**Mini Rant #9** Thats not Safe!?

    I have been overly slackin' on mini rants.  If you  scroll through them--I try to post them on Fridays.  Again not last week.  Since I have been posting since December, and only have nine mini rants, I am slackin' a lot.  Today's is about safety.   Most of the things I do in a day-especially in a day I am out exploring, are not safe---by any ones standards.  Most people I know do not agree with this, until they go on a hike with me.  Very few go on a second hike. 


Have to locate the picture

    We used to hike with this individual named Pork Chop.   We did not come up with the nickname, and are not fully sure what it even meant.  But he did like to eat for sure!   He for what ever reasoning, went on many hikes with me.   And more than once we would lose him, during a really difficult part of the hike.  After back tracking for awhile, we would often find him rolled up on the ground in the fetal position.  He to this day would deny it, and we have no pictures, so no real proof.  Anyways, before we would do something overly stupid, he would stand to the side and repeatably say "that's not safe!"  Until we would convince him the fun factors made up for how un safe it might appear.  One day as we were climbing on drift wood over rocks and the ocean, he was yelling this now famous to us phrase.  He stopped yelling it after he suddenly jumped on a log and than almost as suddenly, found himself flopping around on the ground!   Now it was our turn to yell out "That's not safe!"  After we stopped taking pictures, we helped him off the ground.  And he found a new phrase.  
   



Have you seen me?

    None of this is really "rant worthy" except maybe that I can not find Pork Chop to contact him and or say Howdy!   Maybe because I can only recall his first name.  Maybe because, even without out help he found something deathly un-safe.  Thus I am including a picture of the lad, in case anyone in reader land knows were he is.    I added the above for background, bazaz to the posting if you will.  


    Police in this area used to kind of ignore people on bikes.  Unless they were being drug under a city bus or something.   Lately they have decided that this is not a good idea, because bikers have kind of takin' over and invented there own rules.  Blowing through stop signs and lights and such.  So much so that doing something basic, might be very damaging to your pocket book.   Even not wearing a helmet is highly frowned upon.   When I lived here before I used to be in much better shape, and would bike across town --to and from work.  I had the closing shift at work, and it was always dark.  For added fun, I had no lights, and seemed to usually be wearing all black.   This could be frowned upon. 
    My buddy was on his bike to work way to early in the morning one day, like before 5 A.M.   He was cutting through parking lots and such, because he was late for work, and honestly no one was out at that time except street cleaners and cops.  As to prove that point, he looked back behind him because of a strange sound, and saw a police car on his tail, lights flashing!   He was getting pulled over for blowing through several parking lots, right into the empty street.  The nerve!  I think he just got a warning.  Even after asking the cop if they had caught all the theives and rapists in town, and now rebal early morning bikers were the new top catch.  
    I strongly believe that after about the age of 18, rules like seat belts and helmets are no ones business but your own.   It is defiantly not the governments business.  I always wear seat belts because of a nice wreck I got into in my teens, while learning how not to drive on icy roads.  Or maybe it was after I got my last seat belt ticket.   They are up to $100 fines now!
    While roaming with my girl friends kids lately, I have had random people come up to me and explain how un-safe there actions were.   *the kids actions*  Nothing ever huge, just happened a lot in the last two weeks.
     All of this makes me stop and wander how I survived as a child growing up.  I contribute a lot of my survival to having a very thick head.  In more ways than one.  Things I did in my teens, were a strange mixture of bad hormones and acme, and my own fault for the most part.    But I re-call  learning how to ride a bike, by going to the top of a big hill and jumping on.  Hoping stopping was also learned.   Living on dirt roads.  Never wearing helmets or any protective gear.  Exploring the whole neighborhood till dark.   Standing up beside my dad in pickup seat while going down the road.  Riding in the back of pickups.   Etc etc.  And I grew up just fine.  Just fine.  Just fine.....   
     The world was a safer place, even in my youth.   But are people maybe over protecting themselves?   And how much of a say does some random stranger really have unless the child is playing in the highway or mugging the person complaing?  A little bit of pain is healthy, and an awesome learning experience.  And if a child is over protected, when they get thrown into the real world, they will be overly soft.   Falling over cracks in sidewalks, and trying to sue the city for negligent walking areas.  
    Over guidelines and rules, for safety or in general just lead to soft people and police states.   Oregon state is already very far in the wrong direction in this area.   They are trying to pass 0 tolerance for drinking.   Which means if a person has one beer all night, than gets pulled over, they can get arrested for a DUI.   If you fall asleep in your car while drunk, turn the engine on for heat, you can get a ticket.  If you bike home after drinking, you can get a ticket-and loose your driving licence.   Etc Etc Etc in that state.   In Arizona, there are special areas outside were you have to stand to smoke.   And if you are not in the special zone, you get a ticket.  
    Guidelines for whats safe for people as a whole slowly open up what can be regulated in all aspects of life.