I did read your reply, and you came across as an over-reacting nanny.
As you said, YMMV.
Cool - I’ve never been called a communist before. I do in fact support many of the premises of communism.
I don’t think anyone here thinks we are talking about naturally-produced alcohols in the body when we’re talking about drinking and driving. We’re talking about alcoholic drinks that make you drunk if you drink enough of them.
One of the arguments for no drinking and driving is that we are all spectacularly bad judges of when our judgment is impaired - because our judgement is impaired. One guy is fine to drive at 0.08%; another girl (like myself) would not be fine to drive with any alcohol in my system, because I don’t drink at all and have no tolerance for it. There are far too many factors to be taken into account to say exactly who is okay to drive after drinking and who isn’t; I realize it is unrealistic to say no drinking and driving at all, but it really is the only way to make sure there are no drivers on the road who are impaired by alcohol. Instead of trying to achieve an ideal but unrealistic goal, we’ve settled on 0.08% BAC as the compromise (for older drivers, that is. Most places have zero tolerance for any BAC for young drivers.)
I was fairly calm, if a tad nervous. Larry was in an “emotional state” while inside the Yards.
What are you doing, stalking me?! That post still stands; I normally don’t drink and ride. I was more than willing to sit there and wait about two hours, chatting amiably with a fellow rider, watching a few different games on the T.V., before he turned into a psycho hose beast. Given the situation, I was willing to make an exception for a less than 3 minute turn around the parking lot until I was sure Larry was gone.
And FYI, I didn’t “tool around town.” I tooled around the parking lot until I was sure Larry was heading away from me, before going back to the Yards and sitting in there for about an hour before riding the ~1/2 mile home. Sorry I didn’t include that in the OP; I had little notion (but, on reflection, should’ve known) that I was going to be picked apart over this.
Ya know, if I’d even had the slightest suspicion some anal retentive fuctards were going to dissect this Mostly MPSIMS, I would’ve included a LOT more detail just to placate the fucking “Church Ladies.”
Actually, that’s a lie. If I’d’ve known, I wouldn’t’ve bothered posting. :rolleyes:
FWIW, Larry simply drove off. No squealing tires, no wheelies, no Rebel Yell and and a “Kiss My ASS!” hurled over his shoulder as he rode off. If he’d seemed any sort of danger, maybe it would’ve occurred to me to call the cops. Maybe the folks in the Yards would’ve, too. But since Larry just rode off, at a normal speed and in a normal manner, it certainly didn’t occur to me to involve the Law.
My previous offer for you and featherlou to come down to the Yards and offer play-by-play advice the next time some crazy wanders into my life is rescinded.
Go find your own watering hole, and make their lives fucking miserable with your righteousness.
Peace, Out.
Ex, don’t let it get to you. Hell, stop justifying yourself to them. These types see demons wherever they look - it’s not worth fighting. Let them rail on, and just write off anyone who takes that side. Six billion people in the world (and 66,000 on the SDMB) - so what if some have a wrong impression of you.
I was at my local convenience store yesterday, and was about 4th in line.
Number one guy was checking out and number two (how appropriate) guy, with the giant “FTW” tatoo on the back of his neck, was joined by his buddy who began to pester #2 to buy him some beer. #2 had two quart bottles of beer. #2 guy was saying “No, get your own”, etc, and his friend then wandered away to get his own beer.
When #2 (shithead from now on) got to the clerk, he set his beer down and said to the clerk “Tell that white guy to back off.” He was referring to the guy standing behind him in line. (I’m standing behind that guy.)
The clerk said “What?”, and shithead says" I don’t like white guys. Tell that guy to back off."
The clerk said “Hey man, you need to solve your own…Hey, man don’t you be stealing that…” The clerk is now yelling at the buddy who went to find his own beer.
So now both shitheads start getting all puffed up and start protesting and doing their gangsta moves. The clerk says to shithead’s buddy “I saw you steal those cokes before. Don’t you try to steal that beer.”
About this time, the hated white guy steps closer to shithead- right into his “personal space”. Shithead seemed kinda confused because he now has about three different transactions happening at the same time (payment, white guy, stealing accusation).
