Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Today I went to an Excel class, part 1, to learn how to use the Microsoft program to do spreadsheets, etc., and I was actually excited because the teacher taught exactly what I was hoping. Right now I'm wolfing down my lunch of split pea soup, crackers, club soda, orange, and Poptart, so I can get started playing with the Excel program on a report that I have due shortly.
I know that sounds geeky, to be excited about a computer program, but I have been adding all the figures on an adding machine, and multiplying the officer's normal pay rate to get their overtime rate, then multiplying by the number of overtime hours they worked, and doing this for the whole division every month. 57 Officers in the Division, getting overtime every week (some, not all of them every week), keeping track for each week, and getting a report ready by the middle of the following month for the Commander's meeting. Now, I can use formulas to do what I have been doing by manually. Now, I know this is old hat, and I should have already taken this class, however circumstances didn't allow. So, I am excited.

I have to rant and rave a little bit. This morning on the way to work I was met by several cars with their lights off in the rain. Now, in the State of Alabama it is mandatory for cars to have headlights on in the rain. Let's digress a little and back up. When I was policing, I stopped a young person who didn't have their lights on and it was getting dark. When I pointed out their lights weren't on, I was told, 'well, the law says a half hour after sunset lights go on, and a half hour before dawn they go off'. I asked the young person if they realized that the idea wasn't for them to be able to see, but for the driver who needed to see them. They hadn't thought about THAT. I didn't call this person a moron, but wanted to. People don't realize that they set themselves up for a lawsuit at the worst, and inconvenience at the best, when they insist on their 'rights' under law to interpret the laws, and especially traffic laws under their own understanding. Ironically enough, and I haven't figured this out yet, the worst offenders are the ones in a gray/taupe/champagne/silver car, on a rainsoaked silver road, in cloudy silver weather, and they don't realize that if they can't be seen, they are likely at fault, and especially if they are breaking the law. If I choose not to put my lights on, and my taupe car is involved in a wreck which would at any other time be the fault of the person who hit me, by my breaking the one law of not having lights on, I may have just changed the fault to mine due to road and weather conditions. People like to quote the normal, like for instance, 'you hit me in the rear; it's your fault', but that is not a guarantee. If you are driving at dusk, in the rain, in a neutral color car, with your lights off, and I don't see you, this is considered your fault. We had a situation here recently with a motorcyclist who hit the driver's side door of a woman who pulled out in front of him and he was killed instantly. It was his fault. Reason: It was dark, he was doing a wheelie right at the time she chose to pull out of a side street, because she didn't see him. It wasn't her fault she didn't see an unlit object after dark. He had his headlight on, but being pointed straight up in the air didn't count. The thing that saved her, and possibly the thing that cause him to show off like that was that there were a number of people exiting a ball stadium right when it happened and this collision was witnessed by several people who witnessed it and gave their statement to the police officers. Ok, now I will stop my ranting about people who don't really care to do the spirit of the law.