Today on the way home from work I stopped by OfficeMax to pick up some ink for my home photo printer. This is the store that advertises they will always have your needed ink or toner cartridge on hand. They did — but they no longer carry the boxes of multi-cartidges. They all have to be bought individually and as a result much more expensively. Another item that I’ll now buy online. Even with shipping it’s cheaper. Soon I’ll have no reason to go to any store in town! But I digress. After I came out of the store my cell phone rang and while I talked to the caller I watched a group of young people go down a line of cars in the parking lot. One would jump up on the back bumper and another would jump on the front bumper. Three or four cars in the lot had car alarms that were set of by this action. It was quite comical watching the kids — they were having a great time and had obviously done this before, because even though alarms were going off, they just worked their way down the line of cars and then went on their way leaving behind a cacophony of sirens and whistles. A young lady came out of the store having completed her purchases and realized that her car alarm was going off as she walked up to it. She just unlocked the car and pushed the switch to turn of the alarm and drove off. No other reaction at all. This had happened to her before, I realized! The other alarms were still going off as I drove away. I thought about what I would do if I came out and my car alarm was going off. The first time I’d probably look around and try to figure out what damage had been done. The second time I’d probably check to make sure no one was hiding in the car. After that, I’d just turn it off and go on my way. So what use is the car alarm? I recalled watching a car drive down the street a few years ago with the windows open and the alarm going off. The person driving the car was (at least acting like he was) paying no attention to the alarm. Was the car being stolen? Perhaps it was being reposessed? Who knows. I didn’t call the police and neither did anyone around me. Our Toyota supposedly has an alarm that goes off if the car is started without the right key in the ignition. I have no confidence that if the alarm went off that anyone would do anything about it. The alarms are untrustworthy and they go off for every reason, possibly including being stolen. I guess the only hope is that when the alarm goes off, I’ll be in hearing distance and at least see the car being stolen.

That brings up two other stories in the same vein. Yesterday while riding my motorcycle to Church there was a brief “Stupid People” segment on the radio. It seems that a fellow’s pickup truck was stolen. A few weeks later he saw the pickup parked, got in, and drove it to the police station. While he was filling out the paperwork, the thief called to report his pickup truck stolen. The police invited him down to the station to fill out a report and after that was done, arrested him for car theft. The thief’s wallet was on the dashboard in the truck!

Many years ago in the early 1970’s I was in Pittsburgh with another colleague visiting a fellow at Westinghouse. His office was several stories above the ground and overlooked the huge parking lot. The glass in his office, like all others in the high-rise office building, went from floor to ceiling. His office was up high enough that I remember being a bit queazy as I walked up to the window. As we were standing there, he pointed out his new Corvette parked off by itself in the parking lot just as the car started moving! It was being stolen! He started jumping up and down and yelling at the window and picked up a chair like he was going to throw it through the window! We calmed him down quickly before he actually tossed the chair and the other fellow with me dialed security on the phone and passed the handset to the car owner who watched helplessly as his bright cherry-red Corvette drove away down the highway. Would a car alarm have helped in this circumstance? I’m skeptical.

A while back my dad was working on some electrical wiring in the ceiling of the garage. He slipped and fell off the ladder onto the driveway. As he lay there in the light rain, he realized his hip was broken and he was going to need some serious help. His first thought was that the neighbors might see him. He looked around as best he could and saw no one in the neighborhood. He tried calling for my mother, but she was in the basement working on a quilt and is quite hard of hearing. Then he remembered that there was a panic button on the back of the remote key in his pocket. The car was new to him a few weeks earlier and the salesman had showed him the panic button function. Dad got his hand into his pocket and pushed the button and the car began making a huge racket. Eventually mother heard the noise and came up to see what was going on. A short time later the ambulance arrived to transport him to the hospital. In this case the car alarm had some real value! I’ve decided that car alarms for the purpose of deterring a thief are useless — but they can save a life!

The new gasoline-powered weedwhacker works like a charm. Fifteen minutes work and all around the fence and around the house all the tall grass (and weeds) were cut down. It is a bit heavy and my left arm feels like it might be a bit sore tomorrow. All this exercise is ruining my otherwise sedentary life style! The yard is done for another several days and all is ready for Tom to take over the yard maintenance. I’m definitely happy for that.