08:22 – The lead story in the morning paper is about a guy who’s being tried for involuntary manslaughter. He’s accused of passing a stopped school bus, striking and killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver claims that the school bus had its yellow lights flashing, but had not yet extended the stop-arm and started flashing its red lights. At least one witness confirms the driver’s story. At least one other witness disputes it. Given what information the news stories have provided, if I were on the jury I’d vote to acquit based on reasonable doubt.
Regardless of what actually happened in this case, there’s no question that many drivers think nothing of passing stopped school buses. Barbara watched it happen earlier this week. She said the driver didn’t even slow down, just blew past a stopped school bus. That happens in North Carolina thousands of times every year. In the US as a whole, probably thousands of times every week. I told Barbara I was surprised that school buses don’t have HD video cameras installed front and rear as standard equipment, set up to start recording video and GPS data every time the yellow caution lights are turned on. When a bus driver finishes the run and reports an incident, that video should be provided to the police for investigation and prosecution.
I’m trying to cut down on the inventory of labeled but empty bottles. Right now, I’m working on getting bottles filled for another batch of 60 biology kits. Next up is filling bottles for 90 more chemistry kits, followed by 60 forensic science kits. Then it’ll be lather, rinse, repeat.
14:27 – Hmmm. One of our upcoming kits is for AP Chemistry, so I was out looking around the web to see what else is out there. I came across a supposed AP Chemistry kit from one of our competitors that included the following in its contents list:
Apparently, this kit contains a dilute solution of … water.
16:03 – This isn’t good. Barbara called to tell me that her mom’s caregiver had called to say that her mom had stopped eating and stopped talking. The most she could get out of Sankie was an occasional grunt. Barbara and Frances are going to meet the evaluator from Hospice over at their mom’s apartment at 5:30 to see what the evaluator thinks. If the evaluator thinks Sankie belongs in Hospice now and if they have a room available Barbara says they’ll transfer her tonight or perhaps tomorrow.