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Sending prayers, and will continue to do so. My humble thanks to this soldier for his service and his sacrifices.

Well, this is ridiculous.

On another note... after Irene, there were widespread outages in Connecticut, and out-of-state contractors hustled up here to help get power restored. CL&P didn’t pay them. I don’t know if they’re hoping FEMA settles it or what, but they didn’t pay ‘em.

And they’re capping overtime on the guys who are on line crews as well, which also slows efforts.

I grew up in CT and honestly, in all the bad storms and power outages we had in southern CT over the years, power was never out for more than two days.. It’s a brave new world. Phht.

Sending prayers and lots of good thoughts!!

You Are an English Garden

You are creative and vibrant. You are inspired by everything around you, and you don't have any one style. You like a mix of old and new. And you always have something unique to add to the equation as well. You are informal, open-minded, and flexible. You love to play around with art and design. You tend to change things up a lot. Whether it's your own clothes or your home, you can't stay with one look for long!

We drove through Dalton on the way to vote in Pittsfield - in front of the Dalton Town Hall were two older folks holding up Brown signs and waving.

We beeped and waved - then Bass said “Wow, look at those evil, nasty, intimidating, teabagging bullies!” John Kerry is so full of steaming brown himself.

Yeah yeah. The slime is quivering all over Boston tonight.

They are going to do everything they can to stuff a sock down the throat of the American voice.

They’re saying the family was a “wife Swap” family? hm.

I hope the kid’s safe somewhere.

They’ll will save the recordings, and charge (taxable) admissions in the schools for the mandatory attendance. *nod*.

Berkshire county here. Seriously though, I am surprised, but we’ll see, lol. I can hear the Borg circuits overheating.

Resistance is futile.

You are a stranger, but I will call you ‘friend’. God has blessed you with the ability and love of helping others. Life is not fair. My prayers are with you and your family for peace.

There are no better words to express my feelings. Many prayers for you & all your family.

We’ve been watching this devolution in (formerly very nice) Pittsfield neighborhoods too.

I’m in a somewhat more more isolated and rural town in the Berkshires, but we have it here too.

At least in a town this size, (2,000) the Chief usually knows who to go and grab when the break-ins start, or other stupidity ensues.

Sad that will be changing as they roam further afield.

Never thought I’d want to move but..

Barack Obama was out jogging one morning along the parkway when he tripped, fell over the bridge railing and landed in the creek below.

Before the Secret Service guys could get to him, 3 kids who were fishing pulled him out of the water. He was so grateful he offered the kids whatever they wanted.

The first kid said, “I want to go to Disneyland “

Barack said, “No problem, I”ll take you there on my Airforce One airplane.”

The second kid said, “I want a new pair of Nike Air Jordan”s shoes.”

Barack said, “I”ll get them for you and even have Michael Jordan sign them!”

The third kid said, “ I want a motorized wheelchair with a built in TV and stereo headset!”

Barack was a little perplexed by this and said, “But you don”t look like you”re handicapped.”

The kid said, “I will be after my dad finds out I saved you from drowning!”

You’re exactly right.

Small mammals don’t often survive the initial attack to actually become rabid.

Even so: animals with furious (aggressive - as opposed to dumb rabies where animals become lethargic, and dopey)) rabies wouldn’t advance/retreat/advance/retreat.. they’d attack. Period. Squirrels can be very bossy anyway :)

I’ve had calls where I’ve pried squirrels off the sidewalls of tires or other inanimate objects, attacking them - but they didn’t have rabies, they had distemper, which is far more common in small mammals, and has symptoms that are often confused with rabies.

I’d say this squirrel was hand fed by well-meaning humans, lost all fear, and now has become an (albeit healthy) nuisance of the more dangerous variety - dependent upon people.

I’m a nuisance wildlife operator. I’ve seen the results of people feeding the cute little wild animals often enough.. sad, but funny article anyway. Glad baby wasn’t hurt.

I call it accessory after the fact.

sigh.

