I don't know the numbers, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of us SurveyorConnect members that are aging baby-boomers. So when I talk about getting use to most of the rest of the world being younger than yourselves, I bet a lot of you know what I'm talking about.
The first sign of aging I remember was when the young lady at the grocery counter called me "sir" like I was her father. Then lots of small things started adding up to a crescendo of the proverbial Boy Scout holding the door open for me and actually helping me with my groceries. After looking around lately I've realized "I'm old". It won't be long before my employees are all the same age as my grandkids. I guess it's inevitable.
Most of the cultures of the world respect their elders. There's a lot to be said of a country that has a monarch or leader that remembers when Methuselah was a child. Or at least someone that remembers when our last president was assassinated. Or the last time the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia. In my mind a leader needs to have seen enough of the "big picture" to make some judgment calls. I believe when we elect our leaders and representatives we do so, in part, as a vote of confidence in how we think they will react in a time we all hope never comes; a time of crisis. And let me tell you; being twenty years older than Archie Bunker, confidence like that is rare with the rest of the herd.
I try to stay current with my grass roots representatives, starting with our City Council, which is televised on the local cable channel. It's like watching reruns of F-Troop's boot camp; sometimes entertaining, always disheartening. After several of the local university's professor, one retired teacher and one bean counter, I now have a snot-nosed kid as my ward's councilperson.
Here's a screen-shot of him. I try to see past his desire to look like Jack Nicholson's version of a young Whitey Bolger with a pony-tail...
Being the free-thinker that I am I have initiated a dialogue with this young fella on social media. After getting through the initial awkwardness of me thinking he's an idiot and him thinking I'm an old coot, we have actually traded our view points in a civil manner. Although I will probably be six feet under when this young man finally sees enough of the world to be able to make intelligent decisions; he is my local political representative at the lowest level.
As I've watched him and others hatch their political careers I think I've noticed a pattern. I don't think folks nowadays seek public office with a desire to serve the public. It seems as though a lot of people seek office because they feel their personal views and agendas are something needed or somehow superior to everyone else's. Like maybe they all think, "hey, I can do that!" while watching Congress on C-Span.
Apparently the concept of representing the majority of your constituents has fallen by the wayside in American politics. Now it seems as though the herd of political office seekers smother the public with popular current points of view in an attempt to foster a familiarity. It seems our voting has been reduced to more of a popularity contest than anything else.
I'm OK with the fact that for the rest of my life I will be represented by someone younger than me. I just wish I could cast a vote one more time for someone I thought was wiser than me.
Thanks for listening, it's time for my orange juice and Metamucil now. B-)
Amen, Brother Paden. Amen.
I serve on a school board where the other members are between 35 and 45 and each have two or more children in the district's schools. All level in households with two wage earners. Their lives are just as hectic as they should be. However, that leaves very little time to dedicate to doing the job they were elected to do. They are all great people and want to do a great job. They simply can't do that and meet all of the other expectations they have already. That leaves me to be the number one grump who frequently points out how the superintendent is directing the board instead of the board directing the superintendent. They understand the problem, they simply can't take the time to correct it.
At one meeting about a year ago when the Kansas City Royals were getting close to winning the pennant the superintendent, who is a bit over 50, declared that he had been a Royals fan his entire life. I said I couldn't say that . He asked why. I explained that I was older than the Royals and had rooted for the Athletics before they left Kansas City for Oakland. The response was, "The A's used to be in Kansas City?"
Holy Cow, post: 329765, member: 50 wrote: I explained that I was older than the Royals and had rooted for the Athletics before they left Kansas City for Oakland. The response was, "The A's used to be in Kansas City?"
Then I guess this would really freak him out
We have a lot of traffic problems in town. Probably due to a traffic engineer that doesn't understand that the signal lights can be programmed to function in ways other than their "out of the box" recall functions. But that's another story.
The Council has taken it upon themselves to attempt some sort of action that will cure the City's traffic problems. I suggested to my Councilman that while they're at it, why don't they pass an ordinance against certain diseases? After all, if Council decrees it, it shall come to pass...
Their take on traffic control is "everything would run fine if people wouldn't speed or park illegally". They've gone on witch hunts to up the citations for parking violations and paid some idiots to come up with speed-bump locations. I've tried to explain several times if the arterial streets would function more efficiently, drivers wouldn't have to zip through residential areas in an attempt to catch a light. I even went so far as to suggest books (written in the sixties) comparing traffic flow to hydraulics. A concept, which BTW, is understood and part of the FHWA design criteria.
My words fall on deaf ears. Traffic control is a moral issue to the Council. Using engineering principles to streamline traffic flow escape them. They are in favor of impressing some "bible belt moral issue" thing and attempting to guilt the travelling public into believing our traffic congestion is a result of our misbehaving and not a design issue. I'm afraid whipping posts in the town square are not far off...
I hate speed bumps. The County is going to put speed bumps on my street. They sent out postcards to the residents asking yes or no. I said no but I'm sure most will say yes. We studied speed bumps when I was working for West Sacramento. We found the property at the speed bump is the only one that benefits in slower speeds. Everyone else sees higher speeds.
One day I complained to a traffic engineer about red light runners. He said, Dave, we train people to run red lights. The signals run too long, no one wants to be caught at the bottom of the cycle. They have advance loops that detect grandma going 30 so it holds the green until she gets through, holding up everyone else.
