Does anyone else get emotional about ‘municipal vehicles’?

[Anonymous]

Not emotional, but I do feel like I get good services for my tax dollars. All the basics (roads, emergency services, etc.) but also the fact that I used an app this weekend to let waste management know they missed my recycling bin and they came today and picked it up.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to have the same level of warm fuzzies about our local schools. Or Republican legislature has just gutted funding over the last 20 years and now my state is at the bottom. It's despicable, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a teacher, a nun, who always told us to say a prayer whenever we heard an ambulance siren for the person inside.

I do this! Went to Catholic school as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in awe of the two US Navy hospital ships, the Mercy and the Comfort.

what do they do normally? when it's not covid?

[Anonymous]

I teared up when I saw a pediatric ambulance right after one of my best friends had a baby. I didn't have kids at the time but just thinking about how scared the family must have been really got to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Likely an outlier but your world view is lovely and more people should appreciate all the wonderful things we have

I do feel that way a little bit about stamps, people complain about the cost but i'm like "wow for less than a dollar I can have a coloring from my kids in DC hand delivered to my mom in rural south dakota!

I feel the same way, I think USPS is a wonder though the customer service could use an upgrade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a teacher, a nun, who always told us to say a prayer whenever we heard an ambulance siren for the person inside.

Same, to this day I do the sign of the cross when an ambulance passes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a teacher, a nun, who always told us to say a prayer whenever we heard an ambulance siren for the person inside.

I do this! Went to Catholic school as well.

It's been decades and I still do it!

[Anonymous]

I love this, OP. I sometimes feel this way, but most of the time am too absorbed by everyday life to remember what a miracle it is that we have these things. Thanks for the reminder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or am I a total weirdo?
Eg when I see an ambulance (which is often) - I always feel like - wow. It’s amazing as a society that we have this little vehicle that rushes to someone’s aid. Even snow ploughs there is something very stirring about.

These things don’t happen out of the kindness of governmental hearts - we pay out the ass for them. They damn well better be there for as much of our incomes gets confiscated for it.

[Anonymous]

This is a nice thread.

Snowplows don't do it for me. But pretty much anytime I see people helping others or see something that represents that I experience strong feelings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTF have you been drinking? Are you still hung over from NYE?

+1

[Anonymous]

I think this is part of why little kids so often go through a "vehicles" phase. Not just municipal--but construction as well. They are powerful, they are interesting to look at, and they are related to the social and physical built world that kids are just starting to know the existence of.

Between 2 and 4 it's rare to find a kid who doesn't idolize public service workers on some level and the vehicle obsession is kind of attached to that.

[Anonymous]

I can relate, OP. Another thing that touches me is homes decorated with holiday lights - something about the fact that people put them up for others to enjoy. I also (oddly, I admit!) feel a little tender swell in my heart when I discover the reason traffic stopped was due to rubber-necking - not because it’s admirable, obviously but because it’s a very human phenomenon that connects us. I guess it’s anything that shows we are all just human at our core.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a teacher, a nun, who always told us to say a prayer whenever we heard an ambulance siren for the person inside.

I didn’t have someone say that to me, but I do that and told me kids about it. It frustrates me when people don’t move over — either bc they don’t hear/see it or don’t hear it. We all make mistakes but it happens so often now.

[Anonymous]

Code compliance vehicles make my blood boil.