Killer Birds and Assorted Stupid Rodents

[captainsblog]

Work's been relatively quiet this week; my only hearing so far in the first three days, scheduled for this morning, got postponed. I worked from home this morning in honor of that, also taking the opportunity to give both Pepper and the protesting cat some quality time, and also moving some old business records to a new storage area in the cellar which I cleverly made cat-proof using a c-clamp.

Tomorrow will make up for that in a big way, though. Only one court appearance, in Rochester but not terribly early, but it will be followed with four scheduled appointments, three with new clients.  They seem to come in waves, and this week has been light on existing work but heavy on new things getting set up.

Then there's the world outside.  Eleanor's been progressing on the Big Dig, as she's termed it- clearing out a garden space and turning it into a patio extension.  Complicating that, on and off for the past week or so, has been a Mama blue jay who nested in the trees lining the property line closest to the work area. Mama dive-bombed her at least three times over the past week and a half if she even looked at the nest area; our neighbors' very sweet yellow lab Nilla also got strafed regularly, and ain't no way she's getting up a tree.  (Mama has thus far left me alone; as with the mosquitoes in the back yard who don't seem to like sucking on me, I attribute this to professional courtesy.)

On Sunday night, Tony next door told us that Mama had cleared out the nest.  This apparently did not involve a full complement of flight lessons; one of the fledglings wound up on the ground in our back yard after an apparent wipeout, and Pepper tried to go after her (gender assignments here are random). Then Eleanor saw another of them over in her work area, and yesterday morning, I saw him as well, christened him Joey Bats (after the most famous Blue Jay of the 2015 post-season, now on the Mets), and then I saw and HEARD! Mama back in the area, hopefully working on his pitching, yawing and rolling.  Alas, it was not to be: when I got home later in the day, Joey lay dead in our driveway. No signs of predatory attack on him; he may have fallen or crashed.  I gave him a decent (for a bird) burial, and at least he's been spared the fate of his fellow Blue Jays- pining for the Fords.

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From birds to meeses we go:

I mentioned a while back that our quiet little neighborhood has turned into quite the hot spot on the police blotter.  Our nearest fire hydrant, knocked out in a hit-and-spill crash a month or so ago, was quickly replaced, as was another around the corner I just saw while walking the dog, so somebody might have REALLY been on a bender.  But the continuing saga comes from the land of the sugared-up rodent at the nearby intersection I pass each day on my way to work:

Supervisor Brian J. Kulpa said he is frustrated over the latest troubling incident at the Chuck E. Cheese's in Amherst, and town officials will consider every measure possible to rein in problems at the venue.

Kulpa said in an interview that he challenged a top Chuck E. Cheese's executive on Sunday to take significant steps to curb violence at the Harlem Road restaurant and play room, which has seen three serious incidents since March 2017.

The latest came five days after the Town Board renewed the facility's game room license. The supervisor said he's meeting Monday with the town attorney and the Amherst police chief and the town could reverse its recent approval, push the company to temporarily close the venue or ask the state Liquor Authority to revoke the venue's liquor license.

"At this point, obviously, there's going to have to be action taken in some way," Kulpa said Monday.

Officials with CEC Entertainment, the venue operator, on Monday referred The Buffalo News back to the statement the company issued in the hours following Saturday's fight between two employees.

“No guests were involved and the instigating employee was terminated immediately," the company said. "The safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority and we will continue to work closely with the community to ensure a safe environment for families.”

Amherst police said a 17-year-old employee at Chuck E. Cheese's was taken to Oishei Children's Hospital after she was assaulted at work around 1 p.m. Saturday.

Police said the assailant had been fired by the restaurant but returned with two unidentified people and physically fought with a worker she had argued with, leaving the victim with bruises and abrasions to her face and head. The three suspects drove away before officers arrived, and the investigation is ongoing.

Now. Read that again and see if you can spot the Wait,What?!? line in the piece.  I'll give you a hint: police suspect alcohol was involved.

Yeah.  It's not a question of whether the state should revoke the venue's liquor license. It's the far better question of why a childrens' playroom, with a target audience of 8 and under, FUCKING HAS ONE.  According to at least one commenter, it's part of the experience to sell beers to parents  by the pitcher while their kids play Grand Theft Auto and get amped up on gummy bears and birthday cake.  If there's a better definition of an accident waiting to happen, I don't know what it is.

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Actually, I do.

It's sending two madmen across the water for a "summit" where the real dictator played the wannabe dictator like a violin- getting a major (and totally unplanned) concession while giving up absolutely nothing. And our Dear Leader thinks his counterpart is a really great guy. Must be nice, getting to force your people to worship you and imprisoning or killing the ones who won't.

Could it happen here? It already is.  Again in our same nice little town, the "whiner line" in the weekly paper was full last week of callers complaining about their neighbors not putting their flags out for Memorial Day.  It was enough to get some grumpy old resident ::ahem:: to call in himself-



Now get off my lawn.

Comments

[thanatos_kalos]

Well done you for calling out bullshit when you see it. :)