Stop, Look and Live

This muse is all about safety.  You may asked, what I know about safety.  What I know about safety is not the point of this article, what you and your family need to know is the point. Since you insist on knowing, I do have a background in safety from previous employment.  I managed a 500,000 square foot distribution center that was the first in the company history to go three years without a time lost injury.  The last couple years with this company I traveled between all the centers consulting on safety, security, production and other topics assigned by my VP.

            All the travel during those years allowed me to rack up some frequent flyer miles which is now allowing my wife and I to fly to North Carolina for free. What’s better than free?  I will tell you, “it is free and first class flights”.

            During my “infrequent” trips to stores like Wal-Mart or HEB I have observed many of the patrons and their habits both inside and outside the store. People watching may be a byproduct of all the time spent in air ports waiting on flights.  While in the airport there is not a lot to do other than drink Star Bucks coffee and watch people walk by. It is reported that one hour in a busy airport will allow you to see an average of 857 people. If you have an inquisitive mind (I do) and if you are the least bit observant (I am) you will see things that tell you all lot about people you don’t know.  

            My Stop, Look and Live title is actually about people walking in parking lots or on streets with pedestrian cross walks.  The pedestrian cross walks are a good idea as they help funnel many pedestrians into a smaller, better controlled walking area.  They could also be a safety concern when people walk onto the cross walk expecting the drivers to stop. If you take 5 minutes to observe these pedestrians you will notice that 71% never look to see if there is a car coming. (The 71% that do not look both ways for vehicles are frequent shoppers and have developed a habit of expecting all vehicles to stop.)  The person the looks both ways at these cross walks are not frequent shoppers and very likely do not want to be there anyway (I may be speaking for myself with that comment).

            Consider; an elderly person that has very slow reflexes is driving toward the cross walk and sees several pedestrians. This elderly person puts their foot on the gas instead of the break and drives through the pedestrians. 

Consider; the person that smokes, as he/she approaches the cross walks if he/she drop the cigarette in their lap and begin to hurriedly look for the lit cigarette they will not be looking at the pedestrians in the cross walk.

Consider; the guy approaching the cross walk whose focus is through the passenger window of his pickup truck at the one young, good looking lady in skinny jeans as she walks to her car.

If these people would have just looked for oncoming traffic they may have been able to stay out of the way of that driver.

Please, repeatedly remind you family members and friends who use cross walks to “Stop Look and Live”.

       From the never ending thoughts of  “ Don Ford “,          Thanks.

            All rights reserved, any reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Weeds in the flower beds.

     As this tale unfolds we find “Mr. Ford” (Mr. Ford AKA me, I wasn't sure you knew who Mr. Ford was, and I kinda like to refer to myself as MR. occasionally) with stiff and sore muscles. How did this all begin you ask.  It begins like many situations around the Ford House that require me to “work unceasingly and without respect to my fragile health or advanced age”.  My dearest wife during her morning constitutional to the front yard to gather up the newspaper decided to pull just a few weeds from the flower bed placing them intentionally in the middle of the walk. This strategic placement on the sidewalk and a following comment as to how easy it was to pull the weeds while the ground is wet was my marching orders.  I now had to pull weeds from the flower beds or there would be no supper for me tonight. This is an unstated threat but I know it is real.

     I had actually pre-planned the weed pulling about 6 weeks ago when I purchased knee pads.  Now I had not tried them on and had not gotten on my knees to see if the worked.

     The day was sunny and warm and I could work in the yard with a short sleeved shirt no jacket needed.  It seemed like a perfect day to be on my knees in the yard.  I put the knee pads on and brought the wagon, rake and a bucket to the front yard.  Yes I will explain; the rake was to be used to get leaves out of the flower beds, the bucket was to put the weeds in as I pulled them, and the wagon was where I dumped the bucket when it was full.

     Now, visualize if you will, a senior citizen on his knees crawling around the yard.  Even though there was not much traffic in the mid-day, several vehicles slowed down to check me out.  I first thought they were looking at my “behind”. For an older gentleman I do have a nice…

     Back to my original thought, I soon realized they were trying to determine whether they should call 911 for the old man crawling in the front yard. 

     One fellow in a pickup truck stopped and ask for directions.  I knew what he was going to ask before he asked, there has been several people looking for directions over the last few weeks. There is some construction work on Panther Way and there are two detours, one of which brings the cars into our neighborhood. From our neighborhood one cannot get to the other end of Panther Way.  I explained to the young man that he “could not get to there from here”.  He looked at me as if I was senile or something.  I explained that he would need to go to Hewitt Drive then take the other detour (there are signs) and it would route him to the other end of panther way. 

     I was on my hands and knees for a couple hours; the sun was hot and I was actually sweating. I was wishing there was some shade to get in but none was to be found.

    To say there was a lot of weeds and grass growing in the flower beds would be an understatement.  I almost had a wagon full of grass and weeds.  Donna will not allow me to bring the roundup into the front yard or close to any flowers due to past experiences.   

     When I finally was able to get off my hands and knees (not an easy task) I brought the lawn mower to the front yard, mowed and bagging the grass clippings. The project took  a total of 5 to 6 hours of work and I was already beginning to get stiff and sore.  Little did I know what pains I would have the next day. The only thing on my body that did not hurt was the hair on my head. I don’t know how to say this in politically correct language so I will just say it, “the cheeks of my butt hurt”.

     My wife came home and glanced at my work without saying nice job. I am often under appreciated and occasionally over worked. 

       From the never ending thoughts of   Don Ford, Thanks.