The plethora of impossible odds of bad luck I've had to deal with... Decided to put this in random chats instead of making a big stink about it with its own thread.
I'm a truck driver. I received two minor violations last summer...
Ticket 1: Missing a truck scale. This scale is never open when I drive by it at that time of day. I was on autopilot and apparently it was open. Drove right by it and got a ticket. For those who don't know, you need to pull into a truck scale so highway patrol can weigh your truck and make sure you're not overweight or carrying illegal shit. I got pulled over for missing it, had a weigh scale paper with me when I picked up the load to prove I was within the limit, also offered to open up the trailer so he can look inside and see I'm simply feeding America, not hauling cocaine etc... gives me a ticket anyway despite me asking if I can just U turn really quick and weigh in. Really pissed me off that he would still write a ticket. Still, though. My mistake. I'll own up to it.
Ticket 2: Moving over/slowing down violation. I got on the freeway one day and to my surprise, they're doing shoulder work. As a truck driver, I have to be over one full lane to give construction workers room. The shoulder work was hidden around a corner underneath a bridge and it completely caught me by surprise. I couldn't move over. There were too many cars next to me and I'm 60 feet long. All I can do is slow down. Cop accuses me of not slowing down or attempting to move over. I fight the ticket and provide the Judge with my exact speed, and ensured him I made every attempt to change lanes but it would have been impossible for me to slow down in time and change lanes without causing more danger. Still lose. And these tickets are expensive.
My work receives a notice in May from the DMV a few days after my ticket #2 hearing saying they will be attempting to suspend my license for exceeding too many point violations within a year. For some reason the DMV doesn't send it to me. I went to the DMV and they were surprised to see my license in such deep waters, saying they've only ever seen this happen to people with multiple DUIs or reckless driving incidents, to which I've never had any, nor will I ever. I had to request a hearing to basically beg the state of CA not to suspend my license. I decided to hire a lawyer instead since I got thoroughly screwed over on one of these tickets and I wouldn't be surprised if they're just out to screw me again and destroy my career in the middle of me supporting my family. So I'm out 4 figures there to hire the lawyer, not to mention my insurance just tripled for all 3 of my vehicles because of these violations. The lawyer basically told me that because I pleaded not guilty, the state of CA frowns upon it and will come after you hard if you're found guilty. As if CA doesn't already screw over everyone in the state. So the lawyer is pushing the hearing until September and he should be able to get them to leave me alone, but they completely fucked my vehicle insurance for all 3 of my vehicles and this isn't reversible.
Of my 3 vehicles, my main vehicle is a compact car that I use for my 100-mile commute to work every day. The other two vehicles are my truck which is on its last legs and my motorcycle. I take my car to get smogged but it won't pass without needing multiple repairs... (great). The repairs needed for it to pass smog costed me 1500 dollars. But hey, it passed smog. Yippee. Of course two days later the thermostat valve dies and blows a head gasket inside the engine. This happened in mid-June and my car has been sitting inside the yard of a family friend who has been working on it ever since. So now at that point I had to take my truck.
Truck day 1: I make it to work, but about 5 or 10 miles on my way home after work on my 50 mile drive home, the clutch finally goes out. It lasted 330,000 miles, which is great, and the transmission also lasted this long, so that's impressive, but for the clutch to shit on me at this moment feels like the most impeccable timing in history. We take it to the family friend and he repairs it for a few hundred dollars while still figuring out the issues with my car. I get the truck back about a week later after borrowing several vehicles from different family members just to make it to work.
Truck day 2: I get about 5 or 10 miles on my commute to work and the transmission finally completely dies. So 2 trips in the truck, neither trip was completed and I'm out a clutch and a transmission. Tow it back to the family friend who finds a used transmission while still working on my car. For the next two or three weeks, I am borrowing various cars and even had to rent a car for a couple days just to make it to work. He repairs the truck and it is running beautifully, thank the Lordy.
Truck day 3, I drive it to work and it handles beautifully. Almost like a brand new truck. I get off work in the middle of the afternoon on the hottest day of the year (around 110) and the truck overheats on me in the middle of the desert. Not only am I stranded, but the dispatch lady at AAA gave the tow truck driver the wrong location, so I'm waiting 3-4 hours before my mom calls my cousin who works in the same area and would be passing by me on the freeway on HIS way home to stop and get some water to add to the radiator in order for me to make it home. End up canceling the tow and drive it home myself as the sun set. On a Friday of course. Great start to the weekend.
Truck day 4. I take the truck the following Monday and this time I make sure there is enough coolant in the system to ensure it won't overheat during this heatwave. Not only did it still overheat on my way home, I only made it about 1/5th of a mile past my previous location where it overheated. I'm done dealing with towing companies. So I waited until the temperature dropped and slowly babied it back home.
To make a long story short (too late), I get two tickets within a couple months of each other, I defend myself on the one where I should not have been guilty but am found guilty anyway, CA decides to try to destroy my career and life by attempting to suspend my license and triple the insurance for all 3 of my vehicles and now two of my three vehicles are still currently inoperable. As of now I'm still borrowing random vehicles that my family is able to let me use until one of them gets fixed.
BONUS CONTENT: Since I hate truck driving anyway and my career is in jeopardy, I decide to enroll in school. You heard that right, I, los Jason, the ultimate critic of schooling being a cash grab scam, just began taking a one year online course to be a software engineer. I applied for financial aid and of course barely receive any help whatsoever. It's going to cost me 14,000 dollars for one year of college. I started last week, and this shit could not be more of a cluster fuck of a mess. The entire curriculum is dumped on you without much of a warning and assignments are already due every week. First assignment due 6 days after your start day. They have orientation videos you can watch where your course helpers explain things to you and they can't be much less helpful. The main one leading the videos barely speaks English whatsoever and she also has no real teaching skills. There are a couple of people you can contact, but they are by appointment only. They expect you to spend 30 hours a week on this course and they are barely even available to talk you through anything, let alone speak fluent English. I tried to book a guy this week to walk me through it since I'm getting a late start with all this shit going bad for me right now and he only has one available day at 8:15 AM for 30 minutes. I can already tell this is going to be the biggest regret of my life as far as career choices go and I'm only a week in.
That's my life in a nutshell, right now!