What's bugging you? (2017-2018)

[CheezWizHed]

12.5 hours and a LOT of dumped-out alcohol later, the worst day of the year is finally over. Hopefully the late crew stays safe.

 

First honest answer I've ever had: "Yeah, I knew you couldn't bring alcohol in here, but I did anyway."

 

"Well, thank you for your honesty, ma'am."

 

"Are there people who aren't honest with you?"

 

I only said "yeah," but in my head I was chuckling. Heck, I still assumed she was hiding something else.

 

What's bugging me is that this post sounds like a very interesting story, but only gave a few juicy tidbits... Where is Paul Harvey when you need him?

[GAME05]

Nah, not too interesting. I'm a law enforcement park ranger, so that's typical stuff here, but if you choose to keep reading I'll give you typical weekend stuff at the park. Alcohol is illegal here. When I catch a drunk and they say "You're targeting me. I bet 90% of the people in here have alcohol," I often give my co-worker's line of "Oh, I'd bet it's closer to 99%. But after we're done, you can point them all out to me and I'll go talk to them next."

 

A couple Rangers got commissioned (given a gun and arresting power) the day before, so they were brand spankin' new. One found alcohol on a campsite but the lady was being an uncooperative blankety-blank. I'm nearby so I go to assist. When I get there she's trying to hand the Ranger a bottle of wine and the Ranger is refusing to take it. I explain to her that we can't just take stuff, as that would be stealing, and explain to the Ranger (not in front of her, though) that we can indeed confiscate property, but it requires some paperwork. It's amazing I've never once met a camper who brought wine but also brought a corkscrew. I guess they must feel that if they can get us in a quandary we'll just let them go.

 

The lady gets polite and cooperative once I get there. Wasn't specifically me, just that more Rangers showed up. "I didn't even know I had the wine in my car" (riiiiiiiight). "OK, that's all the alcohol I have."

 

"Can I look in your cooler?" (I need a warrant to just go in one, but I sure can when I get permission). There was a case in Virginia where a cop stopped a vehicle for something routine, randomly asked if he could look in their trunk. The driver gave the officer permission to do so, and go figure the guy had just killed somebody and had put the body in the trunk.

 

Immediately as the lady says yes, her friend says "There's a beer in there." Me, I usually evict people once I catch them in a lie, but this was the new Ranger's stop and he chose not to. And that's fine.

 

The new Ranger gets in the truck with me and all of two campsites later we find more alcohol. They're cooperative and dump it all (about three cases of beer), including a case that was visible inside their tent which I didn't say anything about to see if they'd try to hide it from me, but they dumped that, too, without me mentioning it. They cussed me out and filmed me, but whatever. You're perfectly within your rights to film a public officer so long as you don't push it in my face and obstruct my view. But be aware if I think you may have filmed any evidence, then I'll be confiscating your phone to include as evidence and you won't get it back until a judge says so (not a threat, just how it works).

 

And again all of two campsites later the new Ranger spots what he thinks is a long-neck but isn't 100% and so thinks we can't go down there. I say that we don't need permission to go on a campsite, and that I've walked up to people a lot of times to discover that it's nothing. Side-story, a similar thing happened two two other Rangers that weekend. One thought they saw beer but the other Ranger walked up on their own. They quickly discovered the "beer" was a flashlight, and now was making an excuse to leave--we don't just walk on peoples' sites without a reason, since this isn't a police state. The Ranger garbled something about checking up and saying hello and just patrolling for alcohol, to which the campers said "Oh, we have alcohol. Here you go."

 

So the new Ranger and I walk up on the site, and surprise-surprise they did have alcohol. This was the "I know it's illegal but I did it anyway" lady. After that stop we smashed the bottle of wine in the dumpster and I got to go home.

 

So yeah, typical stuff. Sometimes it's odd, though. A couple months ago a guy was stopped for open container. Decided he "didn't want to deal with it" and so evaded arrest, didn't flinch one bit when he got pepper sprayed, punched the Ranger, assault with a deadly weapon (his vehicle), punched a police dog and punched another cop. Blew a .30 but was perfectly alert, but I don't know the blood results to know just what sort of drug was in his system to cancel out the alcohol. We're guessing meth, but who knows. Do I have to say "allegedly" to all that?

