I am bored of politics again. So instead I am going to write about the few 'strange encounters' I have had over the years. I'm sure there are explanations for them all but as each happened, I tried very hard to figure it all out and not jump to the conclusion of the paranormal immediately, and came up with zilch. I have always been interested in the paranormal, but really just 'in passing' like movies and such. The odd weirdo seance as a teen, etc. Lots of stuff happened back then that I can't explain, but there were also too many variables with other teens around so I put those at the bottom of my list of odd events.
The others have happened as I got older. The time when you should be less inclined to jump at bumps in the night.
A few years ago, my ex boyfriend and I were sitting on the couch at my old place. It was a duplex but the other side was unoccupied at that time. I can't remember the exact time, but it was evening. My duplex was owned by the Community Housing Agency and workers didn't do work there at night so that was the first thing I crossed off my list when 'the event' happened - that and the fact the worker van was not parked outside at the time anyway. So anyway we were sitting there talking, cuddling, watching tv when a door SLAMMED so loud in the basement, we both jumped. It was very loud and clear, and kind of like when you slam a car door while sitting inside, I felt the air pressure change in my ears. We both turned and leaned to look down the stairs behind us because it was a half-wall. We then looked at each other like 'what the hell was that?' and got up to check. My heart was thudding a mile a minute. The bang was SO loud. I figured I must have left a window open down there, though I was pretty sure I didn't.
We walked down the stairs and then just sort of stood there bewildered. None of the 4 basement doors were closed. They were all open. We looked around, like checking to see if maybe something had fallen against the furnace (no), or perhaps a window was open and the door banged in a cross-breeze and bounced back open (no, all windows were closed tightly), or something else had maybe fallen. No no and no. I didn't really have much in my basement, and nothing was out of place. All I really had down there was cardboard boxes and a toy room. Everything was fine. We had no idea what happened and we never figured it out. It bothered me, but what can ya do?
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Later that same year, a week or so after me and that same boyfriend split up, I was on the computer talking to my friend about ghost stories. It was almost halloween, afterall. I well and truly freaked myself out so I slept upstairs on my couch to be near the kids' rooms rather than sleep in the basement alone. Earlier in the evening, I had put a load of clothes in the dryer to be ready for work the next day. I didn't go downstairs again. In the morning, around 6am, I woke up on the couch and headed down to grab my clean clothes for work. I stopped dead in my tracks at the bottom of the stairs because the door to the laundry room was closed. I almost never shut that door because I just don't. I don't like closed doors in a basement (see also above story - where I had all 4 doors open lol). I was a single mom and gone from the house all day and leave all doors open wide. I just do. Always have, always will. So anyway that was my first curious surprise - why was the laundry room door shut? But then my eyes wandered to my left and my bedroom door was shut as well!
That really freaked me out. I do not shut that door even when I am in there sleeping because I want to be able to hear my young kiddos upstairs during the night in case they have a problem. And I don't shut the door when I am not in the room - so what the heck? But my biggest shock came when I looked up and noticed that a latch was also closed over the door.
To explain, when I moved in, I noticed that someone had installed a latch/hook lock at the very top of the door and frame - the kind you would need to hang a lock through in order to actually lock it. I don't have a lock, and why would I do that anyway? My kids are good and don't go sneaking in my room but there is nothing fun to find in there regardless lol. But here the latch part attached to the frame was closed tightly over the hook part attached to the door. My kids were about 9 and 4 at the time - both too short to reach that latch, and no chair or box to stand on either. I was completely bewildered and could barely breathe. What was going on? Two doors shut, and a latch connected as well. I opened the doors after having a mild panic attack (okay - it was close to major lol) and then I realized another problem...
The latch on my door was really tight. I had to lift the door by the knob to get the latch to come off smoothly. That's when I ran some little experiments like slamming the door to see if the latch would jiggle enough to swing over on it's own (not even close, no jiggling at all), pushing the latch so it was almost shut and then closing my door to see if it would engage with the hook, (no, because again, I would have to lift the door by the knob to get them to line up correctly), etc. Nothing worked. I even took a video showing how hard it was to close the latch securely, as it was when I found it, so I could show my friends I was not crazy. About the only explanation anyone could come up with was that I was sleep walking after my ghostie chat with my friend, and went downstairs and closed the doors myself and engaged the latch. That is as impossible to prove as it is to disprove, so I had to just leave it at that. Two events with the basement doors within a few months of each other.
