Am I the Grinch? (AITG)

As I was walking home yesterday, a firetruck turned on its siren full
blast just as they were slowly passing me. My ears were ringing for
over an hour.

It stopped a little ways ahead of me. It was covered with Christmas
decorations, Santa was in it, and it I could faintly hear that it was
playing Christmas tunes. There was obviously no emergency. I spoke
to the driver, and asked him to please not use the siren when there's
no emergency, as it can cause permanent hearing damage to nearby
pedestrians. He replied, but I couldn't hear what he said. A few
minutes later it passed me again, with the siren once again running.
At least this time I had time to cover my ears.

Has this happened to anyone else?

So, am I the Grinch, or were they acting unreasonably and illegally?
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On Monday, December 6, 2021 at 10:47:03 AM UTC-5, Jay E. Morris wrote:
> On 12/6/2021 2:38 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
> > On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 22:00:23 +0000, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> >
> >> Am I the Grinch? (AITG)
> >>
> >> As I was walking home yesterday, a firetruck turned on its siren full
> >> blast just as they were slowly passing me. My ears were ringing for
> >> over an hour.
> >>
> >> It stopped a little ways ahead of me. It was covered with Christmas
> >> decorations, Santa was in it, and it I could faintly hear that it was
> >> playing Christmas tunes. There was obviously no emergency. I spoke to
> >> the driver, and asked him to please not use the siren when there's no
> >> emergency, as it can cause permanent hearing damage to nearby
> >> pedestrians. He replied, but I couldn't hear what he said. A few
> >> minutes later it passed me again, with the siren once again running. At
> >> least this time I had time to cover my ears.
> >>
> >> Has this happened to anyone else?
> >>
> >> So, am I the Grinch, or were they acting unreasonably and illegally?
> >
> > I was once startled by the blast of a fire truck approaching
> > some block party or something -- I don't recall exactly -- that
> > was populated by lots of children. This led to the inference that
> > if kids loved it, it must be OK.
> >
> Yes. During the lock down drive-by birthday (and other) parties were
> popular in many places including here. Cars were decked out and would
> drive through the neighborhood honking. Sometimes, like for the 8-year
> old returning home from the hospital in remission or the 100th birthday,
> police and/or emergency vehicles would join them with the sirens going
> intermittently.

I moved into a house on the Connecticut shoreline about a dozen years ago.
It was situated on a residential street that connected the village green and
its commercial district with US Hwy 1, another commercial street, aka "the
Post Road." One August Saturday morning I was blasted out of bed by fire
engine sirens that would not stop. It was the "Engine 260 Antique Fire
Apparatus Show and Muster," and a motorcade of equipment traveled a 45-
minute route through town, ending at a local park north of the Post Rd,
maybe a mile from my house on the same street. I had no idea that was on
that morning!

This was the house that caught fire a few years later, forcing me to move.
I didn't mind the fire engines that night!

--
Kevin R

In article <7109eec8-88e5-4c54-8773-ac67e488cee2n@googlegroups.com>,
Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> wrote:
>On Monday, December 6, 2021 at 10:47:03 AM UTC-5, Jay E. Morris wrote:
>> On 12/6/2021 2:38 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
>> > On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 22:00:23 +0000, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> >
>> >> Am I the Grinch? (AITG)
>> >>
>> >> As I was walking home yesterday, a firetruck turned on its siren full
>> >> blast just as they were slowly passing me. My ears were ringing for
>> >> over an hour.
>> >>
>> >> It stopped a little ways ahead of me. It was covered with Christmas
>> >> decorations, Santa was in it, and it I could faintly hear that it was
>> >> playing Christmas tunes. There was obviously no emergency. I spoke to
>> >> the driver, and asked him to please not use the siren when there's no
>> >> emergency, as it can cause permanent hearing damage to nearby
>> >> pedestrians. He replied, but I couldn't hear what he said. A few
>> >> minutes later it passed me again, with the siren once again running. At
>> >> least this time I had time to cover my ears.
>> >>
>> >> Has this happened to anyone else?
>> >>
>> >> So, am I the Grinch, or were they acting unreasonably and illegally?
>> >
>> > I was once startled by the blast of a fire truck approaching
>> > some block party or something -- I don't recall exactly -- that
>> > was populated by lots of children. This led to the inference that
>> > if kids loved it, it must be OK.
>> >
>> Yes. During the lock down drive-by birthday (and other) parties were
>> popular in many places including here. Cars were decked out and would
>> drive through the neighborhood honking. Sometimes, like for the 8-year
>> old returning home from the hospital in remission or the 100th birthday,
>> police and/or emergency vehicles would join them with the sirens going
>> intermittently.
>
>I moved into a house on the Connecticut shoreline about a dozen years ago.
>It was situated on a residential street that connected the village green and
>its commercial district with US Hwy 1, another commercial street, aka "the
>Post Road." One August Saturday morning I was blasted out of bed by fire
>engine sirens that would not stop. It was the "Engine 260 Antique Fire
>Apparatus Show and Muster," and a motorcade of equipment traveled a 45-
>minute route through town, ending at a local park north of the Post Rd,
>maybe a mile from my house on the same street. I had no idea that was on
>that morning!
>
>
>This was the house that caught fire a few years later, forcing me to move.
>I didn't mind the fire engines that night!
>
We used to attend the Solano Stroll (held along the main drag of
Albany, California, a small town embedded in the huge SF Bay Area
metropolis), handing out earthquake preparedness stuff. The fire
department handled CERT training, so they'd bring a fire engine
along. They did not run it up and down Solano with its siren on*;
they parked it near our table and let the little kids play on it.
_____
*Indeed, they couldn't have; Solano was blocked off from traffic
for the day and crowded with pedestrians.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

On 12/5/21 10:07 AM, Gary McGath wrote:

> When I was living in Kingston, NH, a fire truck would come into our
> quiet, dead-end road every year with siren blaring, lots of lights, and
> a guy in a Santa suit. This was directly in front of the town forest, so
> it must have scared a lot of wildlife.

