[EAS] North Dakota: Copy/paste message from above

[Dave Kline]

Being well qualified to be called "silver" myself, what I am about to say will cause me some consternation.

After my former boss retired, he would joke that retirement is the next to the last big event in one's life.
I think however, somewhere between retiring and taking the dirt nap, is another big event for many of us.
That's when they take away our car keys.
In my father's case, he was not able to get his car out of a grocery store parking lot without several demonstrations of his lost ability to handle a motor vehicle. Fortunately, a store employee witnessed this and called 911, and no one was hurt in the process, save a couple of new scratches and dings to my father's car and an adjacent light pole.
I don't look forward to when my time comes, and hope it will be less dramatic than my fellow silver resident of ND.

I think it's rare that a silver alert would be issued, for someone still having access to a vehicle. These are mostly due to people walking away from nursing homes. Dad tried that a few times as well. He was clever about watching someone enter the door code and could memorize it. I guess his short term memory still served him well when it had a purpose. Who cares what you had for dinner, other than a doctor trying to use that to assess one's faculties. Maybe the food served last evening just wasn't all that memorable.

I must admit that I have driven erratically at times, more so when I was a teen than later in life. I guess if it happens again I hope that I will at least end up knowing where I am when the car comes to rest. If not, it will be for the best that they take my keys, even though I won't be happy about it. After all these years working with EAS alerts I'd hate to be the subject of one.

On Fri, Nov 5, 2021 at 1:13 AM Dave Dunsmoor mrfixit at min.midco.net> wrote:

>On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 22:43, Sean Donelan sean at donelan.com> wrote:
>>...
>>I wonder about the wisdom of sending state-wide Silver Alerts.  Are
>>elderly people really traveling hundreds of miles across a state?

>Well, yes. I've seen it in central ND however, it was many years ago. An elderly gentleman from Michigan, as I recall, drove erratically into the adjacent farm field, then his car finally came to rest in the median. He had no idea where he was.

>Dave

>__________________________________________________________
>The EAS Forum Discussion List is hosted by the BWWG (Broadcast Warning Working Group). http://eas.radiolists.net
>Please invite your friends to join our Forum! The sign up is at: https://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/eas
>___________________________________________________________

--
-------------------------------------
Dave Kline - Solder Jockey
-------------------------------------