Saving Herons

Ok - once again I am so proud of the little girl I could just spit.  Who spits when they are proud?  Is it just the overflow of gushing?  Honestly, I have no idea where these sayings come from, I just spew them like it is an ancient adage, and chances are good I make them up, or get them wrong and keep perpetuating the colloquialism.

We have a new project.  We have printed posters, and would like to place them in as many public areas (legally of course) as possible.  We have printed 100, the idea to be to donate as many as we can to parks, land management, forest regions, or place that people gather outdoors, and sell a few of  them cheaply, to help cover the cost of printing more.  So - of the 1 or 2 people that read this blog, if you know of an organization that would like some to post, please have them contact us:  Riki@WildChildPics.com

I know - it is so sad.  Photogirl and her dad could not even do anything without causing it great distress.  It could still fly - but how long until the string gets caught on something?  it won't be able to get away from an alligator, or it will break a leg  struggling.  Just make me want to cry.

Spread the word - we are off to Egmont Key today.

Ped X'ing

I'll admit it.  I'm turning into a bit of a curmudgeon. Urban life annoys me: not the interesting architecture, or easy access to just about anything under the sun, or the wide variety of people and sub cultures I run into everyday.  What annoys me about urban life is that there are sooo many people, and not all of them are very bright.  I have pet peeves, as I get older I have more - I swear, I am going to end up being the crazy old lady on the corner ranting at people that walked by that it wasn't how we did it in our day - oh no, when we walked, we put effort into it!

Wait - that is already me.  Tampa is not exactly a pedestrian friendly city.  And the thought of trying to get anywhere on a bike here pretty much terrifies me.  The last City I lived in was Portland, Oregon.  Very bike friendly, lots of public transports, and people walked enough to understand that there are rules.  Rules that support important things, like staying alive, and not messing up the lives of the poor sap that hits you with their car.  Maybe because as a country kid, I learned about urban walking in 3rd grade safety courses. The people here learn it from the neighborhood, parents and peers.  The result is chaos.

Take for example: the cross walk.  You need to cross the street, you go to the nearest cross walk, maybe push a button, wait for the light to change to indicate that it is safe to cross, try not to be freaked out by the flashing orange hand counting the seconds to your demise.  You make it across the street, with mere seconds to spare.  During the whole process you are in front of the cars, in full view, where all the drivers can see you.  If you don't quite make it, chances are the annoyed driver may gesture at you for wasting their time, but they will most likely NOT run over you with their car.  Tampa does not have very strategic cross walks, on some busy streets the cross walks are separated by several very long blocks.  In those cases, you should at least go to an intersection, wait for a natural slow or stop in traffic, and run like hell - please do not do this with toddlers and baby strollers - play "chicken" with your own life, don't drag your kids along.  Buy them the video game - it is WAY cheaper.

I am not a purist, I have been known to J-walk, just not at rush-hour an a main through fare.  So my pedestrian peeve?  People that don't use the freakin' cross walk.  I'm sitting in my car, 2nd car from the light, on a very busy street (3 lanes, each way, double or triple turn lane).  Probably talking on the phone and eating a sandwich - not texting - I'm not quite that stupid.  I am two car lengths from the light, and some idiot, dragging their girlfriend, groceries or very short child, starts weaving in and about between the cars.  When the light changes, people start to move.  They almost get hit, or get stuck between lanes or make a mad dash in front of braking cars.  You are 10 feet from the CrossWalk!  what is wrong with these people?  How lazy can you be?  How illegal is it to hit them?  It really burns me when they then turn and walk towards the cross walk.  If you were going that way anyway, lazy is obviously not the problem.  It is just pure stupid.

