SECURITY IS ALIVE AND WELL AT OUR COUNTY JAILS

    Today I realized I had to pay my traffic ticket fine before July 1st or I would be assessed a further penalty.
The ticket I was issued came by way of the State patrol in Skagit County.
    I'm usually quite careful of speeding on the State highways in my work truck because anything over 55 miles an hour means the steering wheel tries to jerk out of my hands every time I pass a gas station.
    Anyway, when I received the ticket I had just been notified by my doctor that I required radiation for my Prostate cancer and was headed for his office to arrange for the treatments. That distraction did cause me to speed momentarily after leaving a traffic light on Highway #20.
    The patrolman would hear none of this and issued me the ticket with a look that said "drop dead".
    It was appropriate but I didn't succumb, obviously.
    I went to pay the ticket at the County bldg. on Kincaid St. but wasn't sure where to go, so as I was passing a Security guard, I asked him where I would pay it. He cordially told me to go across the street to the Jailhouse but advised me that I should lock anything metallic including my cellphone in my truck to avoid a problem at the security check. So I did, including my truck keys!! Realizing what I did
caused me to reach for my cell phone which of course wasn't there! I then went into the Licensing bureau not far from me and explained my dilemma to her and could I please call my wife on her cell phone.
    She was more than obliging except she was not allowed to call a 425 prefix and that's what my wife has. No way could she be persuaded to let me use her phone. I left and in passing another victim who had just paid his fine, I asked him if I could use his cell phone. He mercifully allowed me to. I then proceeded through security where two overzealous guards gave me the once over including a partial strip search. They asked me how much I weighed and I responded, "240 dink on the sink". I was then allowed to pay my fine.
    My wife arrived shortly thereafter with another key and my problem was finally solved.
    It seems to me that having to pass through that sort of intense security just to pay a traffic fine is a little overboard. A bulletproof drive up window would certainly be adequate, don't you think?
   Just sayin'.