I just read that charges were dropped against a Georgia mother that was cited for allowing her 3 year old son to pee in a gas station parking lot.
This was apparently an emergency. The boy told his mother he was about to pee in his pants so she pulled over and allowed her son to "let it rip".
Yah for mom. Boo for the cop.
I realize the world has changed in the 70 years I've been peeing outdoors. But maybe the onslaught of this "new age public behavior" will pass me by and allow me to enter Heaven before I get busted for peeing outdoors. I can only pray.
When I was a kid we peed discreetly outdoors when we needed. So did my father and grandfather. We were always outdoors and there was always a bush or tree behind which one could "take a moment".
And as surveyors I KNOW for a fact everyone that reads this has had a bladder attack at one time or another while stomping all over it is wherever we're working. I'm sure our founding fathers didn't walk a half mile back to the privy when they needed to whiz. They did what every two-legged hooman beeun has done since the dawn of time. They peed.
I guess it's only a matter of time until someone disagrees with what I call discreet and what they feel is discreet.
I won't relish that confrontation...but it will happen AFTER I'm through. 😉
My sons and I had a code for when anyone had to take a whiz: "I'm going to check an offset."
The other day we were out in the urban area surveying and had the wagon parked on the verge and were setting up the total station about 10m away. Out the corner of my eye I saw a guy of about 20 pass the blind side of the wagon, but he didn't pass out the other side. We probably had the doors unlocked so I shot over expecting to catch him opening the doors. And there he was, taking a pee in the visual shade of the wagon, next to the side door. His excuse was he'd just left home and forgot to go before leaving, and that he hadn't hit the wagon. I colourfully point out that now we'd have to walk through his filth, and that's not acceptable.
Over a decade ago when I did private work an engineer sent me to do some topo at a Coca Cola plant, talk about psycho paranoid corporate type people. First the guy says don??t get hurt because then we have to fill out a mountain of paperwork, so first thing I do is smash my thumb with 4lb hammer, lots of blood. I managed to hide that. Then I need to pee, can??t get in the building. Boo-coup cameras everywhere so I go to a back corner and do it. Never heard a word about it. Never again will I ever do anything for a big beverage company.?ÿ
"Yah for mom. Boo for the cop."
The cop would have had a field day at Woodstock. ?????ÿ
"If I'd wanted a life of of peeing indoors, I'd have chosen another profession!"
10:00 am. Time to let that coffee out!
My sons and I had a code for when anyone had to take a whiz: "I'm going to check an offset."
"I'm going to go see a man about a horse"
Somehow, since it's a basic animal instinct to mark territory, it seems appropriate to bring up peeing in the great out-of-doors on this site. Therefore, I suggest, surely only surveyors can legally pee outdoors ;0)?ÿ
There is serious potential for conveying a lot of information in a "survey marker" . . from the wikipedia link:
Many animals create "sign-posts" to advertise their territory. Sometimes these sign-posts are on the boundary thereby demarcating the territory, or, may be scattered throughout the territory. These communicate to other animals that the territory is occupied and may also communicate additional information such as the sex, reproductive status or dominance?ÿstatus of the territory-holder. Sign-posts may communicate information by?ÿolfactory, auditory, or visual means, or a combination of these.
Certain prescribed medicines encourage frequent urination. Trail cameras be damned. Depends should only be required to be used to describe the relative certainty of survey investigations and decisions.
I was relieving myself just a few days ago and looked up in a tree to see a trail-cam. All I could do was just smile and wave.
I hope they got an eye full.
I read somewhere; can't find it right now; that George Washington passed a Federal Law, that made it legal, for Surveyors, as long as they were discreet; to urinate outdoors, in public.
I have found more than one boundary marker that way.
And I have been on the other end, measuring up a house under construction when a carpenter framing the second floor was too lazy to walk down the stairs.
I did some looking and found out that urinating in public is reported to be illegal in all 50 states. Makes me wonder about Puerto Rico.
Here's the fly in that ointment...In Oklahoma this law is lumped in with "indecent exposure". The definition of indecent exposure in OK required "lewd" behavior or conduct of a sexual nature. (I guess I need to be careful how many times I shake it).
Cases of prosecution under this law are spotty. Even though drunks relieving themselves in a beer joint parking lot are plentiful, they are rarely (if ever) found guilty of public indecency. I guess public intoxication is enough to get you cuffed and thrown in the tank.
One case I read of a "public pisser" arrest was thrown out but the "offended party" filed a civil suit. I believe the defendant prevailed in his innocence.
So I guess you can get a ticket anywhere in the US for "seeing a dog about a tree" while you're working. But you can't act as if you like it as this might be construed as "lewd" behavior.
I'm always mindful of prying eyes, even when I'm irrigating the vegetation in the woods. This kind of discussion always reminds of Burt Reynolds and his urine flask in the movie Semi-Tough.
