Category: BullShit

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And yet ANOTHER example of inconsiderate behavior

IMG 0996So I get into the shower, preparing to load up my car on Saturday to leave. 

I come out of the shower at 7:40 to find that I have no hope of getting where I need to go. 

Yes that’s my car on the right side of the photo with no hope of getting out and no reason to believe these guys would be doing this on a Saturday. 

in just 10 minutes they’d deployed a cherry picker and had men hanging from ropes in the tree they were cutting down. They kept saying just a few minutes. I went back inside to wait.

Come ON! A little notice? How about a little consideration? Common Sense? Maybe a little thought that there are people who MIGHT have plans on a Saturday morning?

Oh and NEVER mind the sappy sawdust raining down all over the place, especially considering that the car was washed and waxed yesterday. If I’d had any clue whatsoever I’d have parked elsewhere.

We can’t do our laundry before 8 am what makes it okay to fire up heavy equipment and chainsaws at 7:30 in the morning?This is just another example of why I’m so damn tired of humanity in general and being in high density population areas in particular.

Well soon I’ll be moving back to the mountain, for a time at least. Then it’s up to me to figure out where the hell I want to go.

It’s not about this one instance. California in general is turning into a real shit hole.

Lets make a list shall we?

1 No plastic or paper bags anymore. Oh you can buy them, but it’s for the environment. (Mandated by law!) You know… paper bags are a biodegradable, renewable resource…

2 No smoking, and you better believe that the anti-smoking patrols will hunt you down. (Not even going to debate the pros or cons of smoking. It’s about freedom of choice to live your life as you see fit.)

3 No vaping (In San Francisco, give it time… pretty soon the whole state will adopt that rule. It’s about the Children don’t ya know.)

4 No junipers (the plant) in your yard this year in mountain communities. Yep, apparently a single 2×3 foot plant on the perimeter of your property is an unacceptable fire hazard. Of course it doesn’t matter that the plant has been in the same position for more than a decade, and has survived multiple fires including the house itself and subsequent reconstruction.

5 Excessive, convoluted, and confusing laws about the ownership of firearms. A gun you purchase legally this year may be illegal next year.

6 Ammunition registration (and taxation). Now you have to pay an additional fee on ammunition. It’s one rate if you purchase it by registering your address and that address is the address you previously registered 3 years ago. It’s an entirely different and excessive fee if you happened to have moved within the last 3 years. (It doesn’t matter that pretty much only law abiding citizens will be the ones paying the fees. Criminal elements of course don’t) It’s for your protection! Uh no, the ammunition is for my protection and perfectly legal target practice at approved gun ranges.

7 An additional fee for fire suppression in mountain communities. Yep, this on top of your property, state income, school, and sales tax. This one is being challenged in court but you pay the fee until the case is decided. (This fee, by the way, is used to fund the people who drive by your property and send out citations if they don’t like the plants in your yard. However very little of the money is used to remove dead pine trees from the California national forests, you know… where the real danger is.

Every year you have to spend your time fighting for the right to landscape your yard the way you choose. My yard is landscaped with California Native plants for water conservation and those plants are trimmed down when they finish their blooming cycles. Many of these plants are taller than 6 inches at maturity. Anything taller than 6 inches above the ground results in a citation.) This is for your safety.

8 Mandated compact fluorescent bulbs in your home. It’s getting tough to find a nice old fashioned incandescent light. So California wants you to have Mercury vapor and a bulb that as it ages can produce unhealthy levels of UV. Uh GREAT! You want to save energy don’t you? It’s for the environment.

9 Poor and congested roads, littered with potholes and trash of all kinds. But the worst of this is the gravel and rocks left behind by trucks driving four abreast on the freeways. All with signs that say, “Keep back 300 feet. Not responsible for broken windshields” At 70 miles an hour being 2000 feet behind the morons driving their uncovered, overloaded trucks, isn’t going to prevent your car from being sandblasted. But it will prevent you from being able to identify the trucker or trucking company. Well, the police force is stretched too thin to enforce the laws about obstruction of traffic, littering, or driving on the freeways with an uncovered load. Besides, these drivers are on the lower end of the economic scale and they have to drive as many loads in a day as they can. They don’t have the time to cover each and every load. But what about the time and expense of windshield replacement? Well you’ve got insurance right?

