Trust but verify

We have this phrase we like to use around here, “Trust but verify.” I think it is relevant in light of last couple treks to school in the morning.

This morning I was standing there chatting with the crossing guard again. I really feel bad that I cannot remember her name. She is delightful. I can even remember what street she lives on. I cannot remember her name though. We were chatting about the all important question I had asked on the way by this morning. “They aren’t out making people’s day today?” She just laughed and said, “I don’t know I haven’t seen them this morning.” This was in reference to the sheriff and the school zone and all the excitement we had yesterday.

I continued on the way to take Lance to school. We drove this morning. Lance’s punishment. The child was dragging something awful this morning. His slow poke gene kicked in today. He did not have his clothes on at 7:30AM. The alarm on my iPhone goes off at 7:35AM to warn me to put my shoes on and get onto him to start making sure that he has everything together. We usually walk out the door and mount bicycles by 7:45AM. This morning, we drove over to the last street in the neighborhood and we walked down the quarter mile sidewalk to the school as we did have enough time to do that. The first bell rang at 8:05AM as we were approaching the school’s property. School starts at 8:15AM, so it was all good. I have learned when to cut my losses on the bike ride and throw in the towel. This morning was one of those days.

Back to the crossing guard chat…

I was chatting with the crossing guard on the way back from dropping Lance off. We are discussing the fact that they were pulling people over down in the school parking lot. The teacher that was standing out there said [hearsay starts] that he was standing out in the street with his radar gun, waving them over, and then flipping his lights on in his car when he had someone. [hearsay ends] I have to say that I am quite delighted that they are writing tickets because the message that there are a lot of kids and there is a school zone that you have to follow is not going to get through to people unless they make it hurt. How do you make it hurt? You make it hurt the pocket book a little. It is quite simple, actually. The sign has been up since August. The kids have been there since August. It is a no brainer. Get with the program.

In our conversation she mentioned about how the sheriff being lost was quite humorous. I have to agree with her. He couldn’t find Lacey Road. Well this morning we discovered why…

Lacey Road IS missing! That isn’t the only problem. Memorial Springs Pass is not going the right direction. This is a problem with the street signs in our neighborhood from time to time.

In fact, the street sign on our street is missing on one end and has been for 2-3 months at least. The street sign on the other end of the street has been wrong since the day they put it up. Confusing at best, no? Fortunately, the error on the street sign for us is a Drive instead of the proper Trail.

The street sign for Lacey Road, however, goes missing regularly from what the crossing guard was saying. Now that she mentioned it, I had noticed that it was missing a lot. I never really paid attention to it because I knew that was Lacey Road and well there was nothing down Lacey Road before the school was built, just a couple of small farms and another new neighborhood’s side entrance.

So the mystery was solved. Really if he was using a mapping device in a squad car which I thought they had, I am sure just looking at the map and the existing signs one block back would have given away his location but he kept this up for a while.

I should add that as we were standing there chatting, a friend of mine, Nicole Skidmore, came up and we talked as well. The sheriff drove up. He is very nice. We were able to thank him for his efforts. We were able to tell him more of our concerns.

Interesting enough, the question was raised about drivers not doing what they were supposed to while driving in relation to road rules and bikers. If you don’t know what the road rules are in relation to bikers are, go READ the NEW Texas State Driver’s Handbook. If you have have not read the above since you received your Texas State Driver’s License (as a teenager), go READ the NEW Texas State Driver’s Handbook and you will be in for quite the enlightenment. You will get a bit more out of it now than you did when you took Driver’s Education as a teenager. The laws have changed in the past several years and believe it or not cars have to share the road like it or not. You have to share with the big trucks and you have to share with the bicycles. Yes, we all have to play in the same sandbox. The short of this is, in the State of Texas as soon as you get on a set of wheels over a certain size you are considered a “vehicle.” The interesting thing that the sheriff said in response to the question was that once contact was made, the report would be filed as an auto-pedestrian accident. The things that make you go “HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.”