Some examples of people who have earned their sign:
My wife and I were packing for our move to a new home. Our house was full of boxes and there was a U-Haul truck in our driveway. My neighbor comes over and says, "Hey, you moving?" "Nope. We just pack our stuff up once or twice a week to see how many boxes it takes. Here's your sign."
Then there's the time I went fishing with a buddy of mine, we pulled his boat into the dock, I lifted up this big 'ol stringer of bass and this idiot on the dock goes, "Hey, y'all catch all them fish?" "Nope - Talked 'em into giving up. Here's your sign."
Last example: I had a flat tire and was lucky in that I was next to one of those side-of-the-road gas stations. The attendant walks out, looks at my truck, looks at me, and I SWEAR he said, "Tire go flat?" I couldn't resist. I said, "Nope. I was driving around and those other three just swelled right up on me. Here's your sign."
Are you get'n the idea here about stupid people or maybe just the stupid things folks say?
Well I wanted to pass along a story about the folks that live across the street from me. They aren't my favorite neighbors for a number of reasons. They are trashy. They are rude. They have junk cars. They have a barking dog. They have weeds. And, one last issue that just gets me is they do not wear their "stupid signs."
Here's the story:
I figure they first got their American flag about 2 years ago because that's when they first tried to display it. Tried is a key word here. The problem is they don't use a bracket or hardware to support their flag as it flies from a 5 or 6 foot wood pole. So how do you fly a flag if you don't have a secure bracket or some such thing?
Their solution was to stick it in a flower pot.
A couple of years ago, I don't remember the occasion, it was warm enough to have flowers in a flower pot and they wanted to dispay the flag. So they took the terra cotta flower pot and set it on their porch and stuck the flag in. They went in the house. A gust of wind came up and the flag, pole and pot took a tumble. The pot broke.
When they noticed the problem they recovered the flag, still attached to the flag pole and swept up the broken terra cotta pot. Then, for reasons unknown to me, they got another terra cotta pot from someplace, set it on the porch and stuck the flag pole with flag attached in this new "stand." They went into the house. About 2 minutes later another gust of wind blew the flag, pole and terra cotta pot over, breaking the pot. I wanted to run over immediately and give them their sign.
I would estimate they went through about six terra cotta pots over the course of about a year before they upgraded to a plastic pot. I don't know if they ran out of terra cotta pots or had an epiphany.
With this upgrade to plastic the crashing and breaking of the pot, with flag pole firmly buried as deep as it would go, stopped. That is to say the breaking of the pot stopped, the flag and pole continued to fall each and every time they displayed their flag.
That was the case until today. It's the 9th anniversary of 9-11and I was happy to see my neighbors put out the American Flag. They have flown the flag a number of times and if it wasn't for their stupidity I would applaud them.
They have upgraded to a larger plastic pot. It might be 14 or 15 inches at the top. They placed the pot on a small ladder apparently so the flag would stop dragging on the ground. When I saw them put the flag out I decided to take a picture because I knew what was going to happen. Remember, they have NEVER flown the American flag without it crashing to the ground. Never. One would think they might be able to project out a few minutes and predict what would happen after so many crashes. Nope. And they aren't wearing their "Stupid sign" either. Maybe they lost it?
After putting out the flag they left on an errand. This time the flag stayed in position for about 20 to 25 minutes and then fell off the ladder.
Not only did the pot fall off the ladder but the crash caused the root ball of the plant to come out of the pot. Not only did the root ball of the plant come out of the pot but the flag pole was broken. Of course the flag was once again gounded.
Note: the plastic pot appears to have survived the fall with no ill affects. At least it wasn't terra cotta. The humorous part was when they got home. The were actually surprised the flower pot had fallen over! Yes sir, surprised... and they were not wearing their signs.
Yep, gotta get these folks another sign.
Can you believe they probably vote too? Scary.
