Month: January 2020

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This is gonna be unpopular with some folks…

back-the-badge.jpgBUT…

How about giving a little love to your local law enforcement?

Living in the mountains and dealing with skiers and snow players, plus recently spending time in another larger mountain town, (Big Bear) I’ve seen what Law Enforcement has to put up with.

They have a very tough job and it’s dangerous to boot.

In the past 3 weeks I’ve seen Officers directing traffic in 25F weather standing in the snow to make sure that skiers and snow players get safely into and out of resorts.

I’ve seen more than one near miss where some idiot almost hit an Officer because they were in a hurry.

I’ve watched people giving Officers a rough time because the Officers were telling them to move along, you folks know you can’t park on a public road with no emergency lane to play in the snow. All the people behind you can’t get to their destination with your vehicle in the way.

Let’s not forget about the ambulance that cannot get to the accident 3 miles up the road or the skier who’s got a compound fracture and is bleeding out on the slopes.

And to you young social justice warrior hipsters, with tattoos which are not artful, or ironic, but which instead look like the tattoo “Artist” was on speed and vomited ink all over your bodies…

If a uniformed Officer walks into a coffee shop and gets waved to the counter ahead of the line. Shut the fuck up! That Officer deserves a little accommodation.

They’re working and they’re probably on a break, you know like your strictly enforced 15 minute break at your fast food job? It’s not going to kill you to wait 1 additional minute for that Officer to get a cup of coffee and leave to go back on duty.

I’ve rarely been as angry as I was the other morning when a bunch of you vile young “Social Justice” types started expressing how “Unfair” it was that the Officer was waved to the front of the line.

Cudos, to the cashier who told that bunch of self absorbed 20 somethings, “This Officer is out there insuring your safety and I’m going to serve them first so if you don’t like it, FIND ANOTHER coffee shop!” 

I’d love to see a cashier at a Starbucks do that. Then again I rarely darken the door of a Starbucks anymore, so Hell will probably freeze over first. As I’ve stated before, all I want from my coffee shop is coffee not a lesson in ultra liberal politics.

As I was standing in line waiting to get my coffee, I thought, “I wonder if it would be appropriate to swap my place in line with an Officer, or if it would be appropriate to just buy the Officer’s coffee?” I don’t know if that would be considered Bribery or just Kindness.

For the record, I left a nice tip in the bucket at that place.

Any LEO is welcome to give me an answer in comments.

As you might have gathered, I support LEO. I know there are some “bad apples” but generally speaking these people are drawn to serve the public good. A little kindness & respect toward them might go a long way in reminding them that not everyone is a criminal and that they’re appreciated.

So Back the Badge

At the same time if you see a “Bad Apple” report it. We live in a system of checks and balances. Our duty as citizens is to provide the balance.

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It’s all a matter of perspective.

Being in Big Bear is very different from Wrightwood.

It’s noisier. I guess that’s the trade off. Up at my place it’s pretty quiet except when the crazy neighbors are having a rough day.

The quiet is that I’m pretty far away from the main drag and the streets aren’t as clear so the skiers are confined to the center of town.

Wrightwood is also a lot smaller in general.

Big Bear is… well big. They’ve got everything, mainline stores, fast food, hospital, and a huge hospitality sector.

Wrightwood, not so much.

Another thing Big Bear has that Wrightwood doesn’t is traffic noise and crowds. It’s constant. Pretty much like any other city in the country.

When I get back to Wrightwood, I’m struck by the silence. This is especially true during the work week.

As nice as Big Bear is, I think I’d prefer to be in Wrightwood, except when I need to go to the store.

I suppose that I really am a country boy at heart.

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2ND weekend of cleaning in Big Bear

Had an okay night. 

My gut is still twisting and uncomfortable. 

But once I got to sleep I slept. I’m going to have to go back a rewatch a couple of episodes of Lost In Space. I drifted off intermittently, but I have to say I’m enjoying the 2nd season of the reboot on Netflix.

Got up, got a shower, then went for a morning walk around the village here. It’s surprisingly warm and very sunny. My glasses went almost blackout with the reflected light from the snow and the high UV due to the altitude.

