Same here

 

So it would seem that a group of kids waiting to board a school bus this morning witnessed a fatal car crash in front of their bus stop.

Roads were icy in places yet the school system didn't delay, it would seem a van started to fish tail and lost control slamming head on into a Chevy Trailblazer.

 

That really sucks, I feel bad for those kids.

I still remember, very vividly, the first time I saw a dead person.
I was about 11 years old, and my dad and I were on our way from Klamath Falls, OR, to my Grandmother's house in McKinleyville, CA. It was early, cold, and pretty foggy. We were driving on an Oregon highway through a flat area that had a large drainage ditch on one side of the road, and we came upon a car that was upside down in the ditch. There were already 2 or 3 other vehicles stopped and there was a boy about my age sitting in another car, soaking wet, wrapped in a blanket, screaming for someone to get his mom. At least 4 people were trying to pull her out, but the car was upside down and lower on the driver's side, and there was some ice in the ditch. None of them could hold their breath long enough to get the door pulled open or swim through the icy water from the passenger side. Once rescue crews finally arrived and pulled her out, she was dead.
I remember the strange white color her face was even though I was on the opposite side of the road by my dad's truck, and I remember the sound of one of the rescue crewmen's knee either dislocating or breaking when he slipped in the rip-rap while pulling the body to the edge of the ditch.

I hope those kids didn't see as much as I did that day, and I really hope none of them were younger than I was. That's pretty f***ed up as far as childhood Christmas memories go.

 

You gotta remember, these days, kids are bombarded with images of death, destruction and mahem. News, TV shows, video games, you tube...surrounded by it. I doubt it impacted them that much. They probably went right back to playing on their phones or Nintendos or whatever other handlehd device they have.

 

I remember a young kid I hired to throw hay bales, was telling me about this game, how his friends didn't want to play with him anymore because he was so good at killing them, obviously in the game. Unfortunately that mentality, combined with a small mind alteration, maybe caused by a drug or something, can spiral out of control fast, and end up in the news headlines...

You hear of the kid who shot his grandmother (or whoever it was), they found out he was playing very violent games on a regular basis. Makes me wonder what those games do to your mind.

But yup I agree with you, it probably made little impact on them.

 

Big difference between seeing death on a screen, and seeing it in person.... Onscreen has a certainly unreal quality to it, even if it is actual scenes.... in person, there is absolutely no question of death.....

I had the opportunity to walk a B-52 crash site, to pick up body parts. (many problems, to low for the two crew in the lower berths to eject, entire crew went down together.) That was not an exercise I would care to repeat. Even 30 some odd years later, I still have bad dreams about that......

 

We have the new electronic meters but during the winter they can't get up here to drive past and scan the meter. So once the bad weather starts they guesstimate how much power you are using until spring and then they adjust your usage to fit the numbers. Same thing happens for the water meter but that is still a analog so it has to be read each month. Once it gets cold the lids are frozen to the ground and then when it snows everything is buried and you'd have to dig up lids first.

 

And here I thought that the whole idea behind the wireless 'smart' meters was so they DIDN'T have to Guesstimate your usage.

I can see the problem though..... roads around here were snowed shut for about a week last winter...... we don't seem to be real high on the plow priority list. I could get out..... but, I have pretty good ground clearance, and 4 wheel drive. My neighbors have the 4 wheel drive, but, not the ground clearance... so, I ended up spending most of a day pulling folks down the road to get their vehicles back home.

Good way to ingratiate yourself with the neighbors. I have only lived here for two years.

 

Lol..yeah, but there's quite a difference between witnessing a car crash and picking up body parts.

 

When I was younger I had a pretty dandy snow thrower. I worked second shift and a lot of snowy days the snow would be just ending when I would get home.

I'd always clear my driveway then go up and down the block clearing the neighbors too.

One night after we had gotten around 6” I did my usual thing. Just as I was finishing the last one, one of the city's finest came rolling down the street and gave me a $75.00 ticket for violation of the 'quiet time' ordinance for running my snow thrower after 9:00 pm. He said someone had called to complain.“Quiet time” is between 10:00 pm and 7:00 am in the summer and after 9:00 pm until 8:00 am in the winter around here.

I decided to go to court. I thought I would be able to have my say in court but the judge was not interested in that all he wanted to know was if I had been running the snow thrower after 9:00 pm.

I paid the fine and stopped clearing my drive way until after 8:00 am. One of my older neighbors called and asked why I hadn't cleared her driveway thinking I wanted to be paid to do it. I told her I had to wait until after 8 o'clock and I would do hers then along with mine.

When I finished doing hers a few of my other neighbors came out and offered to pay me so I ended up telling each of them my story. Naturally none of the folks I cleared the snow for admitted they had called the cops on me and did not know any one who would do such a thing.

They all paid me a little to help defray my court costs and fine but I never did find out who called.

If there is enough snow to need the snow thrower I still wait until after 8:00 am to use it. A lot ofother folks are out there clearing snow before they leave for work, well before 6:00 am. When I was working second shift there were a lot of times I'd be awakened by the noise of their snow blowers but I never did get around to calling the police.