But do you need to “see” in order to use binoculars?
You must not be Black. LOL
Yeah, but people in wheelchairs rarely take skateboards with them. Like blind people with binoculars. I don’t get it, can a blind person see when he looks through a pair? (of binoculars)
I guess (I’m not visually impaired). Just saying that “bird watching” can be done without binoculars, indeed, without vision.
Ahh, I reread and see binoculars were mentioned. Well, I know hunters who use scopes that are matched to their glasses, divers as well. I guess binocs can corrrect and magnify (I’m not really qualified in optics)
Blind doesn’t necessarily mean “can’t see at all”, either. He may have a set of very powerful binos that enable him to see well enough. Also, the two statements may not be immediately chronological either. Just sayin’.
I remember a David Letterman interview where he was talking about having a tough audience. One time there was an audience member with binoculars and he brought it up during the warm up. She replied “I’m legally blind, please don’t make fun of my disability”. Kinda put a damper on the show.
But a blind bird watcher who drives to odd locations with his binoculars is a little weird.
I assumed the birdwatching and driving proceeded the blindness chronologically.
Going home one night, I was at an intersection where I could either go straight or turn right and get home equally easily. I saw the right lane had cleared so I turned into it and made the right hand turn, going on my way. Almost immediately, I saw headlights from an SUV whip over and start following me. It felt like they were following me so I made a few rapid, unsignaled, lane changes and sure enough the SUV stayed right behind me. I finally decided that I must have unknowingly cut the guy off or something and that, if I was about to get my ass beat, it should at least be well lit. So I turned into a gas station and only then could see that it was a police-marked truck. I have no idea why he never flipped on his lights to identify that it was a police vehicle.
The cop comes out and says that I didn’t signal for that initial right hand turn but also that I was driving extremely erratically and was I drinking? I respond with “I was only doing that because you were obviously following me and I was trying to figure out who you were and why you were chasing me; I assumed you were coming to kick my ass.” He let me go without even a written warning.
A briefer “What? REALLY?” story was going over a year with expired tags and no tickets. I finally get right with the law and they issued me brand new plates. I tossed them in the rear window to install at the house and immediately get pulled over by a cop who wanted to know why I was displaying two different sets of plates. He was cool though, seemed amused by my story, and used the screwdriver attachment on his penknife to put my plates on then and there.
I was pulled over by a local cop at 2 am for not stopping completely at a STOP sign. The thing is, I not only stopped, but I checked my text messages and sent a reply. I knew the cop couldn’t see the intersection from where he was sitting, and I knew he was just trolling for DWIs. I wasn’t drinking, and I was pissed off over being stopped without cause.
Talking with other people, I found a guy who was pulled over at 3 am (on his way to work) for “swerving”. This happened two different times. He assumed he was being checked for DWI.
I went to the police station. The chief happened to be there and I complained to him. I embellished my complaint a bit, claiming that I was filing a complaint with the ACLU. This freaked the chief out a bit. (Turns out he was being looked at for a situation that eventually landed him in prison)
He told me he’d investigate the situation and asked if I’d hold off on the ACLU thing. I agreed. He called me two days later, saying he suspended the officer for 3 weeks without pay, and had made it clear he was not to pull people over without cause. I was happy with the outcome.
It is in present tense. " So far, they have always digested my explanation as not being dangerously weird."
I’ve posted elsewhere that, as a young driver, I was once pulled over late at night and asked that infamous question: “Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“No.”
“You looked like you were going to swerve.”
“I swerved?” (Genuinely confused).
“You looked like you were going to.”
The officer let me off with a warning not to do it again. It worked. To this day, I endeavor to look like I’m not going to swerve!
To all: if you have an issue with a poster take it to the Pit. No more hijacking the thread over what one poster wrote.
Is this thread only about encountering the police?
One night last week I was walking in my neighborhood, and stepped to the side of the road
to make room for a passing car. There are no sidewalks on the street. The car was making a u-turn,
so I was waiting patiently for it to pass me. Another car came up and turned into the driveway
right behind where I was standing. That driver immediately calls out Hello? Hello? What are you doing standing
in front of my house?
I explained, and resumed walking. He drives up to where I am, stops, and asks me again
what I was doing by his house. He asks me twice if I live in the area. I say yes both times.
He asks what do you have in your hand? I show him it’s my keys.
He finally drives away. But jeez.
My response covered many decades of experience. My vision is now nearly gone, but I’m training my wife to be a birdwatcher, and I can still see some birds if they are in conspicuous places. Mostly now I identify unusual birds by their call, and she looks for them.
Byh the way, according to the current ethics of bird watching, identifying a bird positively by vocalization counts as “seen”, in order to reduce habitat disturbance by birders searching for a view.
Got stopped by the youngest Massachusetts State Trooper I’ve ever seen in 2017. Dude couldn’t even grow a beard yet. I was wearing a Salt-life mask because one window wouldn’t roll up all the way, it was cold out and I was freezing. The mask has a cartoon-ish skull graphic silk screened on it. I also had Rx sunglasses on, because it was bright outside, and I’m blind. I did not remove them during the stop.