Waiting for the renters to leave and then I’ll get to cleaning.

There was some kind of critter scratching to get in the door at 6 AM. I’ve got no clue what it was but at one point I thought it was inside the house.

I got up and checked but found nothing. Mind you I wasn’t fully awake, so I’m wandering around the place naked with nothing to defend myself or club whatever the hell I might of encountered.

D’OH

Tomorrow morning if it’s back, I’m going to go hunting with a big assed shovel that’s standing by the door. I probably won’t be naked but I’ll leave that to your imagination. 

So I go primitive pretty easily, big deal!

Sounds like the tenants are packing up to leave, Great! I’ll need all the time I can get to clean up the place.

Gotta run, Hope you’re having a great weekend.

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In the category “No good deed goes unpunished…”

So my ER escapade continues.

The person that fell last Saturday evening was overly worried about their dog. 

Apparently several people have said due to the dog’s behavior, (Young, undisciplined, large, and very strong) that the dog was going to cause the person to fall and break a hip.

I didn’t know anything about this, walking into a situation as an innocent. 

The person is trying to say now (to protect the dog) that I slipped and grabbed onto them causing their fall.

Anyone that knows me, also knows that I have an almost feline grace and the odds of me falling, much less falling, first are exceedingly remote.

My friend was taking this person to the hospital and heard how the story had changed. He called me and asked me to tell him how this person fell. I related the story again to him exactly as I’d told him the first time, (it’s really easy to tell the same story again if you’re telling the truth.) When I was done, he said, “Thank You, I’ll call you back.”

When he did call me back, he told me the other persons version of the story which was completely incorrect. He also told me that he’d “Lost his Shit” on the other person because he’d noticed their story changing from moment to moment, and after my confirming my recollection of the events to him he was sure that my recollection was more accurate.

According to him, he reminded the other person that I’d gone over in the first place to make sure everything was alright. This all started because I saw a tow truck pull up to the other person’s door and had gotten out of bed, gotten dressed, and walked over to make sure that everything was okay.

He also noted that the injuries sustained were far more consistent with my recounting of the events than with theirs. The fracture was too severe to have resulted from a simple fall, there was momentum involved. 

The person had turned so that their right arm was extended toward their left hip while gripping the dog’s collar. When the dog lunged at whatever it saw at the end of the driveway it spun the person like a top. This meant that as they went down their right arm and right portion of their head smacked into the side of their car at speed.

I was also 3 feet away from them because the dog was trying to jump up on me. Meaning that even if I was slipping and falling on the ice I couldn’t have reached them.

In fact the only time I had any slipping what trying to get them out of the car was when we returned to the cabins, because they outweigh me by 50 pounds and grabbed my arm before I was set, trying to get them out of the damn car.

Even then I didn’t fall, I just barked at them to wait because we were both going to end up on the ice if they continued to pull me off balance.

My friend is right, without proper training that dog is going to cause the person severe harm.

I’m in the clear I think provided that this person doesn’t decide I have money.

Maybe the Inuit people had it right… Maybe the old and infirm should be put on ice flows and sent out to sea.

Ahhh Well, I’ll see what happens. No use worrying about it now.

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Happy New Decade

fireworks.jpgI hadn’t really thought about the change in Decade.

A lot has happened in that decade not all good and not all bad.

I was coming into this New Years as just another year. It is just another year, but we should also acknowledge the 10 year mark.

As I thought about it, I’m ready to put the previous 10 years behind me and look forward to a new beginning. 

Hopefully this decade will be kinder than the last one to me personally, and also to humanity in general.

So what does this new decade hold? Nobody knows, it’s an unwritten chapter and it’s up to us to write it. 

Let’s start with being kinder to each other and less judgmental. Perhaps that’s the only resolution we should work toward. Maybe all the rest will just fall into place. 

It’s probably an overly optimistic view. But I’m going to cling to it for as long as I can.

This year I have only a one word resolution.

Change!

That covers it all, and it’s achievable. 

I need to change my career, life, and everything. 

So this year I’m going to try very hard to reinvent myself, find peace, and joy. In the process hopefully I can be better to myself and others.

So that’s it. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday and a fantastic new year and decade.