10 A legislative body which is, at best incompetent, and more often than not simply corrupt. This body thinks nothing of consequences of their actions assuming that whatever problem they create can be solved by raising taxes so they have more money to piss away.

11 You can’t use oil based paints in California. That includes car paint, house paint, or deck paint. Oh, we don’t want VOC’s [Volatile, Organic, Chemicals] in the air it causes air pollution. You should use water based paints they’re environmentally friendly. But they’re not as durable and require very specific preparation and temperature conditions to apply. Oh and as an added bonus… to make a minor repair requiring paint on your car you have to remove all the factory paint down to the metal. Increasing the cost of the repair and subsequently the cost of insurance. That’s ok… Don’t you want to paint your house every other year? You’re not going to keep your car for more than 3 years are you?

One or two of these issues wouldn’t be so annoying. I know that I’ve not enumerated all of the ills of California. However, in just this short list the conclusion is that Freedom of choice is being usurped one item at a time and there is no sign of end. The feeling is that “Our Betters” will continue to decide how we live and act because they know best.

I’m not built to have anyone tell me how to live my life. I don’t accept this from Religion, or Physicians, and certainly not Politicians.

I was raised to believe that I lived in a free country. But increasingly I question that assertion. The more rules and regulations, the more likely you are to be in violation of one or more of them.

I’m reminded of a colleague who was from Russia. She once casually told me that everyone was criminal in the town she grew up in.

When I asked how that was possible, she replied, “Politicians were elected by the Russian Mafia. They were called ‘ New Russians’, they were all Mafia and they made so many laws that we could not live, or go to work, or to school without breaking some law or another. The politicians and their friends were immune to the laws they made. But we were not, so eventually the common people were all arrested and jailed at various times,  for various infractions, then released when their punishment was through Now they had records. This made it easier for the criminals to continue committing crimes and through intimidation, the common people who just wanted to live their lives were silenced. The government was all Mafia and were very rich and getting richer all the time. Eventually, we couldn’t make a living without working for the Mafia so most of my family left and came to America. Those that stayed are now big criminals but have no freedom outside Russia. Those that left for other countries made new lives, and walk in the sunlight. But I and my husband are leaving America. We are trying to go to New Zealand. America has changed and it is not as free as it was. It seems as though Politicians here are more like ‘New Russians’. They are driven by greed and wealth. So we leave, and hope to live our lives in freedom and peace without government telling us how to be.”

That was the last time I saw her. At the time I thought she was wrong. That was 15 years ago, now… I’m not so sure.

I can say, over the past 15 years I’ve found California to be more oppressive, and dread each and every election, because I know yet one more onerous law or regulation will be passed. With each new rule, my personal freedom is eroded and I’ve reached a point where I no longer wish to participate in a system that seeks to control so many aspects of my life.

Perhaps I’m too sensitive to it. Perhaps it’s my Rebel upbringing. Perhaps it’s just my personal refusal to submit to domination. Perhaps it’s simply that I’ve always had a problem with authority.

I realize that people are inconsiderate everywhere in this country. It’s the “ME” syndrome. The best I can hope for now is to find a place where I can keep space between myself and the next person. The chronic inconsideration may just be a function of dense living, I’m not sure.

All I know is that I no longer like being in California. I also know that I do not want to live my final years in this place.

Well, it looks like the tree trimmers are still going at it. Thus far this has put a two and an half hour delay into my day. I’ll also have to wash the car AGAIN, that’s twice in two days. It’s 86 degrees and the sappy sawdust is baking on my car which means I’ll probably have to wax it again. At this temp I don’t really feel like humping shit down to the car only to drive another 2 hours up to the mountains and unload it. I’d planned to load everything in the cooler portion of the morning and be gone by 8. I’d planned to be on the mountain by 10. Obviously that isn’t going to happen.

10:35 AM 7/27/2019 So I’ve now cancelled my weekend plans. Gee thanks ASSHOLES! This will mark the 5th week in a row that I’ve not been able to get to the mountains for a little peace & quiet. Oh well only one more week at the job, then I pack this place up and move back home.

I can take it… after all I haven’t any fucking choice now do I?

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I hate office politics

Office PoliticsI always have… Well not always, there was a time when I was square in the middle of it. 