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One other event happened at that house. When my daughter was almost 3, she and I were leaving the house to go for a walk. I was locking my front door when she suddenly blurted out 'Your dad says Hi'. My dad died in 1996 and this was 2004. I did not talk about my dad much because I didnt want to explain death to a young child. She had no real concept that I even had a dad - just my mom/her grammie. So I said 'ummm what?' and she repeated it, all nonchalantly "Your dad says Hi". I was stunned. I glanced at her and she was just boppin around on the sidewalk waiting for me. I said something like 'where is my dad?' and she looked all exasperated with me and pointed away from the house, like towards the road or across the road, and said 'he is right over there'. I was stunned back into silence for a few moments. I felt cold all over, all shaky and weird. I finally said 'WHERE is my dad?' and she got totally frustrated with me, like a 3 yr old bossy diva would, and pointed again towards the road and said in an exasperated diva tone "He is right over THERE, with your grandma!!!!". I nearly fainted right there on the spot. My dad's mother had passed away 4 years earlier and lived on the other side of Canada so my daughter had never met her. My other grandma lived on the other side of Canada too and again, had never met my daughter. As far as I will ever know, she had no concept that I had a grandmother at all. It was just too flippin weird. Then my daughter started jabbering other things like 'your dad says he likes you. he doesnt love you, but he likes you'. She sounded a bit more confused about that statement when compared to the sureness of her other statements, so I have no idea if she 'heard' something and didnt know how to express it to me or what. But I was completely freaked out at that point and just started on the walk with her. I dont know why, but I had the impression that my dad and grandma were standing on the other side of the road near some trees so as we passed that point I whispered 'Hey dad. Please don't do that to me again!'.
In hindsight, I wish I had never said that. The whole thing caught me SO off-guard, I didnt know how to react so I just blurted that out. I meant dont freak me out like that again lol, but it came out almost like 'dont come around me like that again'. That's not how I meant it, but what's done is done. I will never know what really happened that day but she never spoke of my dad again until she was older and asked me why I didnt have a dad. She apparently has no memory of that incident. One day when she is much older, I will tell her about it. It would be cool if she retained some sort of memory of it, but she was so young, I doubt it.
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In my new house, only a couple things have happened. One also involved my daughter. She was sitting at one end of the couch reading to me one night. The hall light was on behind her and we were just relaxing. But I noticed several times while she was reading, she was acting weird. I think she was about 7 years old at the time. She would slow her reading and glance slowly to her left, looking slowly over her shoulder. I didn't think much of it, I thought perhaps a hair on her head was sticking out and catching the light and she could see it out of the corner of her eye. But as she was reading more, she got more irritated and would turn her head very fast and suddenly to the right and look just slightly behind her shoulder toward the front door. It was starting to freak me out so I finally asked what the heck she was doing. She said 'that bright white light is ANNOYING me'. I looked around and said 'what light??' and she said 'the one I keep seeing beside me. it's really annoying me so I'm trying to catch it' (as in, catch full sight of it). I was stunned. There was nothing there. Just a dark blue couch with nothing reflective on it like papers etc, nothing behind the couch except the bare wall and floor, etc.... I watched her reading and she peeked furtively to the right again and I had the sudden impression for a split second that someone was standing there watching her read. My impression was of my grandma, white hair so that would probably be dad's mom, and all I said in my mind was 'If you are going to watch her read, maybe you could stand back a bit because she can see you'. After I had that loud thought in my mind, she never looked over her shoulder like that again. She kind of shrugged and wiggled a bit, and turned her head a couple times, but she was not focused on anything directly anymore. It was truly an odd moment. It was nice if my impression was correct, but it was also weird lol.
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The other thing that happened was when I was in my basement. I was doing laundry and everyone else was upstairs. You have to picture my basement - it's just an open unfinished space with 4 cement walls, a water tank and furnace sticking out toward the middle, and then my washer/dryer along the side. The rest is just boxes and such randomly placed around. Also, the stairs are open, meaning there is just a railing down the side not an enclosed wall, and you can see between every step from anywhere in the basement. My laundry stuff is only a few feet away. So anyway I'm standing there doing laundry and the water tank/furnace is behind me. I saw movement to my right so I turned just in time to see what I thought was my oldest son dashing behind the water tank. I had a clear impression of his upper arm, elbow, and part of his lower arm - bent like this < as he hid behind the tank. We all like to pop out and scare the crap out of each other so I decided to let him play his little prank and scare me. I waited and then wondered why I had not seen or heard him come down the creaky old steps right beside me. But whatever, I kept loading the washer and waited... and waited... and nothing happened.
