Man, people do stupid things. Once is not enough, either. They repeat the idiocy over and over. We’re left muttering whether humanity will make it.
Our part of Texas was hit several weeks back with torrential rains. We live down from a park that leads to Lake Grapevine, one of the reservoirs for the area where massive levels of water collect to serve parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The rains caused water to flood up the park’s road, to a gate that prevents car access. From there, it is another 100 yards to a road where you can turn right or left. Local officials put a roadblock there to prevent entry.
This was not enough to stop the boneheads. The neighbor at the corner (who just happens to be a very tolerant police officer) found this out quickly. Within days of the roadblock going up, people decided to drive on his yard to get around it, and go the extra 100 yards before the water stopped them.
This left HUGE ruts in his front yard. The lunacy went on for days. I kept thinking, “Man, if that was my yard, I’d unleash flamethrowers. “LIGHT THE TIP, JOEY AND TURN THE PETROL NOZZLE UP!!” Instead, my neighbor tolerated the nut jobs, until finally the “Do Not Trespass” signs popped up on his corner.
I went down to talk with him. He related several tales of the idiots coming down our block, ones who choose not to read, ones who think signs don’t apply to them, and ones who just plain think they can go do whatever the heck they desire.
One woman, for example, whose truck became mired in his yard, told him when he asked her why she drove on his yard, “Oh, my surfboard was going to hit the sign, so I had to go around it.” Duh. Pay your $250 fine, and fix his yard while you’re at it.
Another, this one a guy on a golf cart, chose to whip through on his golf cart. He, too, came up short. What was his excuse? My neighbor the police officer asked if he had seen the “No Trespassing” signs (note the plural phrase, not singular). The golf cart guy replied in the affirmative.
So my neighbor asked why the golf cart guy chose to turn his yard into a fairway. “Oh, I didn’t care what the sign said,” or “I didn’t think you meant it,” was the gist of the reply. KA-CHING, given another $250 to the Grapevine PD, and let’s see that cart impounded.
This doesn’t just happen in our neighborhood. In a connecting community, Flower Mound, a road was blocked off with, “Do Not Enter: Flooding Ahead” signs. Did this stop another dim bulb from stopping her car, moving the sign to the side, and driving through the floodwaters until her car died and she had to be safely pulled out by rescue vehicles? Of course not. She probably couldn’t read though. I hope that beyond any fine she was assessed, her taxes quadrupled and she has to personally pay the next 49 rescue efforts in her city. Maybe that will curtail her numb-headedness, but I doubt it.
We are doomed, as my younger brother is fond of saying. Sometimes I wonder what percentage of U.S. society is dumber than a fence post.
Over and over the idiocy of the human species surfaces. If we can’t read signs or we choose to ignore directions, it’s all going to be chaos. We need to teach improved intelligence and start now.
Our part of Texas was hit several weeks back with torrential rains. We live down from a park that leads to Lake Grapevine, one of the reservoirs for the area where massive levels of water collect to serve parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The rains caused water to flood up the park’s road, to a gate that prevents car access. From there, it is another 100 yards to a road where you can turn right or left. Local officials put a roadblock there to prevent entry.
This was not enough to stop the boneheads. The neighbor at the corner (who just happens to be a very tolerant police officer) found this out quickly. Within days of the roadblock going up, people decided to drive on his yard to get around it, and go the extra 100 yards before the water stopped them.
This left HUGE ruts in his front yard. The lunacy went on for days. I kept thinking, “Man, if that was my yard, I’d unleash flamethrowers. “LIGHT THE TIP, JOEY AND TURN THE PETROL NOZZLE UP!!” Instead, my neighbor tolerated the nut jobs, until finally the “Do Not Trespass” signs popped up on his corner.
I went down to talk with him. He related several tales of the idiots coming down our block, ones who choose not to read, ones who think signs don’t apply to them, and ones who just plain think they can go do whatever the heck they desire.
One woman, for example, whose truck became mired in his yard, told him when he asked her why she drove on his yard, “Oh, my surfboard was going to hit the sign, so I had to go around it.” Duh. Pay your $250 fine, and fix his yard while you’re at it.
Another, this one a guy on a golf cart, chose to whip through on his golf cart. He, too, came up short. What was his excuse? My neighbor the police officer asked if he had seen the “No Trespassing” signs (note the plural phrase, not singular). The golf cart guy replied in the affirmative.
So my neighbor asked why the golf cart guy chose to turn his yard into a fairway. “Oh, I didn’t care what the sign said,” or “I didn’t think you meant it,” was the gist of the reply. KA-CHING, given another $250 to the Grapevine PD, and let’s see that cart impounded.
This doesn’t just happen in our neighborhood. In a connecting community, Flower Mound, a road was blocked off with, “Do Not Enter: Flooding Ahead” signs. Did this stop another dim bulb from stopping her car, moving the sign to the side, and driving through the floodwaters until her car died and she had to be safely pulled out by rescue vehicles? Of course not. She probably couldn’t read though. I hope that beyond any fine she was assessed, her taxes quadrupled and she has to personally pay the next 49 rescue efforts in her city. Maybe that will curtail her numb-headedness, but I doubt it.
We are doomed, as my younger brother is fond of saying. Sometimes I wonder what percentage of U.S. society is dumber than a fence post.
Over and over the idiocy of the human species surfaces. If we can’t read signs or we choose to ignore directions, it’s all going to be chaos. We need to teach improved intelligence and start now.