Ambassador Thwack's School of Percussive Pedagogy

RantWoman is hereby making New Year's Resolutions on behalf of any and all operators of motor vehicles upon our nation's roadways! In particular, said operators of motor vehicles SHALL:

--Drive as if those pesky laws of physics apply to EVERYONE. In particular, small cars will assuredly come out on the losing end of encounters with moving buses! A couple weeks ago, the RantFamily had a whole holiday emergency fiasco thanks to a driver dumb enough to cut a bus off making a left turn on a busy Seattle street. The bus driver had to brake hard and swerve. Several bus passengers including Little Sister and her husband all suffered injuries of various kinds which they may or may not even have opted to seek treatment about and we will not even discuss other passenger behavior issues.

RantWoman's family communications plan, such as it was melted down in the face of language and cellphone incomprehensibility and emergency. RantWoman eventually got key messages from nephew but only after all the other adults in the picture where completely freaked out and severely dithered. RantWoman went by the scene on another bus thinking well if the flashing lights are only fire / EMT vehicles and no cops, things could be worse. RantWoman was wrong about no cops as she found out fairly directly. Little Sister's situation boils down to more whiplash for a body already overwrought by ordinary physics. RantWoman is unclear about Little Sister's husband who was already on crutches due to recent surgery, but based on the parts she got drafted to interpret, he has every right also to be shaken up or to have more back problems than he also already does. RantWoman has no information about whether the offending driver has been served with holiday lumps of coal and perhaps a massive traffic fine.

--"Drive safely! School's open." RantWoman received this exhortation on a pencil the World's most irrepressible nephew stuck in her Christmas stocking. RantWoman most assuredly is all for Safe Routes to School programs everywhere and anywhere they occur. RantWoman decided Nephew is still too young for a snit about "what about Aunties too?"

--Become familiar with http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=70.84.040 aka the WA White Cane law RantWoman is not a lawyer. RantWoman is not a traffic cop, but to RantWoman the language of the statute looks pretty clear. THE WHITE CANE IS NOT A GET OUT OF JAIL FREE invitation to floorboard it around the corner while the person carrying the cane is in the other half of the crosswalk. The white cane is not an invitation to floorboard the right on red before the person carrying it steps off the curb. Nor is the white cane an open invitation to commit any of a large number of other traffic technical fouls, manifestations of driving while less than optimally intelligent, Darwin award competition behaviors, or general inconsiderateness!

RantWoman has more than enough vision issues to know why she needs a white cane. Hence, Thwack the Badly Behaved White Cane. She also has enough vision to be appalled by the things that occur in her presence. RantWoman tends to think drivers who are close enough for Ambassador Thwack to do damage are WAY TOO CLOSE. RantWoman considers both herself and Ambassador Thwack lucky that she has only just ever come darn close to having to restrain Ambassador Thwack's inclinations toward percussive pedagogy.

There. RantWoman has now had her morning snit and will do her best to resume holiday cheer! Happy SAFE New Year to All!