I'm going on "vacation" for a few months

[BengalszoneBilly]

As of today I'm leaving to settle a little debt with the State of Arizona over a D.U.I. matter. I'll no longer have internet access, (no duh!) but I shall return in a little over three months. Just in time for the Bengals football season kicks off for real!

Until then...Via Con Dio's Mi Amigos!

BTW...if you can avoid drinking and driving, please, by all means do so. This isn't too bad, but it still sucks!

[rwalling]

Fast forward 3 months...

1) Brat still doesn't need or want a pass catching TE

2) Carson is still on schedule to start opening week

3) Spain and Ricky Williams have moved to Toronto to enjoy Canada's national drug program

4) The Reds are still fun too watch

5) We will all be happy to see you return to the active roster after your time on the "non-football injury" reserve list.

+ + = + +

[Ox]

Watch your cornhole brother.

Be careful my friend.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Watch your cornhole brother.

Be careful my friend.

+ + = + +

Very creative Walls! Point well taken. And Ox, don't worry about that last smiley. I've gotten this pamplet:

The reason I'm back so soon? Legal counsel needs to file special papers with the court. "Vacation" delayed three weeks until May 22nd. Oh well.

[HairOnFire]

BTW...if you can avoid drinking and driving, please, by all means do so. This isn't too bad, but it still sucks!

Just keep telling yourself it could be worse, and try to learn from the experience....just like I had to more than 20 years ago.

BTW, I just took a weeks vacation in Ohio so that I could attend my ParentsOnFire 50th wedding anniversary. One of my high school buddies dropped by and I asked what he was up to. He said nothing much, but others filled me in later. The short version is that he's currently awaiting trial for manslaughter due to his decision to drive blind drunk...resulting in the death of a wealthy Florida businessman. My friend is facing 18 years in prison, and his only realistic chance of getting off lightly is due to the severity of his own injuries. He doesn't remember a thing about the accident, is said to be suffering roughly 50% reduced mental capacity, and has to carry multiple changes of clothes with him due to his inability to control his bowels for any length of time. His mother has to drive him everywhere he goes prior to the trial, and she admitted to others that she keeps four pairs of pants and underwear in the trunk of her car.

Amazingly, during the reception he asked me and my younger brother if we wanted to go out drinking with him that night, and after the offer was declined he made a little fun of my longstanding and well known fondness for demon weed....which he has always refused to smoke.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Just keep telling yourself it could be worse, and try to learn from the experience....just like I had to more than 20 years ago.

BTW, I just took a weeks vacation in Ohio so that I could attend my ParentsOnFire 50th wedding anniversary. One of my high school buddies dropped by and I asked what he was up to. He said nothing much, but others filled me in later. The short version is that he's currently awaiting trial for manslaughter due to his decision to drive blind drunk...resulting in the death of a wealthy Florida businessman. My friend is facing 18 years in prison, and his only realistic chance of getting off lightly is due to the severity of his own injuries. He doesn't remember a thing about the accident, is said to be suffering roughly 50% reduced mental capacity, and has to carry multiple changes of clothes with him due to his inability to control his bowels for any length of time.

Dang Hair. You should have titled this post "Scared Sober!" Chilling story no doubt. And learning from this I already have. I now enforce a "Zero Tolerance" policy upon myself these days when it comes to drinking and driving, meaning one sip of ANYTHING, and that's it! No driving period, because the cops are extremely aggressive in it's enforcement. Thank God my case didn't involve anything more than a traffic stop for following too closely. Manslaughter is something I doubt I could live with, much less the penalties incurred by it. There is no "getting off lightly." It's already done.

BTW...don't buy into this high profile aggressiveness by law enforcement being simply because of the public's safety. (Although that is a factor of course.) I know several police officers personally. From what I hear "off the record," the true driving force is the huge amount of $$$ it puts into their coffers.

Amazingly, during the reception he asked me and my younger brother if we wanted to go out drinking with him that night, and after the offer was declined he made a little fun of my longstanding and well known fondness for demon weed....which he has always refused to smoke.

When it comes to driving anymore, that's no better. These officers go to a alcohol and drug recognition school where they look for the signs of ANY intoxicants upon the subject. In most cases, and as in mine, the standard procedure after your arrest is not only will your be subjected to a breathalyzer test, but urinalysis as well. If it comes back positive for THC or any other illegal substance, you'll face charges on that as well! We all know how long THC is detectable in your system, so the risks for this aren't to be scoffed at either! A joint smoked 4 days prior can potentially get you as busted as getting smashed and driving home after happy hour!

Bottom line...be careful f**kers. I never thought it would happen to me either, and for almost 35 years of occasionally partying and driving, it didn't. But luck does have a way of turning, except sometimes it's just not for the good.

[HairOnFire]

Manslaughter is something I doubt I could live with, much less the penalties incurred by it. There is no "getting off lightly." It's already done.

