I saw the aftermath of a drive-by shooting one time, two seriously wounded and one kid dead, face down on the pavement in blood. I was less than a block away when the shots were fired, seven or eight, even small arms and 9mm pistol are ear-shattering that close without hearing protection.
And then it's just quiet for a very long time, traffic going by in the distance and the sun shining and the birds chirping like any other Sunday afternoon. Then the screaming starts.
I don't think engineers tend to get out much. They might see some real shit that gives them "the creeps" from time to time if they did. More so than a painting.
American teen drug gangs are not the ONLY people with hand guns.
Event #1:
One Tuesday morning around 11am, from my home workshop I heard three loud cracks. Bang, bang ... bang. Then screaming.
Went outside where there are numerous shops plus a bank, to find a small car parked with the driver's door open and a woman slumped over inside.
A teenage boy in school uniform was walking about while yelling " What Happened ?? " over and over. He had blood all down his white shirt.
The woman in the car ( Toula ) was his mother, shot dead in an attempted robbery that went wrong. She was transporting a few thousand dollars in cash from her local service station down the road to the bank.
Soon ambulances, police and a helicopter arrived - the later looking for the getaway car. The gunman was never caught, his parents helped him to escape to Greece the next morning - paying for his air ticket.
A young employee of the service station set the robbery up, advising the gunman where and when to carry it out.
Event #2:
Got a phone call from a colleague about a news story in the paper - a pal of mine ( Steve ) who also worked from home and did similar stuff had been shot dead in his garage. Three rounds from a small calibre gun into his heart.
His new wife raised the alarm since she could not get the garage door open nor get husband on the intercom. Police initially thought he had been electrocuted because there was no obvious blood. Phone calls to the house went unanswered so I rang the police with my bit of info - since I had been on the phone with Steve hours before the event.
I had to make a detailed statement at the police headquarters near where he and his wife lived and attend the Coroner's Inquest as a witness.
The culprit was never found and just a small amount of cash was missing.
We had some customers in common, about one of them I told Steve " I would not touch with a 20 foot pole" - so I was a bit scared for a while.
He lives in the US. Getting your shots up to date can be expensive there.
That's one advantage of universal health care that Americans don't seem to be aware of. If everybody's shots are up-to-date, the population has herd immunity and nobody is going to get infected, or pass on the bug.
Give or take a few anti-vaxxers looking to win a Darwin Award ...
No, not hardly the only ones. Behold Providence's finest blaze away at a suspect right in the middle of a busy downtown roadway:
Only problem was the driver wasn't the suspect wanted for stealing a police car, it was an uninvolved resident who ran from them because he had a minor-tier warrant or some small amount of drugs in the truck or somesuch.
The police got the vehicles mixesd-up. He went down in a hail of gunfire anyway for running and his captive passenger was seriously wounded, too.
Note how the police all panic and flee once the tires start smoking because the deceased's foot mashes down the accelerator leaving the wounded passenger sitting there, whatever...
The inventor of the neon lamp was shot in front of his home over a patent dispute:
Even electronics can be a dangerous business I suppose.
We took a walk along the Embarcadero last week, about a mile from the Ferry Building to Hillstone. Rumor had it that the BBQ ribs were dynamite, and they were. It was a nice walk along the bay, just about sunset. The worst part was a couple of street musicians with battery powered amps and zero talent.
The tourists go where they always go, and the street people follow them. The only reason to get near downtown is for the food, once in a while.
My MD makes me get a bunch of shots when I visit her. Shingles, flu, tetanus, pneumonia. She calls in a heavily armed nurse and I can't escape.
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John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
lunatic fringe electronics
I don't understand the way most people react to taking a shot. They never b othered me that much, and being Diabetic I have to give myself an Insulin s hot twice a day. Once in a while, you can hit a spot that hurts like hell, but either I take them, or I die.
Shots, or blood sampling, doesn't bother me a bit.
Kaiser wants to keep its clients healthy - the cost is fixed per month no matter what - so they shoot'em up. You can't make it through the lobby without being assaulted with a flu shot.
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John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement
r bothered me that much, and being Diabetic I have to give myself an Insuli n shot twice a day. Once in a while, you can hit a spot that hurts like hel l, but either I take them, or I die.
I've seen a lot of so called bad asses faint when given a shot. It was funn y, taking the Pre-Draft physical when I turned 18. It was about half guys f rom my high school, and the rest from other schools. Football players, wres tlers and other jocks were out like a light. I watched a med tech make seve n attempts to get a blood sample from the guy in front of me. He kept missi ng bulging blood vessels on him. Finally a doctor led the poor guy away to treat his wounds. The Med tech said, I hate you fat guys, I can never find a place to stick. I was 5' 10" and about 155 pounds. I pointed out a spot t o him. but he couldn't see it, so I took the needle from him and hit it, th e first try. He claimed that only a drug addict could do that. I told him t hat I wasn't completely blind, and the spot was obvious. Some people just c an't handle it. It's just the way they are.
I've only fainted once. I nearly cut off a finger as a child. I fainted whe n I saw the exposed bone, but no blood.
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