Trooper: “Do you know why I stopped you?”
Me: “Yes sir. You were frightened by this mask.”
Trooper: “Your inspection sticker is expired, and as for the mask, well… you have a right to wear it, but could I trouble you to take it off?”
Me: “I’d rather keep it on, if that’s OK”
Trooper: “That’s fine”
Me: “And actually I have until the end of this month to renew–”
Trooper: “What? Where did you get that nonsense? Are you a lawyer?”
Me: “I’m reading the back of the inspection sticker. You can call your supervisor if you need to…”
Trooper: “Stay here, I have to check your License and Registration” 3 minutes later OK, here are your documents, drive safe!
That’s wonderful. I’m down to one good eye, and it’s good to hear of interests/passions that can be pursued as “lifelong hobbies”. As long as I have audiobooks and birds singing to me, I’ll be okay. Is there an app like Shazam that’ll identify a bird from its song, or should I keep training myself from my set of birdcall CD’s?
Just thought of another espisode that could be filed under “That’s some good policework there, Lou”…
Circa 2003. I am running at a sprinter’s pace across the north campus of UMASS Lowell, late for a party. In my hand is a growler of Carlo Rossi table wine.
A state police cadet, (who are afforded actual police powers during their duties on campus) in full regalia, smokey bear hat and everything, holds up his hands, in an order for me to stop. I had to take two or three steps past him to safely slow down, and turn around to face him.
Trooper: “You didn’t just rape someone, did you?”
Me: “Nope!”
Trooper: “Ok, then, careful with that bottle!”
END OF RAPE INVESTIGATION.
Into the wayback machine…
Winter of 1980 I was two days from shipping off to Navy Boot camp. My best friend, my girlfriend and I were BLAZING on acid and parked on a dead end road (bridge out) in an Illinois cornfield.
We had turned the car around, ready to make a quick escape if needed. We proceeded to Smoke weed and drink copious amounts of beer…we see lights coming our way. My GF was in the drivers seat. I told her to just GO, and she did. We then passed the oncoming car, an Illinois State Trooper. The Trooper put his cruiser in reverse and Lit up the lights. My GF pulled over.
The three of us exited the vehicle as requested and explained “some” of the situation: me leaving for boot camp and all, we neglected the tripping our balls off part. He searched the car and found a pipe and beer. He left the pipe alone (without looking for weed) and made us pour out the beer. I guess in the brief attempt to flee the beer got jostled, the i opened a can it drenched the trooper…Op’s, my bad.
It still turned out well for us. He happened to be the cousin of the chef where my GF and I worked and “kinda” knew my GF and her mom.
He told us to drive straight home and stay there…we did, and continued the party.
I was in high school (17) and going to pick up friends from a school dance they were at. I had my mom’s car and drove to a friend’s house to pick him up. His house had a gravel driveway and his dad made him rake the driveway on a regular basis so he asked me to park on the street instead of in the drive way (perfectly legal to park on the street there). I went inside to wait for him to finish getting ready.
About 30 minutes later we leave the house and I notice a police car stopped next to my (mom’s) car with his spotlights on it. I freak a little bit thinking something happened to the car and my mom would kill me so I jog/run to the car to see what’s up.
The officer shines a flashlight in my face and asks what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for my friend and saw him by the car so came to see what was amiss. He asks why I was running. I tell him to see if something had happened to the car. He asked for my driver’s license and I gave it to him. My friend finishes and he jogs down to see what is happening. Flashflight in friend’s face. Why were you running (to friend)? “I live here, wanted to see what was wrong.” Cop asks for his license and he gives it to him.
There is confusion whose car it is. The cop assumes it is my friend’s car since he lives there. After a little go-around we sort out friend lives there, my car.
“Why is it in the street and not driveway?” Cuz gravel.
“Is there anything wrong,” I ask? Cop says someone has been knocking down lamp posts in the area (the little lamps people have at the end of driveways). He points to neighbor across the street whose lamp had been knocked down. Never mind that is was fall and the hole where the lamp used to be was filled with leaves and there were no tire marks in the grass. Cop proceeds to neighbor’s house, knocks on door and asks them about it. Happened weeks ago they said.
Cop comes back. I ask if we can go, we haven’t done anything wrong. “Why were you running?” he asks again. I give him the same answer.
“Open the trunk,” he says. I know he has no right to demand this but I really wanted to get to the dance so I did. Mom’s car…trunk spotless.
“Open the car,” he says. I comply. He rummages around spic and span car. Nothing in there either.
He then goes and sits in his cruiser doing who knows what. Presumably checking if there are warrants for us or something. He dawdles in there for ten minutes.
Whole thing has taken well over 30 minutes. At the end of it all he gives us our licenses back and tells us to get out of his sight in five minutes or he will arrest us for a curfew violation.
I’ve heard that there is one, but I seriously doubt that it would be reliable. There is a great worldwide bird-voice site xeno-canto, but you have to suspect a bird and look it up by name. For fairly common birds, there are dozens of examples, and you can search by locality.