I agree, but I have to wonder if the reason my buddy can approach my brother about going out and hitting the bars is due to the fact that his injuries left him with no memory of an accident that left him with injuries he'll never fully recover from, and an innocent man dead. He's blessed in the sense that he doesn't have a memory that would be very hard to live with, if not impossible, but I'm guessing you don't learn very much from things you don't remember.

As for your remarks about demon weed, you're absolutely correct in a legal sense. You could easily find yourself in jail just as quickly as with booze. But driving and buzzing down the highway at 35 mph with your left blinker flashing endlessly isn't he same risk to yourself or society as driving so drunk that you manage to go off both sides of the road before overcorrecting one last time...directly into the path of a rich Floridian businessman. My gut and my experience both tell me that my old buddy could have toked his brains out that night and as long as he stayed away from the booze everybody makes it through that night alive.

[bengalboomer7]

I know I'm very careful. Never been the drinking type, but I do have a fondness for the "demon weed"

My buddies get pissed cause I'll come over and not bring anything with me. Point blank, I won't get into my car or any car where someone possesses something illegial. You just can't take the chance. I was once tried for vehicular assualt cause I wrecked my car while being the DD. That's right, everyone else was plastered, I ws sober, and this bitch pressed charges against me and tried to sue the hell out of my insurance compnay. It taught me alot and made me so much more of a careful person. Plus, it taught me to pick my apples a little higher off the tree.

[BengalszoneBilly]

My gut and my experience both tell me that my old buddy could have toked his brains out that night and as long as he stayed away from the booze everybody makes it through that night alive.

I won't argue that point. Had it just been weed, I believe the only thing he would have hit that night is every fast food stand on the way home!

[Passepartout]

Hope that you will get it straighten out asap my friend

Good luck to you!

[BengalszoneBilly]

Hope that you will get it straighten out asap my friend

Good luck to you!

Thanks bro, I will. It's just going to take some time to pay for this screwup. No one to blame but me.

[jditty47]

so did u get a 90 day sentence or something?

[BengalszoneBilly]

so did u get a 90 day sentence or something?

Yup.

[jditty47]

ouch. gl bro! u'll be out before u know it...and hopefully its a learning experience...drink at home! or have ur girl drive!!! girls love being designated drivers for lushes!! =)

[BengalszoneBilly]

ouch. gl bro! u'll be out before u know it...and hopefully its a learning experience...drink at home! or have ur girl drive!!! girls love being designated drivers for lushes!! =)

Don't worry. I'll live on as usual. If I can handle 12 weeks of Marine Corps Boot at Parris Island, the same amount of time watching TV and reading Clancy and King novels all day while incarcerated shouldn't be too tough.

Jail...talk about a concept that just doesn't make sense anymore. Especially for non violent offenses. For instance consider our countrys over crowded prisons. They're over flowing with non violent people jailed on archiac drug laws that only make criminals out of a large percentage of the American population that has always existed, and ALWAYS WILL EXIST!! Drug laws or not. To say just because there's a law against them, nobody will do drugs anymore is utterly rediculous.

NEWS FLASH!!! The "War on Drugs" is over folks. Law enforcement lost, and it wasn't even close. For every person they bust for selling contraband, another is ALWAYS there to take their place. If their theory worked, drug dealers would have vanished from the streets of America decades ago...yet they are as plentiful as they ever were. You'd have thought they would have learned from prohibition, but it appears some folks just aren't very intelligent and would rather be hard headed and fight an unwinnable war.

Whatever... ...I just need to do my time. I'll resume life as usual, albiet with a designated driver on bar hopping nights, upon my release. I don't want to make a habit out of these stupid vacations. They cost way too much!!

(You know if I had my normal internet access while I was in there...I'd be almost looking forward to this!! )

[Spain]

thats a bitch, 3 months!!! Wow I will never move to that coutry. One friend of mine ran over an old lady on coke. Killed her and he just had to go to teatment. Never saw jail.

[BengalszoneBilly]

One friend of mine ran over an old lady on coke. Killed her and he just had to go to treatment.

I'm confused Spain. Why did he have to go into treatment? Wasn't the old lady the one who was all "coked up."

[jditty47]

im thinking he meant he ran over an old lady "while" on coke.

[Spain]

Jdiity is my oficial translatior, wow I wont last 5 minutes in the US!!!!!

[Stripes]

Jdiity is my oficial translatior, wow I wont last 5 minutes in the US!!!!!

Apparently your friend wouldn't last 5 seconds here.

[Spain]

The EU has no justice and the US too much!

[BengalszoneBilly]

im thinking he meant he ran over an old lady "while" on coke.

I know damn good and well what he meant jditty, it's just the way he worded it I found funny. I'm just yankin' ol' Spain's chain a bit to see if he's not too buzzed. From the way he talks, he makes it sounds like the time there is always STUCK at 4:20 PM!