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Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:36
by Railwaymodeler
I'm happy to report to everyone, that the dramatic saga with Pace has finally ended.

Went back to Waukegan on the train Wednesday, had a friend to see who needed some help with his computer. Got to the Waukegan station, have a 10 minute wait for the bus I need.

Another guy was at the station, panhandling change from passengers getting off the train. I've had him arrested twice for attempting to assault me. So he gets on the bus same time I do, the driver, a good friend of mine, tells him if he does have correct fare, he needs to get off. She got on the PA system and announced that the bus would not move until "This man" pays his fare, and she would not allow anyone else to give him money. The punk demanded then that I give him a quarter. I told him if he wants a bus ride, he needs to pay for his own fare. He threatened me with assault. Another passenger told him to shut up and get off the bus, and a fight broke out. Well the scumbag got off as the police were called.

Thursday I was supposed to go back to Waukegan again on the same train. Ended up not going. Maria went to get some groceries that afternoon, I stayed home with Skoda. I got a call from the driver of the bus I would have been on again. The scumball yesterday was out there waiting. He had a length of metal pipe. She refused to stop the bus for him, he swung the pipe, broke the headlight, then broke the windshield, and she stopped. He broke open the doors, swung the pipe at the driver (Missed because another passenger grabbed his arm), threatening to kill her then rape her. She called 9-1-1 from her own cell phone. Police arrived, the arresting officer was a friend of mine, and the same one who arrested him twice when he assaulted me. The management from the garage also arrived. My police officer friend called me from his cell when the driver told him I was a witness to Wednesday's incidents. I told the officer what was going on. The garage management heard the officer use my name. The management, still not having learned their $28 million lesson, tried to convince the police that the attacker was innocent, that I somehow pushed him to his limits to do what he did. Police told them to shut up and quit being stupid and obnoxious.

Friday, the driver got called into the garage. She was told that she was being fired. Management made it clear that the "official" reason was improper use of a cell phone. Drivers technically are not allowed to call 9-1-1 themselves. But the "real" reason was associating with me. About six other drivers were in the garage and heard the management. They all came into his office and said that if she was fired for being a friend of mine and Maria (While Maria collected the bulk of the money in the lawsuit, the management have it in for me far more than her). They all said they would walk off the job and quit if she was fired. Two mechanics came in and said the same thing. Then the dispatcher, himself a former driver, came in and told management he quits too then, but that everything was captured on garage security cameras, and he had the police waiting outside.

Both managers were arrested Friday. We had a bit of a union party Saturday for me and Maria. Nothing fancy, we didn't want that. We all rented a conference room at a good pizza place, and ordered a bunch of pizzas.

This feels really, really good. Maria and I both are relieved that the nightmare is finally truly over. Now we can go on without worrying about our friends in Illinois. I hear they're sending a couple people as new managers, who come from a private bus company, Midwest Buses. I know some of the high ups there, so Pace North will be in good hands finally.

Now that we have the final ending to everything, I think I will start on that book I've thought about writing.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 13:49
by jayenkai
DAMN!!!

.. I'd read that book! Hop to it!

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 21:35
by Drasir-Vel
Man that's some crazy things happening over there. Could be made into a movie. Or indeed a book...

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 22:39
by Railwaymodeler
Someone sent me this link today.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/09 ... ers-video/

Seems these sorts of protests are gaining traction in America. They are effective, I'll say that. Walmart, and Pace, are reasons why unionized labor is still crucial in America.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:51
by eMTe
Railwaymodeler wrote:Drivers technically are not allowed to call 9-1-1 themselves.
What's the difference when your life's in danger?

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:09
by Railwaymodeler
As per the "rules" a driver is never allowed to use their own phone to call 9-1-1. They must call dispatch, who will then make the call. She could have let the passengers do it, but then she'd be in trouble for not calling dispatch in an emergency. The rulebook seems to be written by a thousand monkeys typing at a thousand keyboard, they just picked pages that sounded good.

The idiots who used to run (I love saying that!) Pace North, they seem to be examples of why Darwinism isn't working hard enough. Stupidity on this level should not have been allowed to reach adulthood.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 23:14
by eMTe
Railwaymodeler wrote:As per the "rules" a driver is never allowed to use their own phone to call 9-1-1. They must call dispatch, who will then make the call.
Reminds me of gun laws in Poland. If you have gun permit you can, technically, fire it in self-defense when you see somebody aiming at you. The problem begins if the assailant used gas pistol, for example. Then your self-defense counts as abuse, because you used means higher than necessary. This ridiculous law made it frequently to stand-up shows where comedians joked about the possible situation when you first stare at the barrel to see if it is blocked as it happens with gas pistols.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:10
by Railwaymodeler
The question I have is, how does the law as it is actually implemented, compare to the law as it is on the books. Some laws made sense when passed, and when they are outdated, sometimes they never get formally repealed or updated for some reason.

