Ryan’s Blog

I’m getting bored. I’ve been “on vacation” all of four hours and I’m already quite certain I won’t make it the rest of the week. What in the world am I going to do for another four days when I’m bored after only four hours? I was going to paint my bedroom, but that’s not happening. I have no idea what color I want to use, and I have little interest in starting that project today anyway. I added some movies to my NetFlix queue last night, but they won’t show up until Wednesday. I could call someone I know who’s also taking today off from work, but that isn’t going to happen for several reasons I won’t get into just now (but stay tuned - if I get really, really bored I might start rambling in that direction). I’ve got a few books I could read, but I’m not in the mood for that right now. I’ve got quite a few ideas of work-related things to do or experiment with, but that would be “work” and I’m trying not to do that kind of stuff this week (or, at least, not on the first day). I could clean my house - Lord knows it could use some attention - but I’m more likely to paint the entire joint and write my own book before cleaning makes it to the top of the list. It’s too cold to do anything outside (attention non-Florida readers: I know it’s colder where you live, and I don’t care. It’s all relative, it’s only 53 degrees down here right now, and that’s too cold for me to purposefully hang around outdoors.)

What to do, what to do…

Yep: he’s back. I went out earlier today and, upon returning home, noticed a bag of mulch sitting up against the corner of my garage door. This would be just a foot or so away from the bag of phone books that used to be sitting by my mailbox, but which someone moved closer to the garage door after a few days. Who moved them I have no idea, but someone else - or perhaps the same person - has been gracious enough to leave me a bag of mulch. I’m guessing this is a not so subtle hint with regard to my (lack of) land-scaping, and I give them props - I like the passive-aggressive nature of the mulch far more than the boring letters I’ve gotten the last several months from the management company. Anyway…I’ve digressed.

As I got out of the car and headed for the mulch to take a closer look, see if there was a note, etc, etc… I noticed my friend Fluffy curled up in exactly the same spot as he had been two months prior. In fact, the skin he shed the first time he was here is still sitting in the corner, so it makes for an odd and disturbing image: Fluffy curled up in the corner, pressed up against the “shell of younger Fluffy”. In any case, perhaps he’ll stick around for the holidays. I’m gonna get him a stocking tomorrow to make sure he feels welcome.

I have to rant here for a minute, because I find this extremely disturbing.

On Wednesday evening, a man driving his car hit another man trying to cross the street. “The impact severed the pedestrian’s lower right leg, which remained in the street. His head and arms went through the windshield, while the rest of his body flipped up onto the roof of the car.” (1)

The driver then continued on his merry way, approaching the Sunshine Skyway Bridge toll plaza several miles down the road. It was the toll taker who called 911 upon realizing just what in the hell he was seeing - a bloody mess of a body falling into the car as it came to a stop. Is this the disturbing part? Well…okay, it *is* disturbing, but this is not the part I’m upset about. Let’s move on to the next article…

“When asked what happened later, he told police the man dropped from the sky.
‘Obviously, he was confused,’ Jockers said, ‘incredibly confused.’
Police investigators say *it is unlikely that Parker will face criminal charges*.” (2)

Excuse me? What the hell do you mean “it is unlikely [he] will face criminal charges”?! So…as long as I’m 93 years old and I don’t *mean* to do it, that makes it okay to not only kill someone with my car but to then continue driving for more than 3 miles before somebody else calls the cops on my ass? Vehicular Homicide in the state of Florida is a second-degree felony last I checked (which was 5 minutes ago - I looked it up), punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Vehicular Homicide/Leaving the Scene is a first-degree felony (that’s worse, if you don’t know “degrees”) and is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Technically, he took most of the scene of the crime with him to the toll plaza, so we won’t count the “leaving the scene” against him. Even if we knock it down to manslaughter - the unintentional taking of a life - we’re still talking about jail time. There are (unfortunately) several recent cases of cars vs. pedestrians, too often the pedestrians being children, and in not one of those cases was the driver “unlikely to face criminal charges”. I’m willing to bet none of them *intended* to run over those kids with their car, but you bet your ass they’re going to jail. What’s the difference?

This guy was confused. He’s old. He probably has dementia. Well then, that certainly makes this excusable. It’s not like he should be responsible for himself. It’s not like his family - who had to know of his condition yet allowed him to drive - should be responsible. After all, according to the police the man “loved to drive his car”. (2) I guess if you really *love* to drive your car then you should be allowed to not only continue doing so until you literally drop dead of old age behind the wheel, but feel free to take out as many pedestrians as you like while on your nightly jaunts around the cities of Tampa Bay. Makes you think twice before heading out for a walk down here in sunny Florida.

(1) excerpt from the St. Pete Times
(2) excerpt from the St. Pete Times