I grew up, and decided that I liked just going to work, doing my job, then coming home.

Unfortunately the company I work for is not so enlightened.

Virtually every single Supervisor is about screwing over every one else in their climb to the top of the so called food chain. The backstabbing and sheer viciousness of the politics amazes even me.

For those of you that know me well, that’s saying something.

Earlier this week we lost a person that was hard working and efficient. This loss was due in equal parts to the incompetence of supervisor, the vindictiveness of a manager, and pride of a director.

Office politics masterThere may have been a smidgeon of blame to spread on the person that was fired, only because this person was dedicated and wanted only to do the best job they knew how to do. Regrettably, that often meant telling superiors that their understanding of a particular issue was limited, then explaining why some things had grown organically the way they had.

This was not resistance to change, it was pointing out that making a decision without all the facts could lead to a bad end. In this case, the Government slapping fines on the company for noncompliance with certain regulations.

Arrogance, Pride, and overreaction meant that this innocent, hard working person was fired.

I know that my current circumstances are not unique. This kind of bullshit plays out all day every day across corporate America.

From the directorate level to the supervisory level, middle managers play out Machiavellian games with employees who just want to do their jobs and go home – often serving as unwitting pawns and paying the price of losses with their jobs.

This shit hasn’t changed in 1000 years. At one time it was Kings and their Courts sending peasants out to fight for a cause they were little aware of, and had less care about.

Office politics 1The Kings generally speaking are gone. Their legacy continues in corporations and it’s magnified 1000 fold.

Environments like these are full of intrigue, subterfuge, and secrets.

When the intrigue and machinations are at a fever pitch and everyone is suspicious of everyone else…

Well that’s when things are ripe for conquest.

The “wrong” information in the “right” ear at the right time can cause a cascade of destruction. 

That’s where I find myself now.

I’m sitting in a powder keg and I’ve got a book of matches.

I’ve fought my nature for 30 years. I’ve actively sought peace and avoided office politics, usually to my detriment.

I’ve spent the past two years watching this mess develop and suddenly find myself in the unique position of having enough money in the bank to weather a storm.  And I’ve got matches… (metaphorically speaking)

Another week or two and I think the time will come when I start lighting shit up.

The funniest part of this is that I’m not going to be doing it for gain. No promotion, no raise, nothing at all, except the pure joy of watching a bunch of animals devour each other and destroy all they’ve built.

“Winter is coming.”

This is probably going to be a lot of fun…

Yes my friends, I’m listening to my darker angels.

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So mandatory OT is on again!

Walked in to work after my 1 day weekend to an email that said mandatory overtime was actually in effect again. This is in direct conflict with what we were told in our Wednesday meeting.

Since there is no time to react and I really need a weekend in the mountains, I’m refusing. They can punish me and I kinda dare them to.

WTF? these morons can’t plan a couple weeks out? They just assume that all the employees have no life except to serve at the company’s whim?

They’re re-evaluating the OT on a week to week basis and giving folks less than a couple days notice. That is so wrong, cruel and thoughtless it’s unbelievable.

So in the famous words of the pirate Barbarosa, “I am disinclined to acquiesce to their request.”

This is especially true since the hours that are open for OT would require that I work my normal 8, then clock out go hang out somewhere for an hour and 1/2 then clock back in for 3 to 4 hours.

Two Words…

SCREW THAT!

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Whew what a mess.

Schedule CalendarApparently I was prescient. Between the time I wrote my last journal entry and today, the “rocket scientists” in management at work decided that scheduling was the problem.

In truth scheduling is a problem, but it’s not the only problem.

The scheduling problem is that they don’t have enough people on the phones when they need to have people on the phones. But this is not the only problem, it’s one of the top 4 but not the single problem.

Management however thinks it is, and they’ve decided to reschedule folks. BUT they’ve decided that to be fair, they’re going to change everybody’s schedule, not just make adjustments in the areas that need to be adjusted.

The practical upshot of all this is everyone’s schedule is going to be totally randomized and while I haven’t been too thrilled with my schedule (5am to 1:30 Sat through Wed) it’s at least been workable.

