It wasn’t a bad day, as matter of fact, it was a fairly nice day. This day started as many others start, I have my coffee while reviewing the so called TV news, all the while becoming irritated that there isn’t something interesting on the so called news.
The temperature was considerably warmer than the day prior, and we had planned a ride to the Bunk House for lunch. The female subject who takes your order at the Bunk House likes to joke with those patrons like me, who start the joking. Lunch was good and not so expensive. This retired person on a fixed income can afford to eat there and not worry about paying the bills each month.
Our ride was nice especially after the sun began to shine and we did find a fresh road killed deer. I am sure the blood stains will come off the back seat where I placed the hind leg of the deer for the ride home.
This story today is not about the nice ride, good food, lively conversation or road kill. This story today is about events that occurred later in the afternoon.
Arriving home after the nice ride, I felt obligated to indulge in a nap. After all I had eaten lunch and it is customary for this senior citizen to recline for a short period of time, in an effort to (metaphorically speaking) recharge the batteries.
When I awoke from the sleep session, I felt the need to work! I must say that seemed a little out of character for me but I gave into the desire and proceeded outside. What should I do, was the thought that was stuck in my almost perfect brain. As I sat there in the old Ford’s rocking chair, located on the driveway near the garage door, I observed a police SUV drive past. Normally the police do not drive through our neighborhood, so seeing one is odd.
A couple minutes later there was a second police car drive through. Even odder, two cops in one day, were they watching me? I dropped that thought and began considering the possibility that I might want to dig up an old fence post in the back yard. This post is located where I want to place a cactus that I am going to attempt to transplant.
I acquired a shovel and began the work. I knew removing a post like this is not an easy job.
I had not been working on this project very long when I decided to take this photo. As I stood there determining what angle would provide you with the best image of this project, something caught my eye. There was a cop car drive through again following the same path as the previous two vehicles. Now I know there is something going on so I, shovel in hand, walked to the front yard and looked up the avenue. I was wondering if there was some type of ongoing problem and if so, which house was this occurring at.
Arriving at the front of the drive way and looking up the street there were no cop vehicles to be seen. Whatever is going on must be further up the avenue.
I returned to my work and I put an additional 20 minutes or so in on this project. I was able to get the post somewhat loose but not out of the hole. The cement on the bottom two feet of the post make it difficult for one old person to extract.
Worn out and feeling like a failure, I returned the shovel to its resting place and walked slowly to the old Ford’s rocker. I was considering my options for removing this post when it occurred to me that I had used a chain and the Ford’s pickup truck to remove the last post. Now I have a plan for tomorrow!
Pay attention, this is where the story gets interesting!
As I sat there resting after the brutal work period, as the warm rays of the sun shined on my back, (in my opinion) an unsafe event occurred.
A marked police car came down Arkansas Street at a high rate of speed. By high rate of speed it was (in my opinion) travelling much faster than the posted speed limit of 30 mph. The police vehicle came around the corner way too fast and was increasing speed rapidly, as it went up Oklahoma Avenue. There was no doubt in my mind, this officer was heading to some type of incident.
I thought to myself, I do understand the need for police to respond quickly but why wasn’t this vehicle running his lights and siren. Lights and siren do offer an alert to the public. Continuing my thought on this subject, what would have happened if the kids that live two houses up the block were out in the street playing? Would the vehicle have been able to stop or avoid them? Those two kids play in the street a lot.
I had no more than thought about the kids and the police car, when one of the kids came down their drive way riding a push scooter, and out into the street. She rode up and down the street several times and not at the edge of the street, she was in the middle of the street. What if she had been in the street a minute earlier?
Safety first, Please!
Don Ford
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