I know this isn't poultry or even farming related, but I wanted to share, maybe rant a bit while I was at it.
We left for work this morning in the same way we always do. There was a dusting of snow on the ground that had been there since mid-afternoon yesterday, no wind, 6am and the sun was already up and bright behind the clouds. We made it about 20 minutes into our drive when we passed a car pulled over at a rolled-over SUV that had what looked like children's clothes and playthings strewn everywhere. As you do, if you're a courteous driver (we'll get into that later), we slowed down and were suddenly made dramatically aware of the state of the roads -- black ice. Moose felt worried, and he is an excellent driver. We have driven through what looked much worse, but he felt that today, our jobs were just not worth our lives. We turned around.
Less than 2 km north of where that roll-over that alerted us to the severity of the road conditions was, was a fresh roll-over we had the pleasure of catching the end of. I immediately noticed a black dog jogging down the side of the highway, on and off the pavement in a panic. Moose and I made the quick decision, pulled over and he went to the vehicle which the man was just crawling out from and I went after the dog, flagging people by waving my arms frantically to try to let them know that something was on the road up ahead other than the roll-over. My frantic waving made a woman pull over who did so just as the dog came up out of the ditch in front of her vehicle. Later discussions between us revealed the only reason she pulled over was because I was running and waving, and that she hadn't seen the dog until it jumped out in front of her just stopped vehicle. By this time, I was on the phone with emergency crews trying to explain the situation and the location (I'm not a location oriented person). I got frustrated with the dispatcher on the phone as I tried to catch the dog and handed off the phone to the woman who had pulled over.
I managed to catch the dog, who was bleeding from the mouth and defecating on itself with fear. He was very very scared, but not aggressive, and the lady opened the back of her little Kia SUV thing and I helped the dog into the vehicle. I checked him over as best I could, found the blood was coming from what looked to be the result of biting down on his own jowls. From there I returned to the accident scene, checked on the guy Moose was with. He was cut up, scraped, but high on adrenaline and refusing medical attention. We discovered, when we returned his dog, that the dog had an injury to his back or hind end and was extremely tender. Moose and I waited with an older gentleman who had pulled over, as well as a guy about our age that had used his OnStar to contact emergency services. We all talked about how none of us had realized how bad the road was until we slowed down a bit and how ridiculous it is that the Highways conditions road map wasn't correct. When the friend came to pick up the driver of the roll-over, we called it and went home. My work is not worth my life or Moose's job his. Yeah there's bills to be paid, but you can't pay them if you're dead.
I'm a high strung person, but I become incredibly calm and extremely lucid in emergency situations. It's one of the few times my anxiety level is nullified completely. Afterwards though, as we almost arrived home, the panic from the moment struck me, as did the worry and anger, the regret that I didn't get his phone number to follow up with him and make sure he was okay, that his dog was okay. I was overcome with absolute annoyance about the reliability of the highways map.
I should be clear, the province of Saskatchewan has put an explicit, small font, bold faced disclaimer at the very very very bottom of the page that reads:
When we arrived home, only about 25 minutes from leaving the wreck (I called the radio station I listen to to let them know since the report sure hadn't) we arrived home and checked to see if the conditions had been downgraded from "Winter Driving conditions exist" to "Travel Not Recommended", or at least "Icy/slick driving conditions exist." To our surprise, the conditions had been upgraded to "Good Winter Driving." Who upgraded this? Who supplies the updates for this? Who says if it's good or bad? If you can't at least SOMEWHAT depend on this map, why the hell is it there? To me, it would be better to be uninformed than misinformed.
I rarely complain about government services, health care, road maintenance, the premier or local governing parties because I feel like my tax dollars will be spent any which way, whether I complain or not, but this is people's lives. Like cutting back ambulatory and fire services, this has raked my nerves beyond tolerance and I will be writing a letter of protest to the highways division of the government. I know someone who works in a government office -- her job, which she's paid $36 an hour for, is to read complaint letters that come in and forward them to the appropriate office (instead of people forwarding their letters to the correct office themselves, there's a central complaints address I guess). I'd rather pay someone $36 bucks an hour, as well as pay for their vehicle maintenance and fuel to accurately inform drivers of road conditions, than to pay her to read letters like the one I'll be writing, to decide where they go -- I know where it goes.
OI!
**Edit** Oh yes, I forgot. While we're all at the side of the road, jack-wad drivers couldn't be bothered to move into the left lane, away from the wreck so that, if they lost control, they wouldn't take out passers by. Most people wouldn't slow down, and trucks that didn't move over pelted the side of the vehicles as well as the people standing with the injured guy, with gravel and rocks kicked up from the side of the road. Unacceptable. MOVE OVER!