It is just going to get worse. :(

And in case that didn’t make sense - I am sure I must have missed something. I’ll read it again, but.. too much sun, not enough coffee :)

A

I must live in the one town in the one county in MA that’s somewhat conservative and pro-2nd.

My chief’s great, too. Hope he’s with us a while.

It’d be a trick to hold this up, they’d have to stop hunter’s safety classes, and as far as I know those don’t come out of state general fun, they’re paid for mostly by Pittman-Robertson, licensing fees at Fish/Wildlife.

LTC requires CEFS or equivalent NRA certificate, right?

They’d have to change these requirements in law, do they really have the stomach to take that on?

They really don’t have to change laws.. Can almost promise it won’t happen before Dinky’s booted.

It’s a “may issue” state. The ass-hats who don’t want to issue still won’t. The chiefs who do, will be removed by attrition eventually (retirement, relocation, etc)

We should make efforts to have our Boston ducks in a row before that happens, so to speak.

David Carradine, Ed McMahon, .... or do they have to be all in the same short window of passing?

A local Drive-at-Five personality on Friday afternoon said:

“Farrah, we saw that coming, but NO-ONE had Michael Jackson in their dead pool!”

Honestly - I’m a lot more surprised that Billy Mayes passed :(

Pay attention to MEEEEEEE!!!

lol exactly. He's biting at the world's kneecaps again.

One of these days he will find we don't humor gnomes.

We punt them.

I see your points, all - and I realize it’s easier to say “something has to be done” than to actually implement it, and I do realize not all older drivers present the same liabilities as others do.

I guess I should know better than to think these folks have families who are willing to make sure they’re cared for (docs, church, social visits, etc) A lot of towns here in western MA have senior programs that will give people rides, but the more rural folks would be stuck, for sure.

I guess my perspective comes from that of the elderly drivers who present a more immediate danger: a couple accidents my Dad had, he just told the cops “The sun was in his eyes” and there was no further follow-up..

Advocates for the elderly have sharply opposed age-based oversight as discriminatory, and noted that the state prohibits age discrimination in licensing.

*Most* older drivers lack the vision and response time for driving int traffic. My Dad was one of them.

We tried to get his license revoked, and couldn't. His eye doctor said Dad's vision had deteriorated and that he'd have to send a letter to the state, but he never did.

His driving was so erratic, I can't even tell you how many fender scrapes he had, or curbs he hit. The damage would show up on his Outback, and he'd shrug and say "I don't know when that happened." or ask me what *I* did to his car.

My daughter and I moved in with him when he was 80 years old, soon after my mother passed away, because my other sisters would have put him in a nursing home: I drove him everywhere he wanted to go, and got him to all his doctor appointments, but he would sneak out as often as he could on his own.

It was his last semblance of independence (in his eyes- I could understand that much) but he had macular degeneration and funky blood sugar from his diabetes - and his mind wandered a lot.

In 2007, a month after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, he decided to "make the rounds", I knew he couldn't see, he was depressed, he didn't just care if anything happened to him anymore.

I went to the police department in my town, and had the Sgt at the desk put a "stop & hold" on him.. we called the state police in case he went farther afield, but luckily we found him a town away sitting in a diner flirting wit his favorite waitress.

I took his keys away, (including any spares) and he was SO angry. It hurt me to have the roles switched and have to be the hard-ass parent to him, but he was a danger to his own and other lives on the road. He said "I'm going to be dead in six months anyway."

The argument that finally got to him was: "It's bad enough you don't care if your own daughter has to go and identify you in a morgue - what about some other family or small children you hit because you can't see.. do they deserve that, because you don't care?"

His driver's license wasn't set to expire until 2008. Six months after he passed away. He wouldn't have even had to have another eye test, he could have had it renewed online if he knew that was an option.

The states have to do something about the older drivers, not just to protect them from themselves, but the other families out there that face a tragedy because they refuse to surrender their "rights" to drive as long as they have a valid license.

What if UK & Europe considered that same question about Chamberlain in 1938?