I could not hear anything and got fed up. I hate being scared even when I know someone is going to jump out. I always scream lol. So I decided to sneak around the other side of the furnace and scare the daylights out of him instead lol. I was still totally convinced my son would be on the other side... So I crept around the furnace and saw nothing but the empty basement. I quickly dashed around the other direction thinking I would catch my son there but no one was there. Nothing. My blood ran cold, I threw the last of my clothes in the wash and slammed the lid, and dashed upstairs as fast as I could lol. I told my boyfriend that someone was trying to play hide and seek with me in the basement but it wasnt any of them - still sitting in front of the tv where I left them - and I didn't want to play anymore lol. He thinks I am crazy and that the house is not old enough to have any activity - but I cannot explain what happened that night. There is no way at all for car headlights to shine in the windows, there is no tv down there, nothing but the bare ceiling bulbs to give off light - so I don't know what I could have seen. Blah!
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My boyfriend doesnt know what to think about the paranormal. He goes back and forth between logical explanations and otherwordly explanations. He had one strange experience before we met and that's his only real tie to the paranormal - He was living with his ex gf and they were sleeping in bed one night. He woke up hearing voices like women talking. It was muffled enough that he could not hear exact words, but loud enough that it sounded like it was coming from his house. It was a bitter cold night so no windows were open. He laid there listening to the talking and thought 'holy sh*t, someone is in my house!'. He got out of bed thinking someone was in the basement because the slight muffling made him think that must be the place. As he moved away from the bed and toward the sound, he glanced at his gf and realized she was awake. Her eyes were as big as plates and she was frozen in the bed. She managed to mutter 'Do you hear that???' and sounded terrified. He whispered yes, or nodded, and then went to walk out of his room. But as he passed the closet, he realized the voices totally sounded like they were coming from inside. The other side of his closet wall is the kitchen so he was bewildered. He opened the closet door and the voices ceased immediately. Just stopped dead. He continued to check out the rest of the house though and nothing was there. He looked outside and no one was on the street, the neighbour's house was dark, and he could not see any footprints in the snow between the homes either. Sometimes he says that it must have been voices outside, carried strangely by the cold night air, but most of the time he admits that something funky was going on. He said it sounded like several women, like you would expect to hear them chattering at a party or little get together or something. Talking, laughing, chatting - then poof gone as suddenly as it started. His gf was completely freaked out but he also knows from that that he was not the only one hearing it, it was not a dream, and she did not hear it coming from any window area either.
Showing posts with label random musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random musings. Show all posts
Cripes
It has been so long since I posted, I don't even know where to start. I keep thinking 'i should blog about that', but then I don't get around to it and I forget lol. Oops! Too much going on - my brain goes into overload and then shuts down.
Some remarks that do come to mind though center around the markets - I wonder if the family members who laughed at my partner for saying gold would hit $2000 in the next few years are eating crow yet. My bf was quite offended during a normal conversation about politics, markets, etc when he was nearly laughed out of the room by two family members when he said that. This was about 2.5 years ago. Now gold is hovering between $1700 and $1800. Are they watching? Or are they secretly reiterating to others what my bf said and claiming it as their own prediction? Gee I wonder. My bf based his comment on listening to various people interested in this sort of thing, their predictions about the american dollar losing ground and gold rising steadily in response (to that and other events), but he was laughed at in front of a whole group of other family members at a holiday gathering. They said he was full of sh*t and then cut out of the rest of the conversation and even told that he was crazy. It was quite a rude night.... but now... hmmmmmmm CAW CAW.