Waukegan has a city ordinance against riding a bicycle on the sidewalks. Riding on a sidewalk is punishable by a fine. However, the ordinance has been on the books for decades. No police officer currently in service has ever written a ticket for bicycling on the sidewalks. Nowadays with increased traffic, deteriorating roads, and more aggressive motorists, it makes no sense to actually enforce the ordinance, because bicycling on the sidewalk is, by far, much safer for everybody.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:18
by eMTe
Except for pedestrians.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 23:25
by Railwaymodeler
Most cyclists do share the sidewalks. I've never had a problem with cyclists myself. They usually do indicate when they are behind you, which is not a problem. There are some who run down pedestrians, and that minority of cyclists are probably why the ordinance exists.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 5:29
by Pager
For the ones that run down pedestrians, side stepping to the left and grabbing their shoulder as they go by is effective.

We have a real problem with E-bikes here...the people that drive them go anywhere, down the sidewalk, down the street, offroading...doesn't matter where, half the time they follow street rules, the switch to bike rules when convenient. I almost drove over some guy on an e-bike in a roundabout when he decided to swerve it front of me from the left lane to get into the cyclist lane.

There are no laws for e-bikes. The only law they do have is it must have pedals to be considered an e-bike, if you take the pedals off you can be fined. Not for anything to do with the roadway...just more or less for not having pedals on your e-bike.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 22:59
by eMTe
Pager wrote:For the ones that run down pedestrians, side stepping to the left and grabbing their shoulder as they go by is effective.
It worked two times for me, but the last time it ended in a fight which I unfortunately won. Unfortunately, because the guy threatened me with police (deservedly) and since then I control my aggression.
Pager wrote:We have a real problem with E-bikes here...the people that drive them go anywhere, down the sidewalk, down the street, offroading...doesn't matter where, half the time they follow street rules, the switch to bike rules when convenient. I almost drove over some guy on an e-bike in a roundabout when he decided to swerve it front of me from the left lane to get into the cyclist lane.

There are no laws for e-bikes. The only law they do have is it must have pedals to be considered an e-bike, if you take the pedals off you can be fined. Not for anything to do with the roadway...just more or less for not having pedals on your e-bike.
Funny, because here Canada has opinion of country of boring people who alway obey rules, do not corrupt politicians and dont throw papers on sidewalks. Similarly to Sweden. What you wrote sounds more like story from trip to Greece. :P

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 6:10
by Pager
Agreed, controlling your agression is probably the safest bet instead of going bananas on some wanker on a bike.

You're right we don't corrupt politicans here, we just throw chocolate milk at them. Althought I haven't seen a good assault by cocoa-laden dairy in a few years now... :lol:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:30
by Scythe
I just dropped by to say hi, and I don't intend to come back regularly. Might drop in from time to time, or might not.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 0:21
by eMTe
Time has nothing to do with it, if youve been part of something you are part of something and youll be part of something. 8)

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:37
by Railwaymodeler
Thanksgiving today in the USA. With the Pace saga finally over, with Maria and Skoda, lots to be thankful for.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 13:40
by eMTe
I believe it's similar to Dożynki.

Here, however, it is purely rural festival and also heavily politicised, used by certain agrarian party to promote their local activists. Not much of a national holiday, surprising for a country which was - in XV and XVI century - called granary of Europe.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:37
by Tormuse
Hi all! :)

@RWM, glad to hear about the arrests over at Pace. Here's hoping they get a conviction, but for now, you can at least be glad that they're off the streets. :)

@eMTe, funny that you mention law-abiding Canadians, because our mayor, Rob Ford, here in Toronto, has recently been involved in a scandal because he was caught on video smoking crack. (It's been all over the news, so I wouldn't be surprised if you've all heard about it) Now, there's a lot of public pressure for him to quit, but he's stubborn and intends to continue as mayor and even run for re-election next year! Personally, I wouldn't really care what the man does in his spare time as long as he does a good job, but he's a real jerk, so I'd be happy to see him go. :P

@Pager, on a related note, I can't help laughing at your signature quote. Maybe we should introduce Mr. Ford to CWF! :D

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 13:19
by jayenkai
Yep, we've all heard about Mr Ford!
Or at least, here in the UK we have, anyway.. He's managed to capture news agencies all over the place, as well as an awful lot of the comedy-panel shows that I watch/listen to.
Can't stop hearing about the guy, nor seeing this footage over, and over, and over, and over!!

Healthy Stuffs
I had my first visit from Physio, yesterday. Given that I went into hospital in March 2012, over a year and a half ago, to say they're "A bit slow" is a teensy bit of an understatement..
Lady came and basically checked my balance, saw how I was coping, and that sort of stuff. Nothing major, but has left me completely bloomin' shattered, this morning!!

She gave me an "Almost perfect" score for my general movement, but could see that my balance was borked enough that I couldn't achieve much in my day to day life.
For next week, I need to "set a goal".. an achievement... Something I'd like to be able to do, and that we can work towards.
"Getting back to work!!!" might be too much of a challenge, straight away, but a general "trip to the shops without needing to cling onto someone due to lack of balance" would be handy.

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:08
by Pager
I'd have to say with the heavy reliance on social media and one-sided news reports, you'd have to be on some sort of drugs to want to even go into politics. :lol: But Tormuse, do you not recall the whole election sideshow that brought Ford into office, there wasn't a firm concensus from the people regarding any one of the candidates and it seemed like the media was always reporting on every single fault of the people running...it was more in tune with late night programming on comedy central.