YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!!!
This is a big part of why I'm selling the bike. My chief, who also rides, and I had this discussion the other day; we've both gotten to where we're fed up with close calls and hearing about everyone else's "rights" to text, read, eat, apply makeup, drink booze, smoke dope, eat pills, and change clothes while they "drive" on public roads. The segment of society that has no regard for anyone else is growing every day. It's getting scary driving in the pickup; never mind the bike. Neither of us enjoys riding like we used to. It's a whole lot safer to just go fishing; the dangerous part is getting to the coast and back.More and more vehicles on the road are operated by drivers with suspended licenses and no insurance. Many of these drivers are pilled up on painkillers and other drugs. Our PD tows several vehicles a day, every day, for suspended drivers with nobody in the vehicle who can legally drive. These vehicles are all stopped for traffic violations -- they're driving stupid -- and the numbers are growing. We just had a four-car pileup in the city; a guy with a suspended license and a gut full of a pill cocktail fuzzed out and wiped out a bunch of cars on the freeway. As our officers worked the wreck they discovered that he had just done the same thing in Harris County. The deputy who worked that wreck let him drive away, even though he couldn't stand up without help and his license was suspended, and he had previous convictions for DWI and DWLS. Five minutes later he wrecked out again, in our city. They're out there, and their numbers are growing. And the people whose truck the doper was driving -- who lent it to him KNOWING that his license is suspended -- say that we were out of line when we towed the remains of their pickup and placed a hold on it, so that we could file charges on them for letting dumba$$ use their truck to run over five other vehicles.That's who's out there on the highway today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And their numbers are growing...........Y'all be careful out there. I just can't deal with them any more.
Quote from: hipshot on October 25, 2014, 08:10:02 AMThis is a big part of why I'm selling the bike. My chief, who also rides, and I had this discussion the other day; we've both gotten to where we're fed up with close calls and hearing about everyone else's "rights" to text, read, eat, apply makeup, drink booze, smoke dope, eat pills, and change clothes while they "drive" on public roads. The segment of society that has no regard for anyone else is growing every day. It's getting scary driving in the pickup; never mind the bike. Neither of us enjoys riding like we used to. It's a whole lot safer to just go fishing; the dangerous part is getting to the coast and back.More and more vehicles on the road are operated by drivers with suspended licenses and no insurance. Many of these drivers are pilled up on painkillers and other drugs. Our PD tows several vehicles a day, every day, for suspended drivers with nobody in the vehicle who can legally drive. These vehicles are all stopped for traffic violations -- they're driving stupid -- and the numbers are growing. We just had a four-car pileup in the city; a guy with a suspended license and a gut full of a pill cocktail fuzzed out and wiped out a bunch of cars on the freeway. As our officers worked the wreck they discovered that he had just done the same thing in Harris County. The deputy who worked that wreck let him drive away, even though he couldn't stand up without help and his license was suspended, and he had previous convictions for DWI and DWLS. Five minutes later he wrecked out again, in our city. They're out there, and their numbers are growing. And the people whose truck the doper was driving -- who lent it to him KNOWING that his license is suspended -- say that we were out of line when we towed the remains of their pickup and placed a hold on it, so that we could file charges on them for letting dumba$$ use their truck to run over five other vehicles.That's who's out there on the highway today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And their numbers are growing...........Y'all be careful out there. I just can't deal with them any more.Guess that's what happens when you get old Fishing is much more safe SHARK
Larry and Bryce, I've been that close to a shark twice that I can remember while diving; once at Indian Key and once in Biscayne Bay. I came out unscathed both times. While it scared me both times I get scared worse by the attitudes of todays drivers. A couple of years ago I got off work at 4:00 PM. It was raining. I had to stop by the Orvis shop in The Woodlands, and I was there until about 4:45. I started down Lake Woodlands Drive toward IH-45, in the left lane. As I aproached the freeway a silver Audi came up behind me at high speed, passed me at way over the speed limit and swerved abruptly into my lane just in front of me, braking hard. As that occurred the light we were approaching turned amber. I swerved over to the right lane and stopped at the light, thinking the driver of the Audi was just another no-driving Woodlands jerk in a hurry. I looked over at him; I'd never seen him before. He had two kids in the car (I later learned they were 2 and 6 years old). When the light turned green we were off, and the driver of the Audi was trying to force me off the road. He almost hit two different cars trying to jam me up. We played dodge around the Lake Woodlands ramp over the freeway, in traffic, and I was at a loss as to why this driver had it in for me. We got on the east service road, and the guy was still trying to run me off the road. I finally had enough, and I turned on the lights and siren (I drive an unmarked, but fully equipped, pickup and work in plain clothes) and attempted to stop him as I called in his registration on the radio. He took off then, and that Dodge pickup was no match for the Audi in the rain. However, as luck would have it, there was a marked Constable's unit in a Charger just ahead in a parking lot, and he joined in the pursuit. The Audi ducked down a side street and we got him boxed in as other units intercepted the pursuit. As it turned out, this idiot thought I was somebody he didn't like, who drives a red Dodge pickup, and decided he was going to run me off the road and stomp a mudhole in my a$$. With his kids aboard. I arrested him and I asked him if he ever thought about what might have happened if I'd been an armed businessman, taking the day's deposits to the bank, and I'd been forced off the road and robbed at gunpoint last week. I asked him if his kids' lives meant that little to him......And naturally, the DA wouldn't take child endangerment charges. Folks, this guy is out there. And there are thousands more, just as stupid as he is, driving around us every day.I'll take a shark any day of the week.