Postal Strike - I read something maybe 2-3 years ago about Canada Post workers complaining about having to deliver so much 'junk mail' and how they thought it was bad for the environment because they know most of it just gets thrown out. Well, then it comes to pass that more and more people are sending emails instead of hand-written letters, more businesses are offering billing online instead of mailing them out, coupon places are offering online printing of select coupons so they do not have to waste money putting out mailers, not to mention all of the above hold environmental concerns for many - paper waste, extra garbage, etc... so then what happens? The possibility of cutting Canada Post delivery to 3 days a week comes up. Why? Because there is much less mail volume now and it's costing too much money to pay workers and their benefit and pension plans when not near as much money is coming in from people mailing items. Shouldn't those same complaining workers be HAPPY about this? After all, they were mightily concerned about the environment just a couple of years ago. They should be thrilled that so many people and companies are avoiding sending out unnecessary paper items in favor of saving the environment, right? Oh wait - noooo apparently they just meant that they want other people to lose their jobs in the name of the Planet - not them. Not the postal workers! No way! They do not want their pensions and work days reduced in order to save cost in response to lower mail volume. They want people to send less mail but the workers themselves to get more money and remain gainfully employed no matter what. "It's not for them, it's for YOU" ©Andrew Wilkow.
US Debt Crisis. Wow. It's a staggering amount of money. People have started throwing around the word 'trillion' as though it doesn't mean much more than 'billion'. Think Austin Powers movies here " I want one billion dollars!"...... "billion? Ha! That doesnt even exist yet in the 60s!". Well 50 movie years later we are now saying Trillion and letting it roll off our tongues like it's some normal number. When I was a kid in school, trillion was only something we learned a tiny bit about when learning what a million was, then a billion, and then it was like some space science lesson to learn about trillions and quadrillions. It was a fantasy number 20 years ago. Now it's 'just another number'. SCARY. But I have heard some people around the world, friends in Canada, Europe, Australia, etc laughing about it. Saying the US is getting what they deserve. Are these people on crack? For Canadians especially, the Americans are our bread and butter. A huge amount of what we make and process here goes to the US. We have a teeny tiny little population, the US has ten times that amount, and we sell our goods to them. If they are unable to buy it for much longer, what the hell are we going to do? Who are the car parts manufacturers in Ontario going to sell to? Alberta? Ummm no. Cos our truck fleets are greatest in the oil and gas industry and who do we sell to? Oh - the US. So if our rigs go down to skeleton crews or close, why would we be buying new fleets of trucks every couple of years from Ontario? Who are we going to truck our food items to? Our beef, grains, our water even? I am very worried about our American friends and neighbours, and ourselves. And I think everyone else should be as well.
No Smoking Laws. In September, my city is going to implement a bylaw that disallows smoking inside a vehicle where children under the age of 16 are present. I believe the fine will be $100. the original bylaw was supposed to be anyone under 18, and a $200 fine but it would not pass at that level so it was reduced slightly. My city will become the largest municipality in the province to do this, and the hopes are that it will be Alberta wide in due time. What is my problem with this? Well - it is further encroaching on private property for one. Your own car that you paid for, and you are being further dictated to about what you can and cannot do in it. How long before someone says that you cannot smoke in your home if you have children under age 16 or 18 living there? If people shake their heads and say that will not happen - think back 20 years and see if anyone back then thought that eventually they would be told not to smoke in their cars with their children. I bet you would see just as many head-shakes. So that is my first issue with it. But next, I wondered about how it will be enforced. My truck has tinted windows and you can vaguely see a car seat outline, but cannot tell if a child is actually sitting in the seat unless you get right up to the window and peer inside. We do not smoke in the truck when the kids are there - we didnt need anyone else to tell us that, it's just a choice we made. But what if my partner is driving to work one morning and a police officer sees the carseat, sees a smoke in my bf's hand, and puts on his lights and pulls him over. Why should that happen? He could be driving perfectly safely, not making any traffic violations, and still get pulled over because the officer sees a ciggy (oh no!) and then spies the outline of a carseat through the darkened windows (gasp! shock! horror!). Why should by bf be pulled over at the side of the road and approached by an officer with a gun at his hip just because he was holding a cigarette? I saw a car drive by me when I was walking, and a man was smoking while driving, and even standing right beside the car, I could not tell if there were kids in there or not because the windows were dark. Should that guy get pulled over too? Seriously - it's getting ridiculous and be assured they are not done yet. There will be more rules and bylaws and fines places on people in their own private vehicles (or homes). there WILL be. At what point do we draw the line? As someone in my city pointed out in a debate - if the issue is second-hand smoke, what difference will it really make if the child is in a home all day where the parent smokes like a chimney, and in the 2 min drive to the store and back, mommy and daddy don't light up, but do immediately upon returning home again. So - that is where this will come in eventually. No smoking in homes that have children. How will they enforce this? I have NO idea. But I am still not sure about the smoking in car thing either... they don't seem to catch the speeders or the people who practically run my kids and I down in crosswalks weekly, so how they will catch all those naughty smokers is beyond me. It's just another form of control, mind control, and a way to make a few bucks for those they 'catch'. Spare me.