[pitchleague]

For the last couple of days I've been racking my brain over the name of a video game that I played not too long ago (maybe 3-5 years ago?) but I can't place it.

 

The only things that I remember was a level in which you play a child that is sneaking out of his (circa 1950s) army barracks at night and has to avoid guards and spot lights to get to the other side of the base. It included hiding in bushes, using distractions, and even climbing onto the roofs of the barracks. You had some NPCs that could go along with you, too.

 

Then, another level I remember is the same character trying to sneak across an army base during the day time, once again avoiding guards. You had to sneak behind some moving trucks to stay out of the guards vision cones (signified on a mini-map). I think the prime goal was to steal a truck parked in the motorpool area but you also end up going into some secret laboratory with your friends and one of them gets killed.

 

Later on in the game, you play this same motorpool level again but you do steal the truck.

 

All these things I described are played as "flashbacks" in the game, with the child reminiscing about how his father worked in the army secret laboratory, or something like that.

 

I'd appreciate any help anybody can give me. Google searches for these things I do remember came up as blanks (mostly GTA V results.) So hopefully this will jog someone else's memory. I know the game was played in 3rd person and it was pretty fun, but darned it all if I can't remember anything else (especially the title!) I "think" that the rest of the game happens in the present.

[CheezWizHed]

Nah, not too interesting. I'm a law enforcement park ranger, so that's typical stuff here, but if you choose to keep reading I'll give you typical weekend stuff at the park.

 

And here I thought it was all keeping bears from stealing pic-a-nic baskets! You have an odd definition of not interesting. Not fun perhaps, but certainly interesting.

[CheezWizHed]

Microsoft Word has a feature called "Save and Send", which I often use to email someone a document at work.

 

However, if you have not saved the document BEFORE you hit "Save and Send", it complains that you haven't saved it and exits out of the function.

 

GAME05, This stuff is not interesting.

[Patrick425]

In response to GAME05's post (don't want to quote the whole thing). I remember going camping with my friends shortly after we graduated HS when we were 18. This was when the drinking age was 18 (in Wisconsin). Of course we had alcohol and as dumb teenagers one of us left a bottle of Jack Daniels outside of our tent in full sight of everyone. A Ranger came up to our tent and was asking all types of questions and then in a "Peter Falk/Columbo" type fashion says..."oh, one more thing, that's not a bottle of Jack Daniels I see right there is it?" Caught red handed we don't really say anything and just stand there with stupid smirks on our face. All he says is "Get it out of sight" and then walks away. This was 1984 and so it was a little different than it is today.

[jerichoholicninja]

Summer colds. I generally get one a summer that lasts a couple days but this one is going on a week now. It's not bad enough to shut me completely down but bad enough that being in the sun for a few minutes is too much. I wait 9 months to be able to be outside and I've lost a week of it because of this stupid thing.

[jerichoholicninja]

Summer colds. I generally get one a summer that lasts a couple days but this one is going on a week now. It's not bad enough to shut me completely down but bad enough that being in the sun for a few minutes is too much. I wait 9 months to be able to be outside and I've lost a week of it because of this stupid thing.

 

I assumed by the end of the weekend it should be gone. Going on 10 days now and, while I feel better than a week ago, I still don't feel great.

[Jimbo]

Was at the game Saturday night, splurged to get nice seat behind the Phillies dugout. Three guys take their seats behind me. The guy in the middle was a knowledgeable fan, to his left a German attending his first game but was in observation mode, and to the right was a guy acting like he was in the RF bleachers, trying to make side wagers each PA, didn't know Stephen Vogt and proclaimed Def Leppard to be the "last great German rock band". As the game goes on, realize he's a Cub fan.

[hawing]

I've seen cub gear on people at each.one. of the 26 games we've attended at Miller Park so far this year.

[stoutdude04]

I've seen cub gear on people at each.one. of the 26 games we've attended at Miller Park so far this year.

 

I bought tickets in the 1st row one time and a family of Cubs fans were seated next to us. The lady told me it's quicker for them to drive to Miller park from the Chicago area than it is to go to Wrigley. She also said she enjoyed the stadium more too. They were a nice family.

[jerichoholicninja]

Reading about the WIAA football season starting early this year. Apparently they start so early because they are concerned about playing cold games late in the year. Having played and coached spring baseball in Wisconsin for 15 years I can tell you that about half of our games are "cold" with temps around 40 and below 30 with the wind chill. I guarantee there are more baseball games with snow than football games every year. The high school football season is way too long. Our football team had mini-camp during our baseball regionals for crying out loud. And they have a player led week long grade school football camp in July which is really just a way to squeeze in more practices while skirting the rules.

[tmwiese55]

And this early it can be very hot making practices dangerous. It's better to play later than now, however then you're overlapping with basketball. So not really an easy problem to solve.

[stoutdude04]

They could shorten the season. I saw our high school kids out practicing and was shocked at how early it started...then I remembered one of the reasons I quit when I was a sophmore.

[tmwiese55]

I think they only play 8 games (though I could be wrong), pretty short as it is. But have to leave those like 5 weeks for the playoffs. Never really thought about it before now, but yea you probably don't need a month of practice before the first game. This is just hs fb. Could probably fairly easily cut a week out there

[sauveb]

The HS season is 9 games with 1 scrimmage before the games begin. This year they can have 9 practices before the scrimmage, 3 of which are without pads. The first practice is August 1st, the first game is August 17th,18th or 19th. There are 5 weeks of playoffs which culminate with the finals at Camp Randall the Thursday and Friday before Thanksgiving. Basketball season starts the Monday before the state finals. The only way to shorten the season would be to reduce the number of games. Based on my experiences as a coach, that's something that would be extremely unfavorable to the athletes that play football.

[tmwiese55]

I played in HS and I would agree, there is so much work that goes into football that playing less games would really frustrate me. You do all that work for the fun of those games. And wow on how soon games start, I could be wrong but I felt like we didn't have first games until the last Fri in Aug or first in Sept, but that was 15 years ago so things change and/or I just remember wrong. So yea nevermind on them starting now if they have to play on the 18th. Based on what you said I'd think a move could be to reduce the playoffs by one round/week. Sure teams would get cut from the playoffs but most of those teams are walking into a massive beatdown anyway and it's best for their safety not to play it.

[jerichoholicninja]

The schools and WIAA actually make money from football so I doubt they're cutting any games anywhere.

 

What us spring baseball teams really need is two more weeks at the end of the season. It's not fun trying to play baseball in 30 degree weather the first week of April and then waiting 3 weeks for it to stop raining to play again and then cramming 10 games into the last two weeks before regionals.

[bani1717]

The HS football season in Wisconsin used to start a week later, and they made up for it by having the last regular season game on a Wednesday or Thursday (instead of Friday), first playoff game on a Tuesday, and second playoff game on a Saturday. That meant that instead of playing once every seven days, teams who advanced to the second round of the playoffs would play a stretch of three games in 10-11 days, and four games in 16 days if you look back another week. A few years ago they changed that and started the season a week earlier to allow for the same number of games but with normal rest between games.

[hawing]

During Wednesday's game, I saw plenty of social media evidence of the cat who got out in Busch prior to STL taking the lead on Lucifer's grand slam. I knew immediately that #RALLYCAT would become a thing, the cat would be hyped and probably merchandised as was the 2011 squirrel, and had a terrible vision of STL becoming the 2017 world champions.

 

I also knew that when my STL fan employee arrived at work today he'd be all RALLYCAT! YADI! SECOND PLACE! and it would take every ounce of maturity and restraint I had to not figuratively rip his head off. (Or literally, but the latter is really not my thing.) So right after lunch he was all I HAVE THE CUUUUUTEST THING TO SHOW YOU FROM LAST NIGHT and I said "if it's the cat, I already know about it."

 

But yeah, he thinks IT'S A SIGN. Less than a week ago he was all THIS JUST ISN'T THEIR YEAR and MATHENY'S PROBABLY GONE and NOTHING'S GOING OUR WAY. Time for me to retune my tiny violin.

 

(Aside #1: This employee has been here for almost a year and I really believe he doesn't say this stuff to taunt me. I think he's oblivious to my STL hatred.)

 

(Aside #2: I hope they locate the cat so the kid who was bitten/scratched by it knows for sure whether he needs to have rabies shots. Then I hope they let the critter be. Kitty was clearly terrified to be in the ballpark.)

[jerichoholicninja]

During Wednesday's game, I saw plenty of social media evidence of the cat who got out in Busch prior to STL taking the lead on Lucifer's grand slam. I knew immediately that #RALLYCAT would become a thing, the cat would be hyped and probably merchandised as was the 2011 squirrel, and had a terrible vision of STL becoming the 2017 world champions.

 

I also knew that when my STL fan employee arrived at work today he'd be all RALLYCAT! YADI! SECOND PLACE! and it would take every ounce of maturity and restraint I had to not figuratively rip his head off. (Or literally, but the latter is really not my thing.) So right after lunch he was all I HAVE THE CUUUUUTEST THING TO SHOW YOU FROM LAST NIGHT and I said "if it's the cat, I already know about it."

 

But yeah, he thinks IT'S A SIGN. Less than a week ago he was all THIS JUST ISN'T THEIR YEAR and MATHENY'S PROBABLY GONE and NOTHING'S GOING OUR WAY. Time for me to retune my tiny violin.

 

(Aside #1: This employee has been here for almost a year and I really believe he doesn't say this stuff to taunt me. I think he's oblivious to my STL hatred.)

 

(Aside #2: I hope they locate the cat so the kid who was bitten/scratched by it knows for sure whether he needs to have rabies shots. Then I hope they let the critter be. Kitty was clearly terrified to be in the ballpark.)

 

Just say Cardinals fans are bugging you. They're human turds.

[chuckiehacks]

My ex-wife just called to tell me that our 8-year old just got bit by a dog & likely needs stitches. The woman who owns the dog downplayed it by saying that the dog doesn't like kids his size.

 

Okay lady, how about not letting your dog run free in a residential neighborhood then?!

[Baldkin]

My ex-wife just called to tell me that our 8-year old just got bit by a dog & likely needs stitches. The woman who owns the dog downplayed it by saying that the dog doesn't like kids his size.

 

Okay lady, how about not letting your dog run free in a residential neighborhood then?!

 

"Oh, my dog is the sweetest thing ever, she's just playing."

 

No, when your dog bites a human, knocks a human over, charges at a human who may not like dogs at all, it is NOT a sweet thing. It makes you a terrible dog owner.

[GAME05]

Dogs are a scourge. Dogs off leash is a constant in my park and it's a law we enforce very seriously. So many problems with them, but of course the owners don't know that--they only know that their dog is friendly, so it's ok for them to break the law. Worse is oftentimes the owners. If we're to get any sort of "I'm gonna call the real cops" response, it's guaranteed to be from a dog-off-leash owner. There's kind of a joke in the office where we all kinda hope that someone finally does call 911 to get the "real cops," in which case dispatch would call back directly to us as we're standing right in front of them. "See, real police!"

 

Last week was the first time I chose to deploy my baton, for a dog that was slowly approaching me (no, I didn't have to hit the dog). Last month it was a dog off leash that ran into another guy's camper.

 

Last year we had a small dog off-leash run and attack a big dog on-leash. It got tore up! Small-dog owner-lady calls us all mad because now her dog is half-dead. We kindly let her know that since it was her dog off the leash it was entirely her fault, and make sure the big dog had no problems because the lady would have had to pay for that, too.

[jerichoholicninja]

I hate dogs. They smell, they're slobbery, they're gross, they're needy. The people who live across the street from us have 3 dogs. Generally they keep one outside in a kennel all day. This is the first summer that dog hasn't cried like it's being beaten (I know it's not being beaten, there's no one home) all day long. I've thought about calling the cops but I'm pretty sure they're not doing anything illegal, it's just their dog is really annoying.