Moral issue is right. Aviation has seen great strides in safety due to NOT viewing it as a moral issue. We have studied human factors extensively to make changes that work with our psychology and physiology. When the trucker crashed into the side of the Amtrak in Nevada killing several people on the train I tried pointing out the factors that contributed to the crash in the newspaper comment section. The average poster is only interested in the moral angle. Granted the trucking industry has actively lobbied against safety improvements, the opposite of aviation.
Holy Cow, post: 329765, member: 50 wrote: Amen, Brother Paden. Amen.
At one meeting about a year ago when the Kansas City Royals were getting close to winning the pennant the superintendent, who is a bit over 50, declared that he had been a Royals fan his entire life. I said I couldn't say that . He asked why. I explained that I was older than the Royals and had rooted for the Athletics before they left Kansas City for Oakland. The response was, "The A's used to be in Kansas City?"
I used to go to the Washington Senators baseball games:-)
geonerd, post: 329798, member: 8268 wrote: I used to go to the Washington Senators baseball games:-)
The 1901-1961 Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) or the (1961ÛÒ1971) Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers)
[USER=1]@Wendell[/USER]-
[sarcasm]maybe we need a old farts and jack-asses sub- forum.....[/sarcasm] :snarky:
The local municipalities and school boards are full of the kids that were on the TBall teams I used to coach and my sons played against.
It is amazing how their 4 to 6 year old self is still everso present in their adult self.
The other trait that was easy to identify is that the grandsons have kept the same old "do it our way or no way" business plan as their grandparent that were in office.
o.O
Dave Karoly, post: 329788, member: 94 wrote: I hate speed bumps. The County is going to put speed bumps on my street. They sent out postcards to the residents asking yes or no. I said no but I'm sure most will say yes....
It didn't matter what we said. The Public Works director even brought up the fact that speed bumps also impair street drainage during peak flows. The cricket sounds echoed throughout the chambers....
I now have a speed bump less than 100 yards from my bedroom window. You ought to hear what Manuel's 20' trailer full of mowers and weed eaters sounds like when it hits that speed bump at 4 AM. One astute citizen brought to the attention of the Council that, although suggested in the initial study, several speed bump sites were dropped from the project...due to budget constraints. Those sites also correspond with the Mayor's residence and a few other City officials.
more crickets....
At the county commission meeting this morning the results of monitoring traffic speeds on a dead end road on one side of a State lake with a handful of houses were disclosed. Amazingly slow speeds for being out in the boonies where you could go 60 for about 600 feet them slam on your brakes. This was the second set of monitoring done there because the complaining landowner told them their first monitoring site wasn't where the speeders did their speeding. The first results were similar to the second results. The guy got no benefit because the results suggested he had an active imagination as to how fast people actually drive.
However, there was a second set of speed monitoring data presented for a very different location. This is for a stretch of very rural paved road that suddenly enters an area of many houses and a major industrial plant immediately prior to hitting the city limits of the biggest burg in the county. Several residents had been complaining of maniacs speeding by their homes. The first day's numbers included one for 74 mph in a 35 mph zone. On day three there was one registering 91 mph. That seemed to get the attention of the commissioners and a couple of law agencies.
Thank Heaven they didn't get a picture of my license plate as I roared by the speed monitor! :-D:-D:-D:-D:-D
Rankin_File, post: 329812, member: 101 wrote: [USER=1]@Wendell[/USER]-
[sarcasm]maybe we need a old farts and jack-asses sub- forum.....[/sarcasm] :snarky:
Isn't that what we already have? Most of us are older than our underwear size.
cptdent, post: 329876, member: 527 wrote: Isn't that what we already have? Most of us are older than our underwear size.
Good Lord, do you know how fat I'd have to be to be if my underwear size matched my age?
I don't think you can even get underwear that big.
Fortunately, I don't wear underwear...or socks...or pants...
Wait a minute... I think that nice officer is at the door again...
Don
Don Blameuser, post: 329885, member: 30 wrote: Good Lord, do you know how fat I'd have to be to be if my underwear size matched my age?
Here's a pair about size 96...
paden cash, post: 329886, member: 20 wrote: Here's a pair about size 96...
There's more to this story, I'm sure.
Please go on.
Don
Probably made for the guy that swings the bat that towers over the Louisville skyline.
Don Blameuser, post: 329889, member: 30 wrote: There's more to this story, I'm sure.
Please go on.
Just a curtain that graces a window on campus at the Bumma Cig Fraternity house. This is just one top secret trophy in the decades long football war with Texas. Reports are there was a tall fellow in Texas that had to go commando for a while....
[QUOTE="Don Blameuser,
Fortunately, I don't wear underwear...or socks...or pants...
Wait a minute... I think that nice officer is at the door again...
Don
http://archive.thv11.com/news/article/132617/0/Eugene-Ellison-shot-twice-in-the-chest
Don,
Keep your front door closed! Drop the cane...
DDSM:beer:
James Fleming, post: 329800, member: 136 wrote: The 1901-1961 Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) or the (1961ÛÒ1971) Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers)
I don't remember the Twins version, but probably went. I do remember when the team moved to Texas and still call them the Senators.
paden cash, post: 329886, member: 20 wrote: Here's a pair about size 96...
I almost spit out my morning tea!!