Check Stops. The smoking thing brought another issue to my mind again. Check Stops. For years I didnt mind them - I just thought they would get a few more drunk drivers off the streets and that is good right? But now I think about the millions of law abiding citizens who are pulled over every year in North America, delayed on their journeys, questioned about where they are going and where they just came from, lights shined in their eyes and around the interior of the vehicles, all in the name of 'safety'. I read recently on a long weekend in my city that they stopped 1200 cars and found no one over the limit. They were happy to see that people were not drunk driving through that check stop... 1200+ people stopped for NO reason. 1200+ people questioned and 'detained' against their will for NO reason. Yes it is detained against their will cos just try driving straight through a check stop without stopping one of these days and see what happens :) Or try turning your car around when you see it - and watch an officer jump in his car and chase you down to see why you turned. Maybe you turned cos you fricken wanted to get to your friend's house for coffee and are tired of this sh*t - but you tell them that and they think you are being unruly and beligerant. Gee thanks officer. As for me, I've never drank and drove ever ever ever in my life. Not even after one single drink, let alone more than that. But I could theoretically be stopped every weekend for 50 years just to make sure I didnt decide to tank up and drive one night. Is that necessary? Is that fair and just? To be PRESUMED ahead of time to be a potential drunk driver, even if you never have in your life and never plan to? I've had flashlights half blind me on several occasions as a passenger, let alone as a driver. Why do we put up with this stuff, seriously? My friend's husband is a cop and he admitted several times that they very rarely catch drunk drivers at a check stop. Most of their calls come in from the public, reporting an erratic driver, or from police themselves seeing an erratic driver. IE - someone who IS violating traffic rules or weaving back and forth across the road, or accelerating and deccelerating for no apparent reason, or any number of other cues that the person might be intoxicated. Not people out for a Sat night drive and getting stuck in a Check Stop. The great majority of collars are found by other means.
there are Apps out there that list where check stops are, and some govt and police agencies want these Apps removed. Well since the majority of people going through them are NOT drunk drivers, why not let those people avoid a potentially long delay and take a different route to their friend's house for coffee? If I have been out for a long day with my kids and am just trying to get home and put them to bed, why shouldn't I have the chance to know that I shouldnt take 13th street because I will be held up for 20-30 mins while they stop everyone? And a lot of drunk drivers are so drunk, they dont even see the problem with driving, so are they going to check their App and say 'oops, I am really drunk, so I better avoid 13th street on the way home'? I mean, really. The majority of people these Check Stops check are law abiding honest citizens who really should not be pulled over by gun toting police officers. At least, that is my opinion.
And before you think I am heartless and don't care about drunk driving incidents - Two of my high school friends were killed by drunk drivers, as well as a friend's younger brother. It was a horrible few years. Funerals here there and everywhere. Awful painful horrible stuff..... But today I watched a news piece about a woman driving while wearing flipflops and it appears that her flipflop fell off and got stuck around the gas pedal. She accelerated and crashed into three elderly people and KILLED them all. How shocking and horrific must that have been? I have heard many stories over the years about shoes getting caught up under gas pedals and bad things happening - so perhaps we should think about making it against the law to drive while wearing shoes. And while we are at it, maybe get rid of floor mats too because they have caused problems as well if they ride up under the gas pedal. Those new laws would save lives every year too. Would you like to go through a checkstop where they looked at your feet and your eyes? Two for one check stops!
Some remarks that do come to mind though center around the markets - I wonder if the family members who laughed at my partner for saying gold would hit $2000 in the next few years are eating crow yet. My bf was quite offended during a normal conversation about politics, markets, etc when he was nearly laughed out of the room by two family members when he said that. This was about 2.5 years ago. Now gold is hovering between $1700 and $1800. Are they watching? Or are they secretly reiterating to others what my bf said and claiming it as their own prediction? Gee I wonder. My bf based his comment on listening to various people interested in this sort of thing, their predictions about the american dollar losing ground and gold rising steadily in response (to that and other events), but he was laughed at in front of a whole group of other family members at a holiday gathering. They said he was full of sh*t and then cut out of the rest of the conversation and even told that he was crazy. It was quite a rude night.... but now... hmmmmmmm CAW CAW.
