After all of yesterday’s talk about mud season, guess where my husband is? That’s right. Out riding my ATV with some friends. (On private land not subject to mud season closure.)
Rather than dwell too much on how I’d like to whack him upside the head with his own helmet, I’m trying to get some writing done. Not sleeping well, being left behind and a sugar rush from too many cookies are making me a little cranky, though, which results in rather sarcastic dialogue flowing from the characters’ mouths.
I have exactly 17 minutes before the boys ask me what’s for lunch, and I’m guessing the Short Kid will push for Burger King. He seems to be the only sheep consumer on the planet actually sucked in by the hideous I like Square Butts ad. In my head I’ll be ordering a salad, although I’m sure the word Whopper will accidently escape my lips at an inopportune moment—like at the drive-thru.
Just another Sunday at Casa Stacey.
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OY! How unfair to leave you home with the kidlets to go mudding when they’re using your ATV. Not sure what’s for lunch/dinner here but thinking about conning…er…. asking the DH to go to Teds Fish Fry and bring me back a burger, shake and fries. Yum!!!
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You know, Shannon, you and your family are the type of ATVers that people don’t mind having around. Always respectful of others…both their feelings and their properties.
I wish you would come over and school the new couple who moved into the rental house next door to me. I’m ready to go Rambo on the guy, and slap his wife silly.
We live in the township, but that’s more of a fluke than anything else. You could basically call us a part of the town, since we are only one street away, so we aren’t in the country by any means. In fact, the township paved our road after doing a traffic survey (at everyone’s beyotching) because the volume of traffic on this road is incredible. Dirt road plus huge volume of cars = dust bowl living most of the summer.
But this doofus next door sure does think he lives in the outback. He has totally ruined the owners yard by blasting back and forth over its 50′ x 150′ length. And even better, he invites people over to spend all day blasting up and down our paved road. It’s a 25 mph zone, but they hit what must be 60 mph often.
And why slap his wife? Cuz yesterday they let their little one (approx age of 3) ride on the front of an ATV with a person who looked about 13. On the paved road, no less. No helmets for either. OH, and did I mention the volume of traffic on the road?
For the first time in 23 years I called the landlord to complain. It was either that or go over and get in a fist fight.
You might ask why I didn’t call the police. First off, that sort of thing is not my style. With the economy the way it is, forces have had to cut back and I’d hate to think that my ATV report might keep an officer away from a serious call. Plus, since we are in the township, it would mean pulling one of our sherriffs over to deal with the situation. They are even more thinned out than the town police.
So, now my rant is over, and I am again thanking you and yours for being responsible ATVers. I’d hate the darn things if not for people like you.
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Oooh, I should have had a shake! I never think of them until it’s too late. Had a BK Mocha Joe which, washing down cheesy tots, was a little too much. Blech.
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I lost count of the violations in that comment, Jewell. I HATE people like that. Every group has them, but in ATVing, they’re the ones who cause land closures.
Usually when I call the police for something, they tell me they can’t do anything because they didn’t witness it, and then the people I called the police on escalate. It’s a sucky situation.
I don’t know whose jurisdiction that would be where you are, but here in NH I’d take my nice zoom camera and get some pictures. The hardest part is getting the registration stickers, but I’ve got a 12x zoom on my Kodak. The fines from Fish & Game would be enough so they wouldn’t be able to pay their rent and hopefully get evicted. Plus the bonus child endangerment charge on top of that.
Build a photo portfolio and deliver it to the law enforcement division covering OHRVs when you’ve got a nice stack of violations. They don’t sound like the kind of people you want to risk an open confrontation with.
We had an accident here in NH yesterday. A group was out riding and a machine rolled. The passenger, who was a minor and wearing a helmet, suffered a leg and elbow injury. The driver, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered massive head trauma. Haven’t heard any more other than they didn’t have the landowner’s permission to be there and will all be charged.
A while back there was a guy on the system we ride who was tearing up a landowner’s yard and when the wife yelled at him, he verbally assaulted her. You wouldn’t believe the club’s struggle to keep that piece of trail open. It would have sucked for those of us who aren’t assholes to lose it, but who could blame them if they said no more ATVs? Hell, we ride them and we would have closed it if some guy said to me what he said to her.
And, seriously, we try to self-police, but it’s scary nowadays to confront somebody. There was a case several years back here in NH where a woman and her daughter were horseback riding and some yahoo in a truck was flying by. She yelled at him to slow down and he came at them with a knife. The guy who tried to help them got stabbed several times. Because she told him to slow down.
We play, and we get a little rowdy, but there’s a time and a place for it. Some people, unfortunately, can’t get that through their thick skulls.
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I love Cheesy Tots.
*tummy growls*
Also. Tummy Grows with too many cheesy tots.