I took the last test shot of the evening at 10 p.m., Just after the storm stopped. I thought the illumination strips did well, and it’s clear to me that they would work well on an Amish buggy, or for that matter, a car, truck, or bicycle.
The strips are black and invisible in the daylight, but when lights touch them in the dark, they turn bright white glow and are distinctly visible a long way off. In the rain, they even sparkle.
I think they wouldn’t alter the cart’s look, but they are a change from the current practice of four think white strips and a kerosene lamp on the back.s
I placed two four-inch strips beneath the other three 1/2 inch strips, the affect is almost dazzling.
I’ve satisfied myself and hopefully others that this would work and hopefully save lives and injuries. I have great respect for Amish traditions. They’ve survived for 500 years.
The religious concerns are genuine and deep, and cynics are jeering at me, convinced that it is hopeless. It’s possible. But if I listened to the people who assured me I would fail in life, nobody would be reading a thing I ever wrote.
Moise is a smart, loving, and decent man. I know he will consider what I am showing him. He will then follow his conscience and the advice of his peers in the Amish community. I can’t go there and don’t belong there.
I’ve greatly enjoyed this experiment, I’ve learned a lot, and my friendship with Moise has deepened.
I’m bringing these images up to show Moise as soon as I can get him to sit still for a few minutes, which might day a couple of days. Once he gets wound up, he hates to stop.
I took a 9 p.m. shot in the rain, but it isn’t different from the final one. So the 10:15 image is the last.
The glow is very bright and strong. I hope Moise will put it on a cart and drive behind it with me so he can see what this “ghost” black tape can go.
Jon…
I liked the flavor of this whole episode: the leeway Moise has permitted you, as well as your approach to the demonstration. You have reasonably shown the benefits of this solution, while recognizing the boundaries of your role.
It also seems that Moise has signaled his limitations in further decision-making. Given the weight of Amish tradition, bringing the subject forward was more than fair. How much risk should be exposed in the name of tradition? I’m glad that’s not my decision.
Jon, you’re a gem. Just a smart & loving guy. It’s no wonder the Miller’s have taken to you.
Thanks Steve
Yeah! Jon, I think it is wonderful that you did this experiment and it’s a testimony to your friendship with Moise that he didn’t just say no and walk away. Sharing new ideas and trying things despite what the naysayers believe is what makes the world go round! Thank you for sharing your journey into this new culture, I love reading about it!
You say, ” We are all much more at risk driving and riding in automobiles, motorcycles, and trucks- or walking in city streets – than the Amish are riding in their buggies.
Percentage-wise, there are far fewer accidents involving their carts than our cars. Horse buggies are inherently more safe than automobiles. They are lighter and go much slower, and the Amish don’t speed or drink or break the law.” they are full of logical fallacies. Safety is not determined by a vehicle rambling down an empty area or sitting out in a field; what is relevant is the risk of BEING HIT on a busy roadway. It’s like driving a tiny car down a highway with high speed trucks flying by.
Is your adoration, loyalty, bromance so intense because the object of your admiration holds positions of power and great privilege in his narrow little world and can dominate women and men, girls and boys which compensatory experience you never had, so continue to try. Like the many thwarted males (good science on this btw) who voted for the last president seeing His bullying as the tough man they could never be. These 3D reflecting lights reveal a lot more than buggies careening dangerously down the road.
Have you thought through your actions here? Wait til there is an accident with one of your target’s buggies and the opposing attorney gets ahold of your blog notes, that you tried to help him diminish the danger and he REFUSED. At least you need to not8fy of the increased risk you cause.
David, you seem overwrought to me, as well as humorless and a bit self-righteous. Even as you dump on the “bullying” done by tough men, you do the same thing to me and assume that anyone who differs with you must be evil and hateful.
Yes, I think about my actions every day, and thanks for your arrogance. I encourage you to do the same. Laziness is just as offensive as pomposity and you obviously have taken lessons from those awful men you pretend to dislike. Go and read your own message, then go take a shower.
Safety is determined in many ways. I would put the strips on my cart in a second, but for others, safety comes from deep worship in a higher being. I am not contemptuous of that as you are, I respect people who differ from me, I don’t respect blockheads like you who run your mouth without reason or intelligence.
While pretending to be more thoughtful than anyone, you sound like just another asshole on social media, which, sadly, is how you present yourself. No one with a brain cell can respect that way of trying to have a conversation. You just want to vomit on my blog post page and call it an argument.
I am not responsible for the Amish accident rate, or safety rate. What a profoundly thoughtless idea and obvious way to flail rather stupidly around a complex problem. Go on over to Fox News or CNN, you will find many friends there, they love to judge people and like you, care nothing for truth, just grievance. I feel very good about what I’m doing, have the greatest respect for Moise.
He would never write a ridiculous and nearly hysterical message like yours. It just sounds like middle school – how many names can I call you? Shame on your parents, no manners at all. You seem to have missed the whole point of what I’m doing, maybe because you only read a paragraph or two from your lofty perch on Facebook and are way too lazy to go read my blog and actually know what I think.
There’s a shocking idea for you. Please go away, you don’t belong here and I don’t allow people like you to post here twice. There was a very sad accident yesterday which killed an Amish woman upstate, which you obviously know nothing about. Awful as it was, the accident does not change my work at all, other than to make it more important to me. I hope they agree to the new illumination strips. You don’t seem to know what I’m doing. People like you have turned open dialogue on the Internet into a cesspool. If it cost a dollar to hit the send button, you might actually take the time to know something about what you’re talking about.
An attorney seeing information on carriage cart safety would have hundreds, if not thousands, of notes and articles and civic meetings to pore through, I am very late to the discussion, and so clearly are you. Someone who claims they don’t value Trumpism should be more careful about trying to intimidate people into refusing to write about their beliefs.
Now that I think about it, you and the Trumpies would get along fine – you seem to love the neofascist way of communicating with people they don’t like – threaten, bully, ridicule, and intimidate. Nuts to you. What is the risk of this kind of thinking?
I love having my own blog so I can throw people like you right off of it. Here’s a tip for you, David, bluster is not thought, and hatred while hiding is not courage. It’s just more of the real national pastime – grievance, cruelty, and cowardice.