The Cost of Speeding, with a side of Self Responsibility.

It seems every time you turn on the news there is some announcement of a new accident, or a new police program, or a new law that is somehow related to driving and talking or texting.  Distracting driving is all the rage these days.  

Years ago, I met a lady who had just moved into my area.  She had a brood of children from different fathers and a procession of boyfriends. Stability wasn’t her middle name, but at the time we met I didn’t know that. I was just happy to meet a new face in the neighbourhood. 

She told me a story about an unreasonable landlord who wouldn’t let her use her last month’s rent as her monthly rent, and how that had forced her to move to my neighbourhood. It would never occur to me to ask my landlord to use my last month’s rent as my rent. This is a person who thinks differently than I do so that piqued my interest enough to stick around for the rest of the story.

As it turns out the fee for retrieving her vehicle from impound and to pay the speed racing tickets was about $1,300 in total.  But she had good cause - she was driving home and talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone. The argument they got into was quite heated and she proceeded to speed at about 140 in a 90 zone right in front of the police who did their civic duty.  I never did find out if any of her kids were with her in the car.

Here’s where the conversation got awkward and I just held on until it was over. Her story painted her as the hapless victim, blaming everyone for the situation she found herself in. The (now ex) boyfriend, the police, the tow truck guy, the landlord, and every government employee that she called to get more assistance would have experienced the same 'poor me' story that I heard, followed by rage when it became apparent that they couldn’t or wouldn’t help her. 

Eventually with a little introspection many people would have settled into feeling a little shame and embarrassment for their actions. This lady was different - she was quite convinced that her initial behavior (speeding) should have been glossed over because she’s a single mom of many children and their primary care giver.  To this I say NO.  Don’t ask others to compensate for your bad behavior. Suck it up and make amends. If you want to know how responsible you are for your own life then google Larry Winget, he will set you straight.

Icy fun on the Roof

About 2 weeks ago just after one of our thaws, I had front row seats to a real life version of a 'Red Green' episode play out in my back yard. Imagine an old cottage with a large crust of ice along its roof edges, building high above the shingles as it tends to do over a winter. The roof isn’t steep, but it’s not shallow either. And you can safely assume that the insulation isn’t that great in the attic, hence the ice buildup. That's the house that backs onto ours.

So it was with great amusement that I watched an older fellow setting up a ladder in the snow and lean it against those shingles…I’ve never seen him before so he’s not one of the tenants living there.  Since this cottage has been for sale perhaps this new person showing up is actually the new owner, here to make a show of setting something right…Which would be fitting, except for what he did next.

Up went the ladder, up went the gent, and with him a rather large wood axe. Now, some of you might be as alarmed as I was. What was a guy going to do but hurt himself by climbing a ladder in these inclement conditions? And what on earth was he going to do with a wood axe? He wasn’t going to try chopping away the ice was he? Yes, that’s what he did…

While I was contemplating his doom with my phone dialed with 9-1 in my hand I watched as chunk after large chunk of ice fell off the roof and scattered in various directions, narrowly missing the ladder. This man was taking full swings at his roof with abandon. He did this until all that icebuild up was gone. I thought he was done but then he climbed onto the roof with a snow shovel and chopped at the rest of the dense snow cap. Several hours later I looked out to find him still on top of the roof, his pace slowed somewhat by the odd sitting spell. The last I saw of him he had retrieved some road salt and was spreading that on the newly bare but still frozen shingles.

I hope his work solved whatever problem was going on inside the house..... But those shingles are not designed to withstand the kind of treatment they received. Frozen shingles crack and split when hit with blunt force, salt with artificially age them.  I really hope that roof is getting reshingled this summer.