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That would be great except for all the safety features that have become standard as well as those that have been mandated. For instance, I don't think you can purchase any vehicle smaller than an F250 without a backup camera.
I think that was a law from a couple of years ago. All passenger cars, light trucks, and SUV must be sold with a back-up camera. Now everybody has their head down, looking at a small screen, trying to reverse with a distorted image which has no way to gauge and display, depth and distance properly. With the screen, you can see that there isn't a small child behind your bumper. But your head is down, and you don't see oncoming traffic or pedestrians when backing out of a parking space.
We use to teach looking over your left shoulder, checking your mirrors, right arm over the back of the passenger seat and head turned to the right as far as possible. I don't know what they teach today. I hear that they teach driving with hands at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. For awhile, it was 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. My dad taught me left hand at 12, and right hand on the stick. Things have changed.
I was also taught to ride bikes with mid controls so that your feet are under you, upright, straight back, chin up, handlebars at chest level, and mirrors over the wrist at shoulder level. Almost like the old days where when you sat in a truck, your steering wheel and controls are about chest level as your arms extend with slightly bent elbows, you are seated upright, and the pedals are under feet without your legs having to extend and reach.. Hands and feet ready to stand up on the pegs, lift your butt off the saddle for your knees to bend with bumps, shift your hips correctly to lean the bike in and out of turns, and feet ready to plant on the ground. We always used a windshield so that at 70 MPH, it doesn't feel like there's a 70 MPH wind blowing you off your bike. Now I see people crunched over the tank on sport bikes. Guys on cruisers with ape hangers higher than their heads, foot controls kicked out far and high; they are in the same position as someone being dominated on a sex swing. I guess their riding doesn't require them to ever stand up on the bike, or put a foot down. Some people have mirrors under the handlebars, or on the bar end. Other people simply remove them along with the signal lights. Maybe they just don't need to see behind them, or communicate their intention to change lanes or turn. But then again, I'm so old that when I started riding, there wasn't a helmet law. We just had to learn to ride defensively; keeping a clear spot on either side in case we had to swerve, not riding in a car or truck's blind spot, making sure that you can see the face of the car driver in his mirror, passing with at least 8 feet of space, and not riding alongside any car (parked or moving) close enough to get hit by someone opening a door.
Unintentional. I overheard a conversation. 1st person speaking was reviewing statistics in relation to a local college district and it's buildings and grounds. A lot of school districts maintain their own campus police department. Crime has significantly decreased. Crimes against persons. Zero assaults. Zero homicides. Zero rapes. Crimes against property. Zero graffiti, broken windows, theft, auto burglaries........ And that presents a unique opportunity for them to realign their budget......defund the police. Get rid of them. Stop paying for the associated cost. Reduce staffing. Reduce equipment and maintenance. Fire all the cops. Sell off the police cars, guns, radios, et cetera..... Then people could simply call 911, and wait for a county sheriff to respond if they need anything. They could place "Call 911" signs, which will cost a little, but they will have the money from cutting the cops. Maybe install a few kiosks, with call boxes, like on the side of the freeway.
Party number two in the conversation was probably a lawyer. For over a year, schools have been on Covid lockdown. Of course there was no crime. Nobody was on campus to be a victim or a suspect. So now they are preparing for the return of over 50,000 people: students, teachers, administrators, other staff, and visitors - scattered over 50 campuses all over the county. Administrator number 1 wants to completely abandon the campus law enforcement. Administrator number 2 was pointing out that when you reopen, crime will resume, and the district will be in a position of liability without their security force. How many lawsuits do they want to pay out for every victim of crime?
Those two decided to reword the labor union agreements with a release of liability. The union bosses would probably agree to it if they got some of the money from the police budget. Other campus visitors may have to sign a "hold harmless agreement". They word the admissions forms to make the students sign a waiver when they enroll. Maybe put signs in the parking lot advising people to lock their cars.
Neither of these bureaucrats weighed in on the human factor. The actual population of human beings, who will be the victims. It didn't matter that someone would get assaulted, raped, or killed. Just that they shouldn't have to pay out a claim of liability. They don't care if you get beat up, your car gets broken into, or that you take a prison shower in the back of the library. They just don't want to pay if you sue.
The whole "defund the police" conversation went off the rails because that's not what's really needed. However, the police get called for every thing in the world and when people in blue show up with their guns, you are off on the wrong foot from the get go. Something like 80%-90% of police calls can be dealt with in another non-confrontational way. This would free up the police for things where they're actually needed.
This is not a conversation that can be dealt with here.
I had to turn on the AC at 4am just so I could get to sleep. Woke up sweating. Supposed to be over a hundred the next 4-5 days.
Bought a new laptop yesterday from Newegg.com. It should be about twice as fast as my main gaming computer which I bought two years ago. It should arrive between 3:30-7:30pm. That is assuming it is not delivered to the wrong address.
Came out to $1,380 after Uncle Sam added his tax, and I paid extra to have it shipped in one day.
Our weather station topped out at 99.7 yesterday around 4PM. It started coming down quickly, but bottomed out last night at 86. Ooofta. The good news is we have a very light on-shore breeze, and it's not really warming up much today.
That said, I think we are going to HMB for some fish & chips, and a very cool ocean breeze.
My 14 year old grand daughter is having her birthday party at Milerton lake tomorrow. However, it is forecast to be 109 tomorrow so I had to tell her I can't make it. Still don't have a hoist in the Ranger for the scooter, and there is no way I can stand the heat.
Well, it happened again... UPS tells me the package was delivered, and I went outside to find nothing there. I contacted Newegg, and they started a claim. I went to the other 105's in the complex, but nobody answered the door except one, and he has had no UPS people at his door. Newegg is contacting UPS and they wanted a Police report, so I filed one online. The manager has not been here in over a week, so even if the Asian guy received it, he has no way to give it to her. And I don't even think he is home. One thing that does make me mad though is that UPS claims it was signed for. Obviously not by me. So whoever signed for it, wanted a free laptop. Now, I have to wait for all the claims to go through before they will send me another one, which usually takes 4-5 business days according to Newegg. In the meantime, I am out a laptop, and have maxed out my PayPal account. PayPal wants me to go through Newegg first, before submitting a claim with them. So I will have to wait. I have no clue how long it will take them to get in touch with UPS. I am guess that is in the 4-5 business days time period.
I didn't want to be the one who points out that every time you order something, the delivery gets lost. Like your LOL dolls and Billie Eilish shirts.
Woke up sweating. Supposed to be over a hundred the next 4-5 days.
