The Straight Skinny

Karli

Karli, our granddaughter, is not part of any posse that I know of, but I need to stick her pretty face in here and mention that her fine efforts on the basketball court yesterday were rewarded with a trip to Urgent Care and a new cast on her right arm.  She will know Monday if anything is broken, and she will know after that if she will be allowed to compete in some soccer tournaments that are important to her.

Karli, I hope your arm doesn’t hurt too much and that you will learn on Monday that nothing is broken.  I hope you will be allowed to play in those tournaments.

If you have followed this blog, you know about the work we’ve had done to our house recently.  The new tile is in, the bedrooms have their new carpet, and the new window coverings are hung and look great.

What remains now are things we will, for the most part, do ourselves, such as install oak baseboards over the tile.  There are lots of other things on the list too.

One of the things on the list was completed yesterday.  I added a bunch of new shelves to the closet in the second bedroom per Nancy’s specification.  I wanted to complete that so I would have today free to watch the Vikings and the Chargers play in their respective playoff games.

I also wanted to get done early enough in the day so I could rest and prepare myself for the most critical task of the day: defending Sun City – Vistoso from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Official posse uniform.

Nancy and I volunteer with the Sun City Posse.  Sun City Posse is a super-sized community watch program for the 2488 houses in the Sun City – Vistoso community.

I described the Sun City Posse as super-sized, because it is lots more than the typical community watch program that relies on nosy neighbors reporting on the suspicious behavior of their nosy neighbors and others in their neighborhood.

In the Sun City Posse program, nosy neighbors are given organization, mobility, a hat and a badge.

Posse headquarters.

The posse has its own headquarters building and patrol vehicles.  The building is where posse members go to check in at the start of their patrol.  They get the keys to their  patrol vehicle, Posse Patrol Instruction Book, Watch Report with clipboard and a cell phone from which to call in reinforcements and wake up a few deserving homeowners.

There are two patrol vehicles.  Both are Dodge compact pick-ups with a light bar on the roof.  I think the lights are yellow.  I’ve never seen them operate.

Unless posse organizers are unable to find enough volunteers, patrols are run seven days a week in two shifts.  First shift is from 8:00 p.m. yo 11:00 p.m.  The second shift goes from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.  Most of the patrols are comprised of husband and wife teams.

Some basic rules for patrol teams are:

• Do not get out of patrol vehicle.  I have violated that rule when I got out of the truck to talk to an elderly lady whose front yard was being washed away by water gushing from a broken pipe.
• Do not back up. That is probably a good rule.  Some of the people doing these patrols probably shouldn’t be driving forward either.  I think the attrition rate of mail boxes and street signs was fairly high before they made this rule.
• Do not patrol alone.  Complaining about the driving of ones patrol partner is half the fun of being on posse patrol anyway.  Sure makes the time go faster.

Posse patrol vehicles.

The primary responsibility of posse patrols is to spot untoward and suspicious activity within the Sun City – Vistoso community.  The other job of the patrols is to help maintain the ambiance and appearance standards of the community.

We are to make a record of all RVs parked on the street and, after 9:00 p.m., we are to make a record of all vehicles parked on the street.  RVs are allowed on a street for only two consecutive days.

We are to call the occupant of a house with open garage doors.  If there is no answer, we are to call 911.

All homes in Sun City – Vistoso have a switch that very few residents know about that will cause the front exterior lights to flash to attract attention.  A posse patrol is to call the occupant of a house with a flashing light.  If no answer, call 911.

Calling 911 can have interesting results.  The Oro Valley Police respond to these, and, since Oro Valley is almost crime free, they don’t have much to do if they aren’t out writing speeding tickets.  It wouldn’t be unusual for five police cars and a couple motorcycles to show up for an open garage door call.

That reminds me of another rule:  “Do not wait for the police to show up after calling 911.”  I think the reason there is to not add to the possible traffic jam.

Optional posse tasks include:

• Record the address of a home where it appears the residents are still up after 10:00 p.m.  Those address are added to the Rowdy Resident List.
• Sun City – Vistoso is an age restricted community so the posse can identify pedestrians below the age of 50.  Those identified get deported to Fargo, ND or Fairbanks, AK.

So, Nancy and I were psyched up last night for our tour on patrol.  At the half-time of the Ravens/Colts game, we reported to do our duty, but we learned that we were a week early.  Should have read the schedule.  Would have rather looked for open garage doors than watch the rest of that game too.

I think the No Backup Rule is a good one.