Shithead went on and paid for his beer and then the two shitheads went to the door and started inviting everyone in the store, including me, to come outside and fight.
Then they grabbed a 12 pack of Dr Pepper that was sitting by the door and ran away.
Morons.
You said twice in your OP that you were nervous. Perfectly understandable, given the circumstances. The physical changes that occur in your body when you get nervous- regardless of how nervous you feel- affect alcohol absorption rates, which is why I mentioned it.
You had a fairly significant meltdown in the past, one that you apoligized for and linked to recently. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that I remembered the original incident (much like folks remember Jack Dean Tyler and Wildest Bill), nor that I re-read the thread while reading your recent post about it, and felt that the link was germaine to the point I was making in this thread.
Then my apologies that I misinterpreted “I deliberately head off in a direction away from home until I’m sure Larry’s long gone, before heading back to the Yards and trying to square things with them” as doing more than circling around a parking lot.
I am failing to understand why this has you so riled up, to the point where you feel the need to casually throw around insults at myself and featherlou, when I have been consistently civil to you. I have not called you names, I have not questioned your quality as a person. I was even quite careful to point out that I did not know if you WERE at/above the legal limit, but that according to the current testing measures you would be considered so. I simply asked, based on the information you gave, why you chose to act the way you did. Had you said “In my state, the bar is responsible for reporting drunk drivers, and I didn’t feel that it was my place/he was a danger to others” I may not have agreed, but I would have accepted your reasoning and the discussion would have been over.
(bolding mine)
I will absolutely concede that this was (IMO) an error on all sides.
-
Larry knocked back four beers in three hours, without food; he became belligerent and verbally abusive. He made specific threats against the establishment and the staff (whether or not he was capable of carrying them out is irrelevant for right now). He should absolutely not have been driving.
-
The waitress was concerned enough to involve the manager; the manager was concerned enough to encourage you both to leave. They stopped serving him, which is a good thing, and had they been aware of his threats before Larry left perhaps they may have done more, but it’s likely that their standard of “call the police” and other establishments’ standard are different, and Larry hadn’t raised any big red flags for them. Or perhaps, as Contrapual’s link points out, they were comfortable in the knowledge that it’s not really their problem.
-
He made you “a tad nervous” with his behavior, to the point where you not only paid his bill to get him out faster, you intentionally did not drive in the direction of your home. You felt like you had to share the threats he made, just in case he showed back up (points to you for that).
What would he have had to do to show he was a danger?
As I’ve said twice now, someone does not need to be stumbling, slurring, swerving drunk to be dangerous. Oftentimes the police (who can’t be everywhere) rely on the public to give them a head’s up on potentially dangerous situations. If I had a dime for every time someone I had to 2013 after they threatened to take out their entire family said “I only had a beer” (or the folks in my husband’s class swore they had “one or two beers” and “had no problem driving” but blew twice the limit) I could buy that really nice Dutch Warmblood I’ve had my eye on. I truly fail to see the difference- taking the information in the OP totally on face value- between expecting someone to report Larry and expecting someone to report the driver in this thread.
I deal with “crazies” in a professional capacity every day, all day. I am uninterested in bringing them into my social or personal life. So your offer would not have been accepted anyway.
Extank, you know precious little about me. You have no idea if I drink, or how much; I could be going to the bar every Friday and Saturday night and picking fights with the biggest guy I can find just for hoots and giggles.* You have no reason in the world to assume that I am a Church Lady, or righteous, or (as others have accused me of) an over-reacting nanny/someone who sees addicts everywhere I look, other than the fact that I asked a question that clearly hit a nerve for you.
Which, of course, leads me to wonder why that question provoked such a response, but I think I know better than to ask.
[sub]* In the interest of disclosure, I don’t actually do this anymore… the body just can’t handle it. But I’ve had some lovely, stupid as hell fights in my past. I’ve also driven slightly inebriated, roaring drunk, and high (the latter, IMO, being the safest of the three). I have little problem with people who drink responsibly, follow the DMV timelines, and drive once they have reached a state FOR THEM that allows them to drive. I don’t like it, but as Frank pointed out, asking everyone to drive only on a 0.0 BAC is unrealistic.[/sub]
Considering how often he’s discussed around here, I was expecting Larry King.