We left for work this morning in the same way we always do. There was a dusting of snow on the ground that had been there since mid-afternoon yesterday, no wind, 6am and the sun was already up and bright behind the clouds. We made it about 20 minutes into our drive when we passed a car pulled over at a rolled-over SUV that had what looked like children's clothes and playthings strewn everywhere. As you do, if you're a courteous driver (we'll get into that later), we slowed down and were suddenly made dramatically aware of the state of the roads -- black ice. Moose felt worried, and he is an excellent driver. We have driven through what looked much worse, but he felt that today, our jobs were just not worth our lives. We turned around.
Less than 2 km north of where that roll-over that alerted us to the severity of the road conditions was, was a fresh roll-over we had the pleasure of catching the end of. I immediately noticed a black dog jogging down the side of the highway, on and off the pavement in a panic. Moose and I made the quick decision, pulled over and he went to the vehicle which the man was just crawling out from and I went after the dog, flagging people by waving my arms frantically to try to let them know that something was on the road up ahead other than the roll-over. My frantic waving made a woman pull over who did so just as the dog came up out of the ditch in front of her vehicle. Later discussions between us revealed the only reason she pulled over was because I was running and waving, and that she hadn't seen the dog until it jumped out in front of her just stopped vehicle. By this time, I was on the phone with emergency crews trying to explain the situation and the location (I'm not a location oriented person). I got frustrated with the dispatcher on the phone as I tried to catch the dog and handed off the phone to the woman who had pulled over.
I managed to catch the dog, who was bleeding from the mouth and defecating on itself with fear. He was very very scared, but not aggressive, and the lady opened the back of her little Kia SUV thing and I helped the dog into the vehicle. I checked him over as best I could, found the blood was coming from what looked to be the result of biting down on his own jowls. From there I returned to the accident scene, checked on the guy Moose was with. He was cut up, scraped, but high on adrenaline and refusing medical attention. We discovered, when we returned his dog, that the dog had an injury to his back or hind end and was extremely tender. Moose and I waited with an older gentleman who had pulled over, as well as a guy about our age that had used his OnStar to contact emergency services. We all talked about how none of us had realized how bad the road was until we slowed down a bit and how ridiculous it is that the Highways conditions road map wasn't correct. When the friend came to pick up the driver of the roll-over, we called it and went home. My work is not worth my life or Moose's job his. Yeah there's bills to be paid, but you can't pay them if you're dead.
I'm a high strung person, but I become incredibly calm and extremely lucid in emergency situations. It's one of the few times my anxiety level is nullified completely. Afterwards though, as we almost arrived home, the panic from the moment struck me, as did the worry and anger, the regret that I didn't get his phone number to follow up with him and make sure he was okay, that his dog was okay. I was overcome with absolute annoyance about the reliability of the highways map.
I should be clear, the province of Saskatchewan has put an explicit, small font, bold faced disclaimer at the very very very bottom of the page that reads:
Highway Hotline Map Reports Disclaimer:
The information in this map report has been compiled from observations made by Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure staff. The Government of Saskatchewan accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. Information is not necessarily updated 24 hours a day and may not be completely current at any specific point in time, as highway conditions can change rapidly due to weather, flooding, forest fires or other events. Motorists using public highways should always be alert to these possible changes and remain responsible to operate their vehicles in a careful and prudent manner and within the safe limits of the road conditions before them.
When we arrived home, only about 25 minutes from leaving the wreck (I called the radio station I listen to to let them know since the report sure hadn't) we arrived home and checked to see if the conditions had been downgraded from "Winter Driving conditions exist" to "Travel Not Recommended", or at least "Icy/slick driving conditions exist." To our surprise, the conditions had been upgraded to "Good Winter Driving." Who upgraded this? Who supplies the updates for this? Who says if it's good or bad? If you can't at least SOMEWHAT depend on this map, why the hell is it there? To me, it would be better to be uninformed than misinformed.
I rarely complain about government services, health care, road maintenance, the premier or local governing parties because I feel like my tax dollars will be spent any which way, whether I complain or not, but this is people's lives. Like cutting back ambulatory and fire services, this has raked my nerves beyond tolerance and I will be writing a letter of protest to the highways division of the government. I know someone who works in a government office -- her job, which she's paid $36 an hour for, is to read complaint letters that come in and forward them to the appropriate office (instead of people forwarding their letters to the correct office themselves, there's a central complaints address I guess). I'd rather pay someone $36 bucks an hour, as well as pay for their vehicle maintenance and fuel to accurately inform drivers of road conditions, than to pay her to read letters like the one I'll be writing, to decide where they go -- I know where it goes.
OI!
**Edit** Oh yes, I forgot. While we're all at the side of the road, jack-wad drivers couldn't be bothered to move into the left lane, away from the wreck so that, if they lost control, they wouldn't take out passers by. Most people wouldn't slow down, and trucks that didn't move over pelted the side of the vehicles as well as the people standing with the injured guy, with gravel and rocks kicked up from the side of the road. Unacceptable. MOVE OVER!