Postal Strike - I read something maybe 2-3 years ago about Canada Post workers complaining about having to deliver so much 'junk mail' and how they thought it was bad for the environment because they know most of it just gets thrown out. Well, then it comes to pass that more and more people are sending emails instead of hand-written letters, more businesses are offering billing online instead of mailing them out, coupon places are offering online printing of select coupons so they do not have to waste money putting out mailers, not to mention all of the above hold environmental concerns for many - paper waste, extra garbage, etc... so then what happens? The possibility of cutting Canada Post delivery to 3 days a week comes up. Why? Because there is much less mail volume now and it's costing too much money to pay workers and their benefit and pension plans when not near as much money is coming in from people mailing items. Shouldn't those same complaining workers be HAPPY about this? After all, they were mightily concerned about the environment just a couple of years ago. They should be thrilled that so many people and companies are avoiding sending out unnecessary paper items in favor of saving the environment, right? Oh wait - noooo apparently they just meant that they want other people to lose their jobs in the name of the Planet - not them. Not the postal workers! No way! They do not want their pensions and work days reduced in order to save cost in response to lower mail volume. They want people to send less mail but the workers themselves to get more money and remain gainfully employed no matter what. "It's not for them, it's for YOU" ©Andrew Wilkow.
US Debt Crisis. Wow. It's a staggering amount of money. People have started throwing around the word 'trillion' as though it doesn't mean much more than 'billion'. Think Austin Powers movies here " I want one billion dollars!"...... "billion? Ha! That doesnt even exist yet in the 60s!". Well 50 movie years later we are now saying Trillion and letting it roll off our tongues like it's some normal number. When I was a kid in school, trillion was only something we learned a tiny bit about when learning what a million was, then a billion, and then it was like some space science lesson to learn about trillions and quadrillions. It was a fantasy number 20 years ago. Now it's 'just another number'. SCARY. But I have heard some people around the world, friends in Canada, Europe, Australia, etc laughing about it. Saying the US is getting what they deserve. Are these people on crack? For Canadians especially, the Americans are our bread and butter. A huge amount of what we make and process here goes to the US. We have a teeny tiny little population, the US has ten times that amount, and we sell our goods to them. If they are unable to buy it for much longer, what the hell are we going to do? Who are the car parts manufacturers in Ontario going to sell to? Alberta? Ummm no. Cos our truck fleets are greatest in the oil and gas industry and who do we sell to? Oh - the US. So if our rigs go down to skeleton crews or close, why would we be buying new fleets of trucks every couple of years from Ontario? Who are we going to truck our food items to? Our beef, grains, our water even? I am very worried about our American friends and neighbours, and ourselves. And I think everyone else should be as well.
No Smoking Laws. In September, my city is going to implement a bylaw that disallows smoking inside a vehicle where children under the age of 16 are present. I believe the fine will be $100. the original bylaw was supposed to be anyone under 18, and a $200 fine but it would not pass at that level so it was reduced slightly. My city will become the largest municipality in the province to do this, and the hopes are that it will be Alberta wide in due time. What is my problem with this? Well - it is further encroaching on private property for one. Your own car that you paid for, and you are being further dictated to about what you can and cannot do in it. How long before someone says that you cannot smoke in your home if you have children under age 16 or 18 living there? If people shake their heads and say that will not happen - think back 20 years and see if anyone back then thought that eventually they would be told not to smoke in their cars with their children. I bet you would see just as many head-shakes. So that is my first issue with it. But next, I wondered about how it will be enforced. My truck has tinted windows and you can vaguely see a car seat outline, but cannot tell if a child is actually sitting in the seat unless you get right up to the window and peer inside. We do not smoke in the truck when the kids are there - we didnt need anyone else to tell us that, it's just a choice we made. But what if my partner is driving to work one morning and a police officer sees the carseat, sees a smoke in my bf's hand, and puts on his lights and pulls him over. Why should that happen? He could be driving perfectly safely, not making any traffic violations, and still get pulled over because the officer sees a ciggy (oh no!) and then spies the outline of a carseat through the darkened windows (gasp! shock! horror!). Why should by bf be pulled over at the side of the road and approached by an officer with a gun at his hip just because he was holding a cigarette? I saw a car drive by me when I was walking, and a man was smoking while driving, and even standing right beside the car, I could not tell if there were kids in there or not because the windows were dark. Should that guy get pulled over too? Seriously - it's getting ridiculous and be assured they are not done yet. There will be more rules and bylaws and fines places on people in their own private vehicles (or homes). there WILL be. At what point do we draw the line? As someone in my city pointed out in a debate - if the issue is second-hand smoke, what difference will it really make if the child is in a home all day where the parent smokes like a chimney, and in the 2 min drive to the store and back, mommy and daddy don't light up, but do immediately upon returning home again. So - that is where this will come in eventually. No smoking in homes that have children. How will they enforce this? I have NO idea. But I am still not sure about the smoking in car thing either... they don't seem to catch the speeders or the people who practically run my kids and I down in crosswalks weekly, so how they will catch all those naughty smokers is beyond me. It's just another form of control, mind control, and a way to make a few bucks for those they 'catch'. Spare me.
