Natalie’s Very Bad Day

I recently wrote about Zed having a bad day when he recently lost a toenail and I had to take him to the vet for emergency surgery.

The post was called: Zed’s Very Bad Day.

At the time, I thought that would be the end of posts about unfortunate happenings within our family, but then I remembered that Natalie lives here now and it is starting to become commonplace for something not so good to be happening. Let me tell you a little story….

It all started this last Thursday when Natalie was on her way home from her Bold class in Kohler. As she was driving home she called me to tell me about her day and make plans for the rest of the evening. During our conversation, she noticed that a Kohler police car did a quick U-turn behind her and started tailing her. She stated that she had to hang up because he was pulling her over. I quickly asked why, but she clicked off, and I was left puzzled about the nature of the stop. After hearing nothing from her for a while, I eventually texted her to ask what was going on and ensure she was OK. She was also supposed to be picking up the dogs from daycare, and it was getting close to closing time, so I was a little worried about her making it there on time.

Here’s what I received from her:

At this point, I was extremely puzzled by her response. I’ve been driving for 38 years and felt like I had a solid grasp of the most common and even the more obsolete driving laws in the United States, but I had NEVER heard of running a YIELD sign. Failing to yield I know, but I also know Kohler well and just couldn’t picture how she would have broken a law having to do with YIELD signs because there simply aren’t that many along the route she would be taking to get home. As you can see I even questioned her about it in the text. While waiting for her response I decided to look up the Wisconsin Motorists Handbook from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation on my phone so I could better understand this obscure law I had evidently overlooked all these years. The last thing I wanted was to be pulled over someday for running a YIELD sign so I figured I would prepare myself and fully understand the law in order to never suffer an embarrassing traffic stop for running a YIELD sign. For some reason, I didn’t find the answer I was looking for.

I eventually headed out to pick up the dogs and continued contemplating running YIELD signs in my mind as I was driving. I got another call from her explaining that she luckily got off with a warning for running the YIELD sign and was on her way home. I arrived home a few minutes later and asked to see the warning citation she received. Below is a picture I took.

Now I don’t know how to best explain this, but the entire time that Natalie was telling me about her infraction, she legitimately believed that she ran a yield sign, which then leads to a broader question. Does she really believe STOP signs are YIELD signs? After many years of sitting in the passenger seat while she drives (she nearly always forbids me from being the driver) I suddenly realized that Natalie must believe those red octagon signs bearing the letters S-T-O and P seen on many street corners throughout our state and country are simply YIELD signs that your allowed to slowly drive right on through. This further explains why she infrequently stops at any of them to my continual amazement. It’s even more surprising that this is the second time this year that she has been pulled over for “running a YIELD” sign only to be given a warning both times. What crazy good luck she has!

We decided to celebrate her “non-ticket” at a local pub and I attempted to provide some remedial education on the differences between a STOP and YIELD sign. I’m not certain it helped. We eventually made our way to a nearby empty dive bar for a quick beer before heading home for the night. At the end of the day her very bad day turned out to be not so bad after all.