Another day almost passed without a posting at “The News.” This time it wasn’t inadvertent. I thought and considered it early this morning BUT. . . There were some things I needed to get done as they were time relevant. Then after getting things taken care of I realized I just wasn’t ready to go home yet. A stroll through “Big Lots” resulted in a few snacks for the evening. I considered a couple other options but nothing interested me and I meandered my way home. I have issues that NEED to be addressed but the showers and 50 degree temperature combined dampen my enthusiasm. The “dampened my enthusiasm” condition is likely to continue through tomorrow as that how long the showers are predicted to last. It doesn’t take a lot of chili damp weather to dampen my enthusiasm, you know.
I was taking a walk around the property, that’s about a 3-4 minute process if I walk really slow and look at everything. I noticed that a small limb from the neighbor’s “tree of frustration” had broken off and was laying on out power line. It is only about 2” in diameter and 6-8 ft. long but it IS ON the power line. If I had a long enough pole I could likely just knock it off but we have 3 phase power to the property and I’m a little skittish about standing on wet surfaces and risking a slight mistake or anything possible going wrong. Plus even if anything happened as a result of that limb I’d still be responsible for any damage to the mast on our building. It’s a lot but almost nothing but I thought a call to the city (they own the lines in our area) would be appropriate. What a challenge – I went through 3 automated systems before I spoke to anyone and they had to transfer the call. Also when everyone is pleasant and seemingly attentive I tend to over look taking down names. Bad habit I should work on but it’s to late this time so I just made a note in my calendar of the time, date and action taken. Every time I start a comment with time, date my mind automatically reverts to,” at the above time, date and location __________, statement that I must have typed a million times in the Military Police. The report forms had blanks to put the time, date and location in BUT the Army wanted it re-entered in the body of the report for some reason. No one ever had an explanation and would respond with “what’s the big deal.” OK so it’s NOT a big deal besides no one is supposed even consider asking about such stuff in the Army but, well you know me. I tried to never miss a chance and it worked for me. (chuckle) On the subject of asking questions a little too regularly, especially of authority – With the uptown area being totally messed with the installation of the light line commuter train the fire department has re-routed it’s emergency vehicles down Center again. It was, at one time, the designated route till a new fancy fire station was built a couple away from the old one. So I hear sirens – loud, all the electronic add ons and multiple warning sounding. I’m still not accustomed to them again. I walked out to see where it was going and generally supervise their movements down Center. You recall that that is my job, right ? To maintain my position & reputation in the community (chuckle). OK, OK back to the questioning. First of all the common thinking or some other decision making process has determined that using the fire department as the “first responders” to any emergency is good “SOP.” How on earth can they justify four firemen/EMT’s in a Million plus dollar 50 ft. long hook & ladder truck running around to fender binders? I know some of the argument about them always being available, and they are operating in their designated areas and etc but I tend to think that it is more than an off chance that fire department politicians must be more effective than police department politicians and therefore better at building a much larger bureaucracy/budget. Don’t misunderstand me though I appreciate the work they do and have REALLY appreciated them a couple of times, personally very personally. Mostly it’s the extreme vehicle costs and number of personnel being utilized for minor emergencies that mess with my mind. And now after going through all that I determine by a logical process (no politicians required) that it was a very minor incident or a small fire that set it all in motion- said process/logic – No more sirens – even minor finder binders include the police and they USE then sirens. I know I did too- just being in a serious business doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun.
Wow I just did a whole bunch of typing and ranting in a short time but it may not be worth even the time I used and I wasn’t doing anything else.
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