Readers rave about SWAT team, Seattle Parks Department cleaning Ravenna Park and returned library book; rant about rude drivers and people claiming service dogs that aren’t
RAVE To the police and firefighters for handling a SWAT-team action in our neighborhood with speed and efficiency, and special thanks to the firefighter who took time to come to my porch to reassure my 3-year-old grandson and give him an honorary badge. Thanks to all who keep our neighborhoods safe.
RANT To me for laying excessively on my horn and screaming maniacally when a young lady abruptly pulled in front of me as she was coming out of a parking lot. Yes, I had to slam on my brakes to avoid an accident, but as I went around her, I was so roiled up that I registered too late that she was apologizing to me. Her timing pulling out was a mistake, one surely made by me at some other time in my life. When the adrenaline passed, I wanted to tell her I’m sorry.
RAVE To Seattle Parks Department for doing a great job revitalizing and maintaining Ravenna Park. As a neighbor, I recall when the park was unsafe, littered and choked with invasive plants. It’s now safer, cleaner, and ecologically healthy, so is well-used by hikers, joggers, bicyclists, dog-walkers, elementary-school classes, parents and kids at the playgrounds, and birders like me.
RAVE AND RANT Rave to the bus rider who found and returned the library book I dropped; rant to me for being careless and losing it. Rave to the librarian at the Greenwood branch who emailed me to let me know it had been found. Librarians rock!
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RANT AND RAVE Rant to the driver who hit my co-worker’s bike and wouldn’t provide insurance information, repeatedly saying “I didn’t hit you.” No, you didn’t hit her body but you did hit her bike, shoving it, and her, into a chain-link fence after swerving your car into the bike lane to get around a left-turning car. She’s stuck paying for repairs for her bike but, more than that, you made her lousy day worse for having to interact with a sorry excuse for a human being. Would it have killed you to show some human decency? However, rave for the vast majority of drivers who are considerate of cyclists, giving space and following traffic laws.
RANT I work at a large, public venue where people pay to get in. We’re required by ADA law not to question the guest if s/he claims their animal is a service dog and I have nothing against dogs, but so many people bring in “service dogs” that likely aren’t. People with true disabilities deserve having their needs accommodated and it irks me when people obviously lie just to let their pets go where they go.