The 4-1-1 on 9-1-1
9-1-1 is intended to be used for emergencies. Barking dogs, loud music, and other routine calls should be placed on the seven digit number to your local law enforcement agency. Find those numbers, and put them in your speed dials and memory slots, and they’ll be available when you want them.
If you need an ambulance, or a fire truck, or see a crime in progress, THAT’s when you dial 9-1-1. If you’re in doubt, err on the side of caution, and dial 9-1-1. There is no charge, and you won’t get in trouble if you don’t really have an emergency but called anyway.
Here’s a little known fact about 9-1-1: it’s not one big room, with everybody’s 9-1-1 line going there. We can’t stand up and yell “Hey! Boston! Line 2!” (thanks, Linda – I love that image!) Another little known fact: in all but the biggest cities, the same people who answer the seven digit numbers answer the 9-1-1 lines. The thing is, 9-1-1 lines have priority. And they are limited in number. If you’re calling in on one for something that is NOT an emergency, you are tying up a line that someone else may need. You’re also tying up an operator who may be delayed answering the next 9-1-1 line for a real emergency.
When you call 9-1-1 about, say, a traffic accident, and it’s taking forever for someone to answer, it’s most likely due to everyone else around you also calling on their phones, and we’re working our way through multiple reports about the same incident. Don’t hang up and dial again, that just puts you at the end of the line. The phones are all computers now, and they line up the calls in the order they are received.
When you dial 9-1-1 from your cell phone, here’s the most important thing you need to know:
Walnuts are a big crop in this area. Orchards spread out around the outskirts of Visalia, and throughout this region of Central California. I’ve always pretty much taken them for granted, they’ve been a staple of my life since childhood. With the advent of mechanized harvesting, walnut theft has taken on new dimensions. Part of the problem is the way most crops are harvested these days. A honkin’ machine rolls up and grabs the trunk of the tree, and proceeds to shake the hell out of it! Walnuts cascade to the ground, and once the operator is satisfied that he’s dropped all he can, he moves on to the next tree. The crop lays on the ground until the next guy (or the same one in a different machine) comes along with what amounts to a broom-and-vacuum machine to pick it up. Often times the crop sits on the ground overnight. This is the perfect opportunity for theft. The call of the night was an interesting twist on the walnut-theft capers we usually get.
Thank you, California. You told Meg and Carly they couldn’t buy an election, that out of state oil companies couldn’t scuttle anti-pollution laws, and that we’re not all potheads. Even though I live in California’s Tea Bagger ground zero, there’s enough sane folks in Los Angeles and San Francisco to keep the state in the blue. I do have a couple of complaints about things locally, however.
I don’t care. At all. One bit. Hope you enjoyed it.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
Not only is there no evidence for a god, there can’t be.
November 8, 2010
Jim Reeves commentary, Personal do gods exist, faith, Is God real?, proving god exists, science and god 1 Comment
Salty Current has an excellent read, here, about the subject, and why the notion of proving or disproving gods with science is a non-starter.
Science Notes writer Monado has a good post about the slickest story ever told, here. It’s a commentary on all the best things offered in sacrifice to the gods. The priests had (and still have!) quite a racket going on.
For me, it comes down to something rather simple: If it’s real, it exists. If it exists, then it’s something natural. “Super-natural” is a contradiction in terms. Everything natural is understandable, eventually. It can be tested. It can be scrutinized by science. It can be explained. Religion is designed to be unexplainable. That’s why it has to be taken on “faith”.
We don’t need to place our hopes (and fears) in something that isn’t real.
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