The badge means nothing if it is misrepresented.
I don’t know how many times a day I travel the city streets or the interstate and have motorists pass me up that have some type of badge on their vehicle’s license plate. There is nothing wrong with that, unless they are misrepresenting the badge they are displaying. I don’t care if they are a firefighter, a police officer, a county deputy, or an OHP officer…….if they are speeding up and down the highway in their own private vehicle and displaying some type of badge, they are misrepresenting the badge and what it stands for. The badge should represent honor, integrity and obeying the law. If they have a badge on their tag, it does not give them the right to exceed the speed limit, nor does it give them the right to drive carelessly.
They should be the ones setting the example on the streets. It really irritates me to see a driver speeding on a street or highway, while displaying a badge on their tag. Personally, I have an Emergency Management specialized tag on my truck and a firefighter’s badge attached to the tag. I display them proudly, but I also know I am setting an example. That’s why I usually drive the speed limit, or maybe 5 over. I signal when changing lanes and I always stay 3-4 car lengths behind vehicles in rush-hour traffic. The badge does not get me any privileges and it should not give anybody else any privileges. It certainly does not give anyone the permission to speed or drive carelessly. If they feel that’s what the badge entitles them too, they need to remove it.
Well, last night I did something that needed to be done and something I had promised my wife for a long time. Since we moved to my MIL’s house over 6 months ago, one side of our garage is packed full of stuff….stuff that had no place to go. Some of the stuff is garage sale stuff and some of the stuff belongs to my sister-in-law. So, after work yesterday, I started working on the garage and started pulling stuff out and putting it in the driveway. I had promised to devote at least an hour on this project because I know what type of person I am and will not stop until the job is complete. Plus, we have a huge storage building in our backyard that is almost empty and ready to be filled up. So, I separated the garage sale stuff from the furniture we had stored and started moving stuff around. Before it was all said and done, I had moved many things to the storage building and the rest of the stuff went back into the garage.
I wore my back belt and my work gloves, but my back and hands were still sore. There were some pieces of furniture that we had decided to sell, so I took pictures of them and will get them posted on Craigslist. One other thing….since Stephen has temporarily (and I stress TEMPORARILY) moved in with us, we got him a clothes rack and dresser set up in the garage with his stuff. Plus, we got him a dirty clothes hamper so he can take care of his own dirty clothes. The only drawback for him is it is extremely cold in the garage, so he will probably need to bring his clothes in the night before, so they will be warm when he puts them on. He is considering moving his bed into the garage and setting up a small space heater, so he can sleep in the garage. He is getting rather tired of sleeping on our couch.
Now, the garage is in lots better shape and there is more room. Eventually (probably in March), we should have enough stuff moved out of the garage to be able to park a vehicle in there (isn’t that what garages are for anyway?). I finally got everything out away and junk thrown away by 8:30 pm. Yes, I spent 4 hours working on the garage and stopped for about 15 minutes to eat dinner. The only casualty I had was a smashed finger. I was shutting the lid to Big Blue and didn’t move my finger fast enough. My middle finger on my right hand got smashed big time in the hinges. After the initial shock and the massive pain that shot through my hand, I looked at my finger and blood was running down my hand. Since I am a really calm person, I just strolled into the house and told Karla I smashed my finger (as blood was now going down my arm). We went to the bathroom, put Peroxide on it, bandaged it up and back to work I went to finish up. I am not letting a smashed finger, or a bloody finger, keep me from finishing up.
By 9 pm, I was in the house on my computer, with my middle finger bandaged up and throbbing like a son-of-a-gun. Fortunately, I also have a high pain tolerance, so I went on with my normal evening activities and went to bed around 10:30 pm. I didn’t sleep well because my back was tired and sore and my finger was still throbbing. I don’t take any type of pain reliever unless I am in lots of pain, so I didn’t take any last night. If I had, I probably would have slept better.
Today has been a good day. The finger is real sore and I am walking slowly, due to a little soreness, but I am just fine. I am also happy to know that I got something accomplished last night that made me happy, made Karla happy and made the rest of the family happy. I am still alive, so it goes to show that hard work doesn’t kill you.
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