/[quote=“Miss_belle, post:380, topic:20999”]
If a ball rolls out in the street…brake. Good chance there will be a kid behind it. Like you, advice that’s held me in good stead all these years.
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I think the chance is better than good, more like 99.9 percent. Other drivers hate me because I obey traffic laws like the jerk behind me today who was upset I didn’t run the red light so he could run the red light.
What are you going to do with an extra 45 seconds in your life?
Rural TX - Turn signals are considerate but not de rigueur so always slow down. Each driver traveling in opposite directions on the same road tend to wave or give a nod of the head to acknowledge the passing as a courtesy.
Now Rhode Island otoh has the rudest drivers.
New York has the rudest drivers. They inundate Cape Cod in the summer. Second are from New Jersey. Impatient, impatient hyped people. We always look forward to Labor Day when the aliens go home.
Totally, utterly, udderly, heck yes.
I hear ya - I hail from CT and we always complained about ‘ those N.Y. driver’s’ clogging up the roadways to the RI beaches. I wouldn’t even call them tourists. More like locusts.
What I remember in rural TX was when someone put on their turn signal to turn left everyone behind them would put on their turn signal so all behind would know why we were slowing down. It was odd and quaint. I’ll be sad if the practice has faltered.
In government firearm training I was taught to only use (absent extremis) what you had qualified with. Accordingly a particular 12 gauge shotgun (I use #4 shot) and two 9mm handguns. Never used a gun other than to punch holes in paper. I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t consider myself a gun guy - they are just tools.
Oh… that’s you in front of me?? (smirk)
Dave - I think that sentence may be a defining one of the difference between American and British attitudes towards firearms.
I’m so sorry, Midlife. Yes, everyone asks me if dad died of Covid…really? It makes it much worse now - dad couldn’t have any of his loved ones around - only me (the best 
) Everyone called but it’s not the same. I feel for all the people in hospitals suffering things like cancer and can’t have any family around. Again, so sorry, Midlife!
So, if if you live in NY you can’t stand Jersey drivers, and, where I live in NY, CT drivers too!
Actually I think it makes me an outlier in the US and more in common with what I think the British attitudes are. Guns are not an end in themselves for me but a tool for hunting (including vermin) and sport.
I do feel strongly about our Second Amendment. As I read it and the contemporaneous writings of those who wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights a major factor in the US right to bear arms is to allow the people to protect themselves from government run amok. Without slipping too far into politics, considering the extreme distaste of American liberals for current national leadership I am bemused by their continuing attempts to outlaw and confiscate guns altogether. Aside from the slippery slope of politics there is not good news for anyone there, so moving on.
For good news, I offer that even the careful governor in my state has moved from “Stay at Home” to “Safer at Home.” We don’t expect to change any of our behaviors. I think reopening many businesses is premature. I’m glad we won’t be opening schools again until Fall and worry that may also be early. I have hope that stress levels will lower and panic buying and hoarding will decline and we might actually find store shelves more consistently stocked. I admit that when I go shopping I have to take myself firmly in hand to avoid Soviet era behaviors; “it’s there so buy it.”
I hope the one-way aisles at our grocery remain. They make the shopping process more efficient. Silver linings.
The weather here has been quite pleasant. Although that brings a list of honey-do chores I’m going to pump up the bicycle tires and try to start riding more often.
My wife’s herb garden is thriving which is a real contribution to cooking. That’s good news also.
As you’ll know, we do not have a gun culture in the UK so my guess would be that very few people have an attitude of any sort towards firearms. Of course, farmers are likely to be able to get a shotgun licence for vermin control. But a licence for a handgun would be extremely rare - and one for keeping it at home, rather than in the safe at a gun club would be rarer still. I remember an interview where a Member of Parliament from Northern Ireland mentioned that he had a licence to carry a handgun for protection. Even in the troubled times there, this made national news.
Good to know the herb garden is thriving. We currently have two varieties of mint, two of thyme, bay, rosemary, chives, garlic chives, marjoram and fennel.
Thank you for the condolences. My cousin traced much of his illness to his time as a roadie with The Rolling Stones back in the ‘70s. He said he may have enjoyed getting the diseases but not having them.
Where I am in N Cal we have “Scrub Jays”, and they are not shy!
I didn’t drive much when I lived in NYC, but here in California, there is a similar rule when your see a very young deer…drive carefully because mom will soon follow.
So, I was driving the Blue Ridge Highway a year or so back. And was pulled over by a ranger for speeding. Now that was quite scary - partly because I’d never been pulled over for speeding before (and the sirens nearly gave me a heart attack) and partly because I’d never been spoken to by someone carrying a gun. Anyway, said ranger is giving me a good talking to about why there’s the speed limits - mainly to protect wildlife. At which point, a deer comes bounding out of the woodland, crosses the road, and disappears back into the woods. At which, said ranger says something along the lines of “That’s why”. Only he did it more smugly (for which I forgive the arsehole as he was only doing his job and didnt give me a ticket).
Yes, that’s another rule here in SE PA–PA ranks third in the US behind West Virginia and Montana for deer-related traffic accidents. Even when I lived in Philly, deer were a nuisance (lots of large parks/forests in Philly).
Every time they try to cull them, the animal activists protest–is it more humane to let them starve as there are more deer than the undeveloped land can support? They do argue for deer contraceptives. But my favorite proposal was to introduce wolves to Valley Forge State Park as predators to the deer. Hmmm . . . a large park used by many folks walking (especially dog walking), biking, jogging, etc. What could possibly go wrong?
I have a friend in WV who, when I recounted my Blue Ridge story to him, told me of the number of traffic accidents, including human fatalities, involving deer.
(EDIT: He was unsympathetic to my rant about the ranger. But then he did work for the FBI.)
I came :this: close to clipping a deer’s hindquarters on a straight back road in Mifflinburg/Lewisburg back in the 1980s at about 2:00 a.m. Came bounding across a field next to the road and up and over the gully and fence just yards in front of my car (I won’t say how fast I was going; just that I was going WAY TOO FAST). In what seemed like slow motion, it landed in front of my right front bumper and quickly bounded up and onto the other side of the road and ran off. Scared the living bejeezus out of me.
Next morning, I found hair from its tail wedged in between my left front car headlight and the left front quarter panel of the car’s frame.
Yeah, I was THAT close. And if I had hit it, even “just” its hindquarters, it probably would have spun the car, and who knows what would have happened to me.
I consider deer little short of rats. They have a significant environmental impact. They make a mess. As you say they are a traffic hazard. We have the same issues you describe in the face of culling efforts. We end up with herds of emaciated mangy deer because the only remaining predator is the automobile. I think fairly aggressive managed hunting would be better but the activists whine over killing Bambi (and then shuffle off to the market to buy meat) and I’m not sure we can manage to keep hunters from firing away from housing.
I do recall a letter to the editor of our local paper suggesting that hunting be banned and people buy all their meat at the supermarket so no animals would be harmed. sigh You just can’t fix stupid.
