually less money than bail for being a murder suspect.
Thus the joke was that if a lisence inspecor came to your door and you didn’t have a tv lisence, it would be cheaper to kill the inspector than to pay the fine
.-= Hard Rocking South African@Music Judge´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Twitter: BlazingMinds
The Water Police! Oh that’s just crazy
Luckily here in the UK we don’t have that problem, it’s always raining! I mean yes it is wise to save water, but some of these departments just take everything that little bit too far!
.-= Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Who’s the Band – Lethality Scale =-.
Twitter: zxxxt
That’s really ridiculous John. I hope they demolish the water police. I don’t think they’re still needed nowadays.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube =-.
Are your English Bulldogs allowed to piss on the grass on non-watering days? Better watch them John, I doubt they have $188 to pay their fine.
I guess you are not a big enough celebrity to warrant special treatment.
.-= Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Nov 29, Santa’s Workshop by Norman Rockwell from 12/14/1922 Clintonville Gazette =-.
Twitter: FamousBloggers
oh John, I didn’t get any tickets yet from any department, maybe because I am behind my laptop all day and night
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..$1000 for The Best of the Best Famous Bloggers Contest =-.
Twitter: onesuite
The watering police. Whats their headquarters called? Watering hole?
.-= MichaelR´s last blog ..Make Your Calls Follow You Worldwide =-.
Twitter: alan_neville
What makes me mad is the type of people who sign up for these dumbass jobs. You can’t be normal and go around and get under people’s skin to make money for the city who spends it on useless jobs like this. Remember that animal, the BTK killer, who used to give citations after measuring people’s grass height? He enjoyed hassling people.
wow i really like its so nice and great site.
.-= driveway estate gates´s last blog ..Privacy Screen Nice Addition to Thistledown Racetrack =-.
Hi John, it looks like you love your garden and certainly hate those people who seem to interrupt. They might not just be raising funds but to make people realize what actually a resource water is, which we should have been aware of.
Peter@leak detection Dublin´s last [type] ..Leak Detection | Water leak Detection | Dublin | Ireland | Indepth.ie
Twitter: extremejohn
Very true Peter, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
{ 2 trackbacks }