Yeah I don’t have any time for social events, or friends, and I’m never off work when “Normal” people are likely to be so I’m never likely to be able to engage in activities that other people like me are engaging in. But I don’t have to deal with the absolutely horrible San Diego traffic and I have a couple of weekdays off so I can deal with things like Doctors, and car service.

In short, I’m not happy, but I’m made the best of it.

Ip 2393198NOW that’s all likely to change. For me, I can probably adapt if I want to. But for other people who have kids and familial obligations this process is creating a panic.

See, the geniuses are assigning everyone a random number and that number will determine your new schedule. You have no choice and no options.

I don’t believe for a second that it’s going to be random. I think that the Supervisors will gather in a conference room and they’ll pick folks for their “Teams” (I use that term loosely) they’ll put all the “Highest” performers on the really nice schedules and the “lowest performers” (In terms of how many phone calls the person can take in an hour) or the “Troublemakers” (In term of people who ask questions or are thinking or problem solvers) on the crappiest schedules. There will be nothing random about it.  

Wow, that sounds like the first moves of every fascist regime on the planet. The only difference is, in a fascist regime the “Troublemakers” go to prison or re-education camps. At the company they’re sent to the gulag of shitty schedules. Then again, I guess I trust management about as much as I trust a fascist regime.

This is nothing more than cowardice on the part of management. They want to be able to hide what they’re doing behind a facade of “randomness”. They want to be able to say, “It’s the luck of the draw, even when luck has nothing to do with it. 

I can’t abide that kind of slimy, passive aggressive weakness. 

I work with a Single Father, and another Father whose wife also works. The one guy’s wife works 2 hours from where they need to pick up their kids from daycare after school. So like a responsible Dad, my coworker leaves at the end of his shift to pick up his kids, then he takes them home gets their homework and dinner started. When his wife comes home, they finish dinner together and have some family time.

The single Father is in a similar situation. He must pick up his child and there is simply no other option. 

For both Fathers, If the kids aren’t picked up on time, the daycare facility calls Child Protective Services and says the children have been abandoned.

Neither of these responsible men have family in the local area. But of course since they’re men no-one gives them the slightest consideration regarding child care.

When these men said, “Wait a minute, we have to see to the needs of our children. We’ve  selected and worked these schedules because of our familial obligations…”

The company’s response was;

“We cannot make accommodation, you’ll have to make proper arrangements.”

SAY WHAT????

I just love how things are only sexist when women are involved. It’s just as sexist to assume that a man can make other arrangements.

The only “other” arrangement is for these guys to find employment elsewhere. Especially since the company is only giving us 2 weeks to adapt. These men are not newbies, they’ve been with the company for 2-3 years.

These men aren’t the only employees affected, there are a lot of single mothers in exactly the same boat.

W71eaSo tell me… How the FUCK is this going to help put more people on the phones? Given the choice between their children and their job… Parents will always put their children first. But losing your job places your kids at risk too. The deciding factor then becomes, “How has this company treated me?”

That answer is glaringly obvious.

The Company you work for couldn’t give half a shit about you as a person, your family, or anything else. Therefore it’s time to bail and fuck the company as hard as you can when you leave.

“Family oriented?”, “A great company to work for?”, “A place where you can thrive, and grow your career?”

Forgive me if I appear cynical, when I call BULLSHIT on that statement.

If management thinks hold times are long now… OH baby, just you wait.

This isn’t about making things better, this is about power. Management wants to remind and reinforce the message, “We control you. We own your ass. You have no choices, you have no future, and you exist to service our whims.”

It’s what I’ve said multiple times, every policy this company has, is punitive.

It’s not about cost effectiveness or efficiency, or even some high minded ideal of helping their customers manage an incurable disease. It is first and foremost about hurting the people who are supposed to be “Bright”, “Shiny”, “Happy”, “Helpful people”, that do the actual work.

Management is completely oblivious to the powder keg they’re sitting on, while they’re playing with matches. It’s a powder keg, of their own making. For me, the question is; “Do I want to be around when it blows?”

I think not.

In the past year;

We’ve been hobbled with shitty software that was supposed to replace more or less functional software we were using. It hasn’t!

Because of the shitty software, we now have a whole series of exceptions that we’re supposed to remember. If we encounter one of these exceptions. Then we have to document in the old software. If however, those exceptions are resolved, then we have to manually copy what was entered into the old software into the new software, noting that we did this and that the old record is superseded by the new record and also in the new record we have to document what the old record number was.