Check Stops. The smoking thing brought another issue to my mind again. Check Stops. For years I didnt mind them - I just thought they would get a few more drunk drivers off the streets and that is good right? But now I think about the millions of law abiding citizens who are pulled over every year in North America, delayed on their journeys, questioned about where they are going and where they just came from, lights shined in their eyes and around the interior of the vehicles, all in the name of 'safety'. I read recently on a long weekend in my city that they stopped 1200 cars and found no one over the limit. They were happy to see that people were not drunk driving through that check stop... 1200+ people stopped for NO reason. 1200+ people questioned and 'detained' against their will for NO reason. Yes it is detained against their will cos just try driving straight through a check stop without stopping one of these days and see what happens :) Or try turning your car around when you see it - and watch an officer jump in his car and chase you down to see why you turned. Maybe you turned cos you fricken wanted to get to your friend's house for coffee and are tired of this sh*t - but you tell them that and they think you are being unruly and beligerant. Gee thanks officer. As for me, I've never drank and drove ever ever ever in my life. Not even after one single drink, let alone more than that. But I could theoretically be stopped every weekend for 50 years just to make sure I didnt decide to tank up and drive one night. Is that necessary? Is that fair and just? To be PRESUMED ahead of time to be a potential drunk driver, even if you never have in your life and never plan to? I've had flashlights half blind me on several occasions as a passenger, let alone as a driver. Why do we put up with this stuff, seriously? My friend's husband is a cop and he admitted several times that they very rarely catch drunk drivers at a check stop. Most of their calls come in from the public, reporting an erratic driver, or from police themselves seeing an erratic driver. IE - someone who IS violating traffic rules or weaving back and forth across the road, or accelerating and deccelerating for no apparent reason, or any number of other cues that the person might be intoxicated. Not people out for a Sat night drive and getting stuck in a Check Stop. The great majority of collars are found by other means.
there are Apps out there that list where check stops are, and some govt and police agencies want these Apps removed. Well since the majority of people going through them are NOT drunk drivers, why not let those people avoid a potentially long delay and take a different route to their friend's house for coffee? If I have been out for a long day with my kids and am just trying to get home and put them to bed, why shouldn't I have the chance to know that I shouldnt take 13th street because I will be held up for 20-30 mins while they stop everyone? And a lot of drunk drivers are so drunk, they dont even see the problem with driving, so are they going to check their App and say 'oops, I am really drunk, so I better avoid 13th street on the way home'? I mean, really. The majority of people these Check Stops check are law abiding honest citizens who really should not be pulled over by gun toting police officers. At least, that is my opinion.
And before you think I am heartless and don't care about drunk driving incidents - Two of my high school friends were killed by drunk drivers, as well as a friend's younger brother. It was a horrible few years. Funerals here there and everywhere. Awful painful horrible stuff..... But today I watched a news piece about a woman driving while wearing flipflops and it appears that her flipflop fell off and got stuck around the gas pedal. She accelerated and crashed into three elderly people and KILLED them all. How shocking and horrific must that have been? I have heard many stories over the years about shoes getting caught up under gas pedals and bad things happening - so perhaps we should think about making it against the law to drive while wearing shoes. And while we are at it, maybe get rid of floor mats too because they have caused problems as well if they ride up under the gas pedal. Those new laws would save lives every year too. Would you like to go through a checkstop where they looked at your feet and your eyes? Two for one check stops!
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