Category Archives: The Law

Give a cop a hug, or not.

After 54 years of living under the radar, 2009 is Yogi’s year for pissing policemen off. Earlier this year I got growled out via a loudspeaker from a cop car about 15 feet away from me at about 5:45 am.

Last Friday, I took a late lunch downtown and went for a run. On my walk back I crossed a street midblock about a block ahead of a police car. He pulled up to the intersection to the stop light facing north. I was going north, I wasn’t even thinking of him, I looked east and west and thre were no cars so I started across the sidewalk without a walk light. He honked his horn and yelled at me.

I went over there and asked him what was wrong. He was very angry. He said “I can’t believe that you jay walked right in front of me and now you are going cross that street against the light with me sitting right here.” I said sorry about that. He waved his arms and yelled, “Yeah well what up Bro” and burned rubber taking off.

So, I am a little puzzled. He wasn’t worried that I was doing anything that was endangering myself, him, or others. I was disrespecting him! By serial jaywalking!

I have been walking and running extensively around downtown and surrounding neighborhoods for 17 years. I hardly ever cross streets at intersections. Do you know why? Because it is dangerous that’s why! The cars turning don’t look for pedestrians. I cross mid block generally. No turners.

What is wrong with our policemen! I don’t think they are feeling the love. I’m not either.

I’ve always got along great with policemen until this year. I think that have very stressful jobs and are underpaid for what they do. My best friend in high school, Jeff Russell, eventually became an Albuquerque policeman and died in a car crash while on duty in 2002.

Anybody have any ideas about what we can do to make our policemen feel more secure?

Geek License part iii

As my one or two readers know I’m working with the State of Oklahoma trying to keep my PE license. I have a continuing education requirement. I got audited and I sent in my documentation and the State rejected it all for what I think are arbitrary reasons.

I don’t really need a PE license because I don’t do engineering anymore. I’m in more of a sales job now. But that PE license took a lot of hard work.

First I had to fill out a detailed resume detailing all the engineering I had done. I had to describe my role in detail and provide references who could attest that what I said is true. That took months.

Then I had to take a test. It was only a one day test. The CPA test takes several days so I’m not expecting any sympathy but the test about killed me. When you take the test they mix up the disciplines. So Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, and Eletrical engineers don’t sit next to each other. After the test was over I knew right away I didn’t pass it. I felt worse because the guys sitting around me were saying, “I thought this was supposed to be hard” and other such comments.

Anyway, that was in late October and in due course of due time I found out that indeed I had not passed the test. I turned around and took it again the following April.

Sure enough, I showed up for the next test, and there were the same guys! Maybe they were taking it again for fun but apparently they didn’t pass the first test either. I am not ashamed to say that I was glad to see those guys! I do hope that they passed the test the second time and perhaps learned a little humility in the process. Does it show my rotten character if I admitted that I wouldn’t be heartbroken if they didn’t pass the test?

I passed the second time. Hallelujah! I got my certificate and I got a stamp and a seal. I have never used them except when I stamped the Engineering Badge certificates that I passed out last spring when I taught SuperPizzaBoy’s Patrol the basics of engineering. Too many laws, rules, and regulations about stamping engineering drawings and documents for me to be stamping and sealing things left and right.

Anyway, the PE is very dear to me because it took a sustained effort over time to get it so I try and follw the various rules closely to keep it. I’ve been told by other engineers that a PE is not that big a deal. Funny though, none of the people saying that actually have a PE. I don’t know why that is. I might be one of them if I don’t get this straightened out!

Well I’ll get back to the point. I obtained a letter from the organization that provided the seminars I attended for my CE credit. The letter verifies that I was there at the meeting where the seminars were held. They were nice enough to hand deliver the letter to me downtown. So I scanned it and emailed the scan to the State PE board along with a letter asking them to reconsider their earlier decision. Was it too much to mention my hungry wife and children and the landlord who was going to evict us and how world peace (or at least whirilled peas) hang in balance?

So, we’ll see what happens next.

Legal Affairs

Sweetie and Nana (Sweetie’s Mom and SuperPizzaBoy’s only living Grandmother) met me downtown today. We walked over to a law office. Nana met with her new money manager there and Sweetie and I talked to an attorney about getting our financial affairs in order to make sure that SPB is taken care of when Sweetie and I are gone.

The man we talked to has a son with special needs who is now grown and living away from his parents but has full time caretakers. It is too early to tell just how independent SPB is going to be but I am an older parent and we need to make sure that he is taken car of properly. The attorney comes well recommended. It was obvious that he knew what we are talking about. He is living it.

He made a lot of complicated concepts sound simple. They are simple in concept but complicated in execution. This is not going to be cheap but I cannot think of anything more important.

We talked to him for a while. We have some forms to fill out and to send back to him and they he will send us a letter with some options. In the natural gas business we make people pay dearly for options. That is what is going to happen here.