I neglected to mention that they did this well after dark, so the main
effect on kids was to wake them up.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 5:18:45 AM UTC-5, Gary McGath wrote:
> On 12/5/21 10:07 AM, Gary McGath wrote:
>
> > When I was living in Kingston, NH, a fire truck would come into our
> > quiet, dead-end road every year with siren blaring, lots of lights, and
> > a guy in a Santa suit. This was directly in front of the town forest, so
> > it must have scared a lot of wildlife.

> I neglected to mention that they did this well after dark, so the main
> effect on kids was to wake them up.
> --

I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on which
night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far inland for that.

--
Kevin R

Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> wrote:
> I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on
> which night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far
> inland for that.

And you made your reply on December 7th.

I've long associated December 7th with two things, one bad, one good.
The bad thing is of course the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, 80
years ago today. The good thing is that it's the day on which the
sunset starts gradually getting later again (at my latitude), leading
up to the sunny days of June.

But now I also associate it with a second good thing. It's the day
when telemarketers cease calling to tout Medicare plans (since it's
the annual deadline for an individual to make Medicare changes).

Most such telemarketers, like most other telemarketers, have a strong
Indian accent. Whenever I get a call with such an accent, I warn them
that they're helping to damage their nation's reputation all over
the world, which could lead to the world not intervening if Pakistan
attacks them. Usually they immediately hang up (which doesn't keep
them from calling back a few minutes to a few days later). But
sometimes they argue with me, which I find enjoyable. Especially when
they try to prove they're actually in the US. One who kept insisting he
was with the IRS said he had just fined me $10,000 for my impertinence.
(That was years ago, but I haven't received the invoice yet. The mail
from DC to Virginia must be slow.)

Of course I know intellectually that most people in India aren't
dishonest or telemarketers. But viscerally, whenever I hear that
"Apu" accent, I instantly recoil, associating it with lies. And
there's nothing I hate more than lies, unless it's someone who works
all day as a liar, telling several lies per minute for the purpose
of defrauding thousands of gullible people all over the world by
repeatedly annoying millions of non-gullible people all over the world.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net> wrote in
news:sooiqb$7er$1@reader1.panix.com:

> Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> wrote:
>> I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on
>> which night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far
>> inland for that.
>
> And you made your reply on December 7th.
>
> I've long associated December 7th with two things, one bad, one
> good. The bad thing is of course the unprovoked attack on Pearl
> Harbor, 80 years ago today. The good thing is that it's the day
> on which the sunset starts gradually getting later again (at my
> latitude), leading up to the sunny days of June.
>
> But now I also associate it with a second good thing. It's the
> day when telemarketers cease calling to tout Medicare plans
> (since it's the annual deadline for an individual to make
> Medicare changes).
>
> Most such telemarketers, like most other telemarketers, have a
> strong Indian accent. Whenever I get a call with such an
> accent, I warn them that they're helping to damage their
> nation's reputation all over the world, which could lead to the
> world not intervening if Pakistan attacks them. Usually they
> immediately hang up (which doesn't keep them from calling back a
> few minutes to a few days later). But sometimes they argue with
> me, which I find enjoyable. Especially when they try to prove
> they're actually in the US. One who kept insisting he was with
> the IRS said he had just fined me $10,000 for my impertinence.
> (That was years ago, but I haven't received the invoice yet.
> The mail from DC to Virginia must be slow.)
>
> Of course I know intellectually that most people in India aren't
> dishonest or telemarketers. But viscerally, whenever I hear
> that "Apu" accent, I instantly recoil, associating it with lies.
> And there's nothing I hate more than lies, unless it's someone
> who works all day as a liar, telling several lies per minute for
> the purpose of defrauding thousands of gullible people all over
> the world by repeatedly annoying millions of non-gullible people
> all over the world.

There have been surveys in which people said they're rather live
next door to a child molester than a spammer (and telemarketers,
even ones that don't break the law, are the same thing).

--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration
(May 2019 total for people arrested for entering the United States
illegally is over 132,000 for just the southwest border.)

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

On 12/7/21 3:32 PM, Kevrob wrote:

> I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on which
> night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far inland for that.
>

Does he arrive at all seaports on the same night? (That should be well
within the ability of someone with the Santa Claus superpower.) If so,
it would have been an easy drive to Portsmouth or Gloucester to see him.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> Kevrob wrote:
>> I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on
>> which night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far
>> inland for that.

> Does he arrive at all seaports on the same night? (That should be
> well within the ability of someone with the Santa Claus superpower.)
> If so, it would have been an easy drive to Portsmouth or Gloucester
> to see him.

Most people who believe in him are too young to drive.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 9:00:56 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> > Kevrob wrote:
> >> I note you made your first report on the Eve of St Nicholas, on
> >> which night he should arrive by ship! Kingston may be too far
> >> inland for that.
>
> > Does he arrive at all seaports on the same night? (That should be
> > well within the ability of someone with the Santa Claus superpower.)
> > If so, it would have been an easy drive to Portsmouth or Gloucester
> > to see him.
> Most people who believe in him are too young to drive.
> --

But not too young to nag their parents to take
them to see the old bishop and his ship!

--
Kevin R