If document qa doesn’t like what we did or why, the’ll have us move all the information back to the original software, if someone else in document qa doesn’t like that, then we move everything back into the new software. This is a completely manual process and you can’t bring  a document back once it’s been deprecated.

The new software can present as many as 15 pages that we’re supposed to fill in, however I use the term “page” loosely.

Usually a “page” contains one or two checkboxes and a “Next Button”. Each press of the “Next Button” requires that you wait 20 to 30 seconds for the next “page”, also containing only 2 or 3 checkboxes to display.

God help you if you have to edit anything because the person on the phone changes their story, or if document qa comes back asking for clarification. There is no way to display the entirety of the record and edit one item, you have to click through the whole document again, with it’s attendant 20 to 30 second refresh per page even if nothing was changed.

Can you see part of the problem?

If we’re entering a large number of records to document each of the events described in a phone call we’re already at a disadvantage. It’s one document per event. 

The people taking calls, are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Each call and any events described by the caller must be documented before moving on to the next call. So depending on the number of issues to be documented, it may be 10 to 20 minutes before you can answer the next call and it’s interesting that 10 to 20 minutes is almost the exact average hold time.

Coincidence? Probably not.

Management’s solution is not to admit that their home grown software solution is a colossal failure and 2 years of “programming” has produced nothing but a steaming pile of shit,

Their solution is to keep whipping the employees for not working fast enough, or hard enough, while at the same time whipping the employees for making mistakes.

Uh yeah, that’ll make things better.

Employees have responded, by calling out sick more frequently. This exacerbates the problem because the scheduling is not set up to accommodate the number of people calling out sick.

The scheduling disaster can be laid 100% at the feet of a single individual whose job is to run a single piece of software called Workforce Management. In the 2 years I’ve been at this company… This idiot has never gotten it right.

Instead of having shifts that overlap by 30 or 45 minutes, This idiot has one shift ending on the hour and the next shift starting on the same hour.

He’s looking at shifts as mechanistic, as if he’s turning off one machine and turning on another.

Unfortunately for him, that’s not the way people work. People get sick, their kids get sick, they have car accidents, get stuck in traffic, have family emergencies, and all the other stuff that happens in the real world. The company and employees do not operate in a vacuum. Regardless of the fact that his surname is French, this is not a plantation in The Caribbean, where he has slaves in the slave quarters ready to jump at his whim.

He is a singularly unattractive person, so I suppose he’s never had anything like spontaneous sex, or anything else that’s defining as human.

I can only imagine what it’s like for someone who might be interested in climbing in the sack with him. “Oh? Sorry we’re scheduled to have sex from 10:30:00 to 10:30:02, 2 weeks from now, on a Tuesday.”

Were he to overlap shifts by 30 minutes, he’d have access to people from the previous shift who might be willing to work a few hours of overtime to pick of the slack for folks that called out.

DUH!

What completely astounds me is that the “Management”, all well educated; think that this is going to solve the problem. So much for that expensive education morons!

The beginning of the solution is simple:

Fix the shitty software, or go back to the software that works

Rework the schedule to add coverage in the time periods that you need it. That could easily be done by a simple shift of 30 minutes and most folks in their existing time slots would probably be able to move forward or back without much disruption.

Hire more people to backfill the deficiencies.

Do away with the stupid attendance rules that make it more advantageous for an employee to miss an entire day if they’re going to be 5 or 10 minutes late. It’s well known that the company has nightmare parking problems and the city as a whole has nightmare traffic. For god’s sake it can take you 15 to 20 minutes to find a parking spot. It’s like a mall on Black Friday there.

That’s just advice from a simple country bumpkin whose looked at, and lived with the mess.

Oh, and it’s high time to fire that Workforce Management analyst. His contribution is not helping – it’s hurting.

Honestly, I think there’s something else afoot.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the company is getting ready for a sale. The top execs are getting their “Golden Parachutes” packed and they’re going to leave a disaster in their wake. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been at a company where thats happened.

Either I’ll have a job when the new schedules come out, or I’ll quit the day the new schedule goes into effect. When that day comes, I’ll identify for everyone, the company I work for and I fucking dare them to mess with my first amendment right to speak my mind.

Well, I’ve been looking for something new anyway…

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Sometimes trying to help is more dangerous than leaving well enough alone…

MaxresdefaultDriving to work this morning there’s this car on the freeway driving with only their parking lights on.

Ok yeah, it’s dangerous but I’m sure that the person driving had no idea. Their instrument cluster was probably lit and they were driving a new car. I’m sure they were still getting used to the car.

Hell I’ve done the same thing in my car after it’s been serviced. The dealership always turns the automatic headlights off while they have my car. It’s the first thing I check when I pick it up after they’re done.

Anyhoo, so I’m cruising at 80 and I see the dark car coming up in the lane to my left behind him, there’s another car flashing his lights.

The flashing light car was very insistent about trying to tell the dark car that their lights were off.

They were on the dark car’s bumper, then the dark car is passed me immediately changing lanes in front of me. The flashing guy sits right next to me adjusting their speed to continue flashing their high beams at the dark car.

The dark car accelerates obviously trying to get away from flashing guy. Flashing guy stays right on the dark guys bumper. Dark guy slows down. I have to brake. The two of them continue this dance at 75 to 80 miles an hour for the next 4 miles.

Eventually I decide that this is all too dangerous at 4:45 in the morning and accelerate past them both, continuing to open distance between them and me.

They continue their dance in my rearview mirror for the next 5 miles.

And it’s getting more and more dangerous. The Dark car obviously doesn’t have a clue but they’re equally obviously getting erratic in their driving and just trying to get away. They blow blow by me at 90 on a curving freeway transition. Flashing guy is just not giving up.

They round the bend and I see the reflected red light of taillights on the concrete barrier. I’m not far enough along in the curve to actually see them.I take my foot off the gas and coast as I round the curve. Yep! there’s smoke and that distinct smell that tires make when someone has slammed on the brakes.

No accident, but it’s pretty obvious what happened. They rounded the bend and saw a line of 18 wheelers transitioning from the other freeway and both had to brake hard. Neither of them learned anything because they’re both racing along in the fast lane continuing their dance.

I make the transition to the other freeway and continue on.

I couldn’t help but think again, that San Diego has some of the shittiest drivers in California.

These are people who will play pace car and actively prevent other people including emergency vehicles from passing. These are people who commonly blow through stop lights and stop signs. These are people who will sail out into traffic from parking lots and never even make an attempt to stop at the parking lot exit. These are people who will pull into a parking lot with a string of traffic behind them then stop trying to decide if they should go right or left, leaving that string of traffic blocking an intersection until they figure out what they’re doing.

5It’s like driving in Eastern Kentucky in the 1970s when people didn’t have to worry about getting hit, because there were so few people in the area. In San Diego it’s that times a thousand, except that there are a million cars on the road at any time and the odds of getting hit or hitting someone a pretty much 100%.

I thank my drivers ed teacher from a Kentucky High School every day for teaching us the value of defensive driving.

I respect that the one driver was trying to tell the other that their lights weren’t on, but give them -1000 points for not realizing that they weren’t going to get their message across and not having enough sense to break off and go on about their business.

Sadly, that seems to be the way of things these days. Folks just won’t leave shit alone, and instead of focusing on the bigger issues they want to focus on the little details.

In the overall picture of the freeway, there are streetlights that make it very easy to see the road. In the rain or fog, those same streetlights are actually a problem because they decrease visibility. But even without headlights, the car running dark wasn’t a particular danger. I could see the car and even what color it was. Yeah it wasn’t as obvious as it would have been if it was properly lit up but it wasn’t a particular hazard.

The real danger was “Mr Flashy” because he or she was escalating a minor danger into a major one.

At some point you need to know when to give it up.

If you were really concerned about safety, you could call it in to 911. Tell them a gray Lexus sedan was running on the 56 freeway heading west transitioning to the 5 south with no lights on and wasn’t always using their turn indicators.

CHP would have sent an available unit and I guarantee the Lexus would have stopped when the Red & Blue lights pulled up behind them.  Or not… and then there would have been another problem.

I guess it just brought home to me, it’s way better and safer to attend to my own shit. I’ve got enough to deal with, without looking for more.