Friday 10/26/07

Greetings faithful readers. Here's this week's (1.) Offering. (2.) Diatribe (3.) Monologue, or (4.) rant.

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Laura and I spent a large part of this week under house arrest.

No, we didn't have ankle bracelets courtesy the sheriff. No, we weren't under orders from a judge to stay home.

However, for much of the daylight hours Monday through Thursday, the driveway serving our home was blocked.

We should have known this was going to happen. Several weeks ago, the "Locators" showed up and spray-painted pretty yellow, green and blue lines on the street in front of our house.

But we were blithe about the Locators. After all, we've had location painters numerous times through the years and the paint would disappear and nothing would happen.

I first knew we might be in trouble Monday morning when I woke up to the sound of the ubiquitous backup horns.

Sure enough. Orange traffic cones, lime green vests on hard-hat guys, tobacco spitters leaning on shovels.

It's Greeley Gas! ! ! Otherwise known as "Atmos," they were on the prowl for a malfunctioning junction in a gas line.

Did we get a courteous knock on the door? A postcard in the mail? A phone call? Any form of warning whatsoever? Nope.

They just drove up, blocked us in, and started digging.

Laura, bless her heart, saw all the dust and went running out with a package of dust masks.

She found out the workers were just guys, and that they didn't mean us any harm. They just found it necessary by the nature of their jobs to dig a big hole in our driveway.

By Wednesday, things were coming to a climax. Suddenly, we saw two guys putting on fire-retardant suits, hoods, goggles, respirators.

They took an old piece of equipment apart and installed a new piece -- with gas running free all the while. It fairly curdled my milk.

We were no more than 30 feet from all this, watching from our "Big Screen" front window that faces Third Avenue.

The gas simply escaped into the air, and didn't blow up. Eventually the satanic hissing stopped, and the firesuits came off.

When I left the house to walk to work that day, I told the guys I'd been watching them on my Big Screen -- adding that I was plenty ready to change the channel.

By Thursday evening, a different crew had showed up to repair the damage caused by digging the Big Hole.

There'll probably be at least one good thing that comes from all this: Our beautiful old pine tree may recover from the mysterious damage we saw all summer long.

The poor tree was wimpy and droopy and tired looking -- now we think we know, it was the gas leak! !

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This event, considering nothing blew up, is not of much import in the grand scheme of things.

But it is a great example of the arrogance we all encounter these days. Notify? Warn? Courtesy call? Naw. Just dig.

There is corporate arrogance (Greeley Gas); governmental arrogance (Union Colony Fire Authority) and institutional arrogance (University of Northern Colorado).

Several years ago, Laura and I watched while the arrogant Fire Authority clashed with the arrogant UNC.

You remember. UNC moved its homecoming fireworks show from Snobbingham Field. They did this because Snobbingham area residents had expressed fears their homes and properties might be subject to damage from the fireworks.

So the arrogant UNC moved the fireworks to Jackson Field. Where OUR homes and properties were subject to fire damage. Without warning. Without notice. Without humane consideration. Just loud bomb-like sounds suddenly one October evening. (Sound familiar?)

I appealed to the arrogant Union Colony Fire Authority just before the subsequent UNC homecoming celebration.

It was fun to watch. The UNC pyrotechnics show went on despite the efforts of the hick-town fire marshall. So, obnoxious UNC is basically not subject to regulation by the Fire Authority. Interesting.

You'll note Greeley area fire equipment now comes in different colors. This I'm told came when a new chief hired on.

You'll also note the lettering on the fire equipment now reads "Union Colony Fire and Rescue."

Once upon a time, it read, "Union Colony Fire Authority."

Perhaps the name change means a softening of the arrogant shell in which the department had been living. Let's hope so.

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Word of the week: Subordinate. It's from the Latin, "Sub," under, pluse "ordinare," to order. 1. Inferior to or placed below; 2. Under the power or authority of another; 3. Subservient or submissive. You see it in the Bible as "Wives, be subordinate to your husbands." But, we've talked about this before.

Next week's word: Bigot.

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A matter of interest: please scroll to the bottom of the Home page to see a commendation we received from Ben's commanding officer in 2000!

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Gripes? Complaints? Whines? or Comments? Adoration? Puppy love? Feel free to express yourself below.