On a similar note, some guy on a bike needed to cross the street, and head East yesterday (I was going West).  He gets 1/2 way across the street, turns into oncoming traffic, and starts slaloming between cars, against the flow of traffic, making his way across the street.  Then he flips off the car that almost hit him when the light changed.  The rules for bicyclist in Tampa is different than other parts of the country.  If you are on the street, you follow the laws of a moving vehicle, if you are on the sidewalk, you are treated as a pedestrian.  This is true, and it might be statewide.  Anyone coming from a city where people ride bikes regularly are very confused by this random behavior. Bicycles will come at your from any direction, at any speed.  It is your job to not hit them, even if they come sailing at top speed down the side walk, against the flow of traffic, shielded by a very large hedge.     

Hmmmm - maybe I need to chill, I should go take a walk or something.

 

Duty and Dalliance

This is a two part rant.  
1st - Jury duty.

We are a government "for the people, by the people."  Jury duty is the one chance we get to be part of our judiciary.  It is our most direct line of governance.  I consider it a duty, a privilege, and an obligation.  I get pretty irritated when people give me advice on how to "get out of it."

My first experience of Jury duty was in my early 20's in a small county with a pool of maybe a 100 jurors.  My "peers" are not a whole bunch of people with nothing else going on in their lives, or surly people that think everything going on in their life is more important than whatever is happening in the lives of the people in court.  I realized at that point that to have the opportunity to have "jury of my peers" in the unlikely event that I should ever need one, I should step up and do my duty.  

Then I opened my own business.  The hardship of Jury duty was more of a "there is no one to cover my patients" than a "gee, I can't take the time off."  So for several years, I have gotten out of it.  Little pains of guilt, but really felt like I had no option.  Now, I work for a company that is obligated to let me go, and find coverage for my patients.  We do not get paid for Jury duty.  We either take vacation time, or take unpaid leave.  I'm Ok with that.  I could not be on a long trial, without undo hardship, but I feel it is important enough that I can tighten the 'ol belt for a couple of days off.  

Another subject that came up was the paltry "stipend" that jurors get.  It has been suggested to me that the government pay us more.  I do not believe that we should be paid at all.  It is our duty.  It is part of the price we pay for having a judicial system that allows us to be judged by our peers, not government officials.  It is as fundamental to our democracy as the right to vote.  I would actually be OK with making voting mandatory (I know, dictatorial democracy, kind of an oxymoron, but if I were supreme ruler, I would be gentle about forcing you to live up to your obligations).  I also think that public service, whether military or civil, should be mandatory for all for two years post high school or college.  Seriously - vote for me "Supreme Czar of all Civil Service."

Rant #2
Citizenry waste of government resources.

This Jury pool was over 1700.  We were randomly broken into small groups for each trial where "jury selection" began.  My group had 26 people, we listened to a public defender that thought he was channeling Alan Shore for 4 hours before 7 of us were chosen.  The next day we listened to 3+ hours of testimony.  That is 7 hours of 2 public defenders, 2 state's attorneys, 1 judge, 2 bailiffs, our time (but we were not costing much), and at least a few hours of the 3 officer's that testified time.  Wow - that is tons of people power.  Why?

Because some kid stole 2 packs of cigarettes.  

Which the officers were able to confiscate, and the convenience store had back in approximately 20 minutes.  Everyone deserves a jury trial, and this kid was right to ask for it.  As soon as he was caught, he fessed up, apologized, and gave the cigarettes back.  So why the huge ordeal?  Because the shop-keeper felt "threatened."  That is the difference between petit theft and robbery.  Oh - and robbery is a felony.  

We deliberated for all of 10 minutes.  The shop keeper did not feel "threatened"  when he jumped around the counter chasing the kid, dialing 911 on his cell phone, he didn't even feel threatened when he got outside.  He said that the kid threatened him verbally at that point, but he also said that he relayed the information to 911, and they advised him to "back down, and wait for assistance."  None of the witness accounts could confirm a "threat."  His whole testimony sounded more angry than fearful to me.  Hopefully this kid (and who sells cigarettes to a minor, anyway?) will take the warning and straighten up.  I know where this store is, I work in this neighborhood - If I was a shop-keeper, I might keep a gun under the counter, but I would never consider running after someone that stole something.  This was probably the only 17 year old boy in the whole freaking neighborhood that isn't packin'.