Thursday, June 05, 2008

Seems Like a Long Time

by Joyce Tremel

It seems like such a long time since I posted anything here. Well, anything I've written myself, anyway. Seems like all I do is post guest blogs. That's a good thing, though. I love having visitors, even virtual ones. And it gave me the time to update my own blog and actually (gasp!) write something for it. For anyone so inclined, go to The Blotter (like the new name?) and read about my recent carpenter bee problem.

By now, everyone who reads the Pittsburgh papers has heard about our corpse in the creek this week. (The Corpse in the Creek would make a good book title wouldn't it?) You should have seen how fast the station cleared out when that call came in. No apparent foul play involved, though--just an accidental fall.

That's the most excitement we've at work for months.

I've come to think of the month of May as "citation hell." May is when the department does most of their traffic blitzes. The grant money they obtain to do Click It or Ticket or the Smooth Operator program (anyone else think of the song when they see that?) that pays the officers' overtime to work the details expires after a certain length of time. If they don't use it, they lose the grant. In other words, the guys get paid overtime and I get carpal tunnel syndrome entering over two hundred citations into the computer. Doesn't sound quite fair, does it? Right now, I have 145 citations sitting on my desk.

It also seems like a long time since the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, but it just wasn't to be this year. You done good, guys. Next year--Let's Go Pens!


3 comments:

Wilfred Bereswill said...

Joyce, it hurt watching the evil empire lift the cup. It also hurt to see Dallas Drake (ex-St. Louis Blue) take the cup from Nick Lidstrom. His last year here, he seemed too old to play.

OK So is it safe for a civilian to drive in your town now?

Annette said...

So that's what the deal is with the locals and tickets. A friend of ours just added to his collection of speeding tickets (SLOW DOWN!) and I was thinking the local department was stepping up the ticket-writing to pay for their gasoline.

The really ouchy part for my friend is that his young daughter was in the car with him, seat-belted in, but NOT in a car seat. She's at the age where she's just a tad too small to be out of the seat, but with a big enough stubborn streak to not WANT to be in it.

Joyce Tremel said...

From the PA Bulletin:

§ 102.3. Physical criteria for use of child passenger restraint system.

(a) General criteria. Children under 4 years of age shall be securely fastened in a safety seat belt system and a child passenger restraint system appropriate for their height and weight in accordance with the recommendations of the manufacturer. Children 4 years of age but younger than 8 years of age shall be securely fastened in a safety seat belt system and an appropriately fitting child booster seat in accordance with the recommendations of the manufacturer.

(b) Exemption based on child's weight or height, or on vehicle characteristics. Exemption from the general criteria in subsection (a) shall be as follows:

(1) Children 4 years of age but younger than 8 years of age who weigh less than 40 pounds may, in lieu of use of a booster seat, be securely fastened in a child safety seat or other child passenger restraint system appropriate for their height and weight in accordance with the recommendations of the manufacturer.

(2) Children 4 years of age but younger than 8 years of age riding in a passenger position in the vehicle which was not originally equipped with a shoulder safety seat belt shall be fastened in the safety seat belt system without the use of a child booster seat and may be fastened in a child passenger restraint system appropriate for their height and weight in accordance with the recommendations of the manufacturer.

(3) Children 4 years of age but younger than 8 years of age who weigh more than 80 pounds or who are of a height of 4 feet 9 inches or taller may be fastened in the safety seat belt system without the use of a child booster seat.