I have a device called a Prepass transponder in the truck. At most weigh stations you'll see a pole-mounted radio transceiver about 1/2 mile before the scale, then another about 1/4 mile from the scale. The first one sends a signal to my transponder that causes it to send it's ID code, which gets fed into a computer at the scale house. The computer decides whether my truck needs to go over the scale. The decision gets sent to my transponder when I pass the second transponder. If I get to bypass the scale my transponder flashes a green light and gives me a slow beeeeeep-beeeeep-beeeeep. If I have to go over the scale my transponder gives me a red light and a fast beepbeepbeep beepbeepbeep beepbeepbeep.

The states of OR and WA always give me the red signal. The folks that man the scale houses are DOT (Dept of Transportation) employees, and usually have absolutely no sense of humor.

Last week when we came upon a scale house in southern OR we got the red signal like usual. As I came up almost to the scale pan I noticed that the scale inspector was a female DOT officer. She noticed that there was a beautiful orange kitten curled up on my dashboard, on her side. As soon as she saw Harri her face lit up in a huge smile and she started waving like a kid and was talking up a storm to Harri. I nudged Harri and pointed over to the scale house, telling her "look, it's a kitty person! She's talking to you and waving. Do you want to wave back?"

Harri was of course not impressed. As I exited the scale and passed the inspector's window I smiled at her and waved back. It was such a wonderful experience to see Harri light up a stranger's face like that. And it wasn't bad that she didn't watch the scale to see if I was overweight.

Copyright © Dan